DR. ERIK HEGMANN, M.D.
“I’ve been thinking about laser hair removal for a long time, but I have a lot of questions,” says Can¬dace, “Does it hurt? Is laser hair removal safe? Will it work for me? How many treatments will I need? And there are so many places offering laser hair removal these days, where should I go? I don’t want someone who was flipping burgers at Mc¬Donald’s last week coming at me with a laser today!”
Candace is right to be concerned. Currently in Ontario, there is no legislation regulating who is al¬lowed to own or operate a cosmetic laser. That means that someone who was flip¬ping burgers last week could very well be offering laser hair removal today. No qualifications necessary.
And that’s scary stuff. Any laser that is powerful enough to effectively remove hair is also powerful enough to cause severe burns. It can also blind you.
Adding to the confusion is the wide variety of lasers and Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) systems on the market today, each of them claim¬ing to be the latest and best.
So with all the choices and confusion out there what choice should you make?
Let’s start by under¬standing how lasers and IPLs work in the first place: Imagine you are stand-ing outside on a hot, sunny day wearing a black t-shirt. You’d get hot, right? That’s because the dark colour ab¬sorbs all the light from the sun. Stand outside on the same day in a white shirt and you’ll be much cooler. The light colour reflects the light.
This same principle is at work during laser hair removal. The darker colour of the hair absorbs an intense flash of light from the laser and gets very hot. This heat travels down the hair shaft and destroys the follicle that produces the hair. The lighter skin simply reflects the light.
As the skin becomes darker, you have to reduce the energy delivered by the laser to avoid damaging the skin. People with very dark skin, should avoid this procedure all together. People who have been actively tanning must wait until their tan has faded before they can have a treatment.
As the hair becomes lighter, it absorbs less light. If the hair has no colour at all, i.e. white hair, there is nothing to absorb the light and laser will not work.
We normally tell people it takes between 6 - 8 treatments to effectively reduce hair growth to the point that it is no longer noticeable. However, some ideal candidates have been happy after as few as two or three treatments.
Does it hurt? Remember that the laser is using heat to destroy the hair follicle. So, if the laser flash hits a hair, then you will feel a flash of heat. If there is no hair, then you will not feel heat (but you will not be treating anything either). Fortunately, some lasers to¬day have a “continuously-cooling handpiece”, which cools the area throughout the procedure, making it far more comfortable.
One more caveat: If you are susceptible to cold sores and you are planning to have laser hair removal on your face, you must take a short course of anti-viral drugs around each treatment. La¬ser treatments can cause cold sores to erupt and may exacerbate them.
So where should you go? Being a doctor and know¬ing the technical details and possible complications involved, I am most comfortable recommending a facility that has a physician on-site and actively supervising all treatments. That way, if there are any problems, they can be immediately and effectively dealt with. Other places that employ highly trained and experienced medical estheticians may also be a safe bet.
Bottom line: Do your research. Ask questions. And, whatever you do, don’t base your decision on price alone.
- Dr. Erik Hegmann is the Medical Director of the Kanata Skin Clinic
Article written by Dr. Erik Hegmann, MD
Dr. Erik Hegmann, MD, is a family physician who has focused on Cosmetic and Laser Medicine at his Kanata office since 2004. Dr. Hegmann has an extensive educational background with a Master of Science, specializing in cancer research, from Sunnybrook Health Sciences Facility in Toronto, and a degree from the Faculty of Medicine at the Unversity of Toronto graduating with Honours.