How Our Laser Works

Laser Hair Removal is a very fast, but rarely long lasting solution to hair removal. It works off of a relatively simple Principle. 

 

In order to ensure damage to a hair, the area surrounding the hair follicle needs to reach a minimum of 75 degrees Celsius, although higher numbers yield better results. At these high temperatures, the surrounding proliferative cells that cause a hair to grow are destroyed. It is impossible to guarantee total destruction of the hair via this method, but it has been shown very regularly to reduce hair growth. And in clinical practice, a small number of clients have absolutely reported long lasting results. 

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Simplified, the local heat generated can be thought of as a function of Fluence, Pulse Width, Hertz, Hair Pigment, Hair Mass, Hair Depth and Hair Density. 

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Fluence is measured in Joules and is relatively straight forward, it is the unit of energy that is focussed into the beam of light. More Joules is the same as more energy. More energy means greater transfer of that energy to anything that absorbs it. In most cases, the higher this number, the higher the resulting heat.

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Pulse width is best thought of as "time the laser is on" when the device fires. It is measured in milliseconds. 5ms of time spent transferring energy will result in half as much energy as 10ms. 

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Pigment is the most important and most dynamic of the factors as only certain colours absorb certain wavelengths.

Dark hair absorbs more energy from wavelengths of light on the lower end of the visible spectrum.

Light hair absorbs energy more efficiently from wavelengths across the high end of visible spectrum, or across a broader spectrum.

Skin also has pigment, and this poses some difficulty. The laser does not differentiate between a dark hair, dark skin or a dark piece of paper, it burns indiscriminately. This means we need to factor in the contrast between the clients skin and hair tone when finding each clients ideal settings. We want to do as much damage as possible to the hair, without doing damage to the skin in the process.

For this reason, our chosen laser has the option of 11 different wavelengths, which can be adjusted to your specific pigment contrast.

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Hair Mass refers to how thick each individual hair is.

A thicker hair has both more pigment (and is therefore has more capacity for absorbing energy) and more mass for retaining that heat. 

A thinner hair has less pigment, and less absorptive capacity. This means a high joule zap or a low joule zap yield similar results, as lower settings already 'saturate' the absorptive capacity, leaving excess energy wasted. If this resulting heat doesn't reach the minimum 75 degrees, the treatment will be ineffective. Its low mass also means it 'bleeds' heat to surrounding tissues rapidly. The solution therefore becomes hitting the same area, with a low setting, but in rapid succession - or increasing the pulse width.

Hertz refers to this number of times the laser fires per second.

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Hair Density refers to how close together hairs are, the number of hairs per square centimetre. When the laser fires, the energy absorbed rapidly diffuses from the follicle to the skin around it - killing the tissue, but this local damage is happening in many follicles simultaneously. If the density is too high, the risk of overlapping zones of heat increases with less room for the temperate to equalize with its environment. This can lead to burns. For this reason, extremely dense hair (typically around the corners of the mouth and goatee area) should be treated with caution similarly to dark skin.

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Hair Depth refers to the depth of the hair... Deeper hairs have more surrounding tissue to attenuate and waste energy. Lasers can only penetrate so deeply, and this is typically a function of the type of laser that is used. Deep hairs are most commonly found at the joints and pubic area, these areas can be a little stubborn.

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Therefore;

• Coarse Dark Hair with light skin =  A perfect candidate for an 808nm High Fluence, Single Zap

• Thin Dark hair with light skin = A preferred candidate for 808nm lower Fluence, Higher Hz "the Double tap" or a low joule high pulse width single tap. 

• Coarse Dark Hair with dark skin = There is increased risk of energy being too diffused, too absorbed by surrounding tissue, that it never adequately reaches the intended target. This combination can be treated, but it is slower to get results.

• Light Hair with Light skin = A perfect Candidate for the 1024 High Fluence Laser, or IPL device Single Tap.

• Light hair with Dark skin = See our electrolysis section, bring your wallet :''(

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How Our Laser Protocol Works
 

With all of this in mind, we have developed our own approach to providing laser treatment that has yielded very effective results cheaply and efficiently. Our protocol is as follows;

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1. All new clients require a consult three days prior to any treatment session.

2. At the treatment session, the contrast between your hair and skin will be assessed by our trained staff for the most effective calibration from the information provided above.

3. One to two strips, each approximately 30mm by 150mm will be shaved in an area that has hair. 

4. Numbers will be written on you, corresponding to increasing levels of Fluence, Pulsewidth or Hz as required.

5. The area will be assessed to see where the settings start killing hair versus starts agitating.

6. These settings will be recorded, and a picture taken of the area for your records and ours. 

7. We wait 3 days and ask that you contact us to advise us if any agitation has persisted. Thus giving us the best possible idea of the higher calibration of settings that can be used to kill hairs in a single sweep of the laser. 

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By doing things this way, we have been able to reliably bring down the number of sessions required for most clients from the often cited 8 to 10 sessions, down to 2 to 4 sessions. We space these sessions roughly 6 weeks apart. After which point you simply remain on maintenance treatments, usually requiring a touch up zap every 7-9 months. 

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All new clients have the option to have a full treatment session without initial consult, but they must be advised settings will be kept quite low to medium in the interest of safety. Consults are free, its highly worthwhile to do them if you can. 

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Preparing for Your Session

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Laser treatments themselves follow roughly the same fixed protocol as consults. But there is important preparation work to do to ensure the best results!​​

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Shave the Area - Shaving the area the night before your session is ideal. If hairs are shaved to soon, they rest too high on the skin, and attenuate and absorb too much energy

No Makeup - Makeup forms a barrier that often contains pigments, may disperse light and clog pores.

No Moisturizers - The laser gel used to improve the quality of the procedure often pulls out any excess moisturizer from the pores. This turns the gel cloudy and opaque, thereby attenuating the energy and lowering the quality of the work. 

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