- Amazing facts and trivia
- Yes it is permanent
Recently laser hair removal for men and women who attended a conference hosted at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City was explained in exacting detail, and I for one was surprised to learn several things about it. For instance, did you know that that in spite of being called “laser hair removal”, no laser is actually used, and never has been!?
It’s Intense Pulsed Light that is Used
It’s intense pulsed light that’s used and it’s also commonly referred to as IPL. So why then is it called laser hair removal, and not intense pulsed light hair removal? The reason for that, is it’s a common practice today in science and medicine to refer to any process that uses an intense beam of light, or energy as being a laser treatment process.
It’s Definitely Not All As It Seems
In fact the real or actaul technical names for the process of removing hair with intense light are “photoepilation” (foto-epi-lay-shun) or “phototricholysis” (foto-trick-oli-sis). So it would appear that as far as names and words are concerned, laser hair removal is not all that it seems to be. Even so, the fact remains that it does in fact permanently remove hair, but just how does it work?
The Hair Follicles Underneath the Skin Get “Cooked”
At the Utah conference, laser hair removal for men and women like myself who attended learned that the intense light or so called “laser” that’s applied to the skin, actually cooks the hair follicles that are underneath the skin. The reason this happens, is because the hair follicle is darker then the skin and because of this attract the light and “heat” better.
The Best Results are Achieved With Dark Hair on Light Skin
This is precisely why the best results achieved, are when the hair that’s to be removed is “dark hair on light skin”. However; there is hope for people with light hair, and people with dark skin because new promising techniques are being developed that use different types of light. Also there is always the option of electrolysis, which is a method that uses electricity to “zap” the hair follicle.