You should stop plucking, waxing or threading 2-3 weeks prior to treatment and change to shaving, cutting the hair or use depilatory creams. Ideally hair should be about 1mm long for treatment. It is important that you do not have a suntan during the laser treatment – whether natural or artificial.

Laser hair removal is suitable for all skin types, and is the most effective method of hair removal. When assessing you* for Laser hair removal, we need to assess both hair and skin type to safely treat you and get the best result. Your hair just needs to be dark enough to attract the laser. Laser hair removal works best on dark hair because it contains more pigment to absorb the laser light. Fair hair and red hair can respond but white hairs will not, since this hair colour contains little or no pigment. At Everything Skin Clinic clinics, we offer laser hair removal for both men and women.

We can treat most skin types but will assess you using the Fitzpatrick Scale below:

• Type 1: Always sunburns, never tans, freckles, pale
• Type 2: Usually sunburns, minimal tan
• Type 3: Sometimes mildly sunburns, tans uniformly
• Type 4: Sunburns minimally, always tans well (moderate brown)
• Type 5: Rarely sunburns, tans very easily (dark brown)
• Type 6: Never sunburns (deeply pigmented, dark brown to darkest brown)

*A Patch test will be required as part of your assessment for suitability.

We recommend a course of at least 8 treatments of laser hair removal to get the desired results, however this depends on your hair type. During your free consultation your treatment options and recommended course length will be discussed. The treatment can produce permanent hair reduction of up to 90%.

Hair removal lasers are able to remove hair anywhere on the body where the hair has enough pigment to attract the laser light. Brief pulses of light energy damage the follicles preventing hair growth. The most common areas for hair removal include sensitive areas such as the face, underarms and bikini line, to larger areas such as the arms, legs and back.

Your practitioner will provide you with detailed advice post treatment specific to the area you had treated, however the following advice is common following laser hair removal.
Avoid sunbathing – you will also need to let your therapist know if you are going on holiday during your course of treatment
Apply moisturiser containing a high SPF daily
Avoid very hot showers or saunas for 24 hours
Don’t go to the gym or do strenuous exercise for 24 hours
You can reapply your makeup following treatment
Avoid using harsh scrubs as part of your skincare routine
Wait 1-2 weeks before using fake tan
During your laser hair removal treatments, don’t pluck, wax or dye the hair, you can however shave or use hair removal creams

TREATING DIFFERENT SKIN COLOURS

We use different wavelengths of light to treat patients with different skin colours. As the lasers target for hair removal is the melanin, or pigment in each hair we need to deliver enough laser energy to kill the hair. In darker skins, we have the complication that melanin is present in the skin in larger quantities. We use shorter or longer wavelengths to target the hairs at different depths.

TANNED SKIN

When the skin becomes tanned- no matter what the natural skin tone is, it has melanin in its upper layers. This melanin competes for the laser’s energy and makes the skin hotter than the hair. In some cases, the skin can get too hot and therefore burn, as a result, we won’t treat tanned skin. Artificially tanned skin, through the use of fake tan, spray tan or other tanning enhancing products, adds pigment to the upper layers of the skin. This will cause the laser energy to be absorbed at the surface of the skin and can result in burns and blisters.

PREGNANCY

We do not treat the hairs that appear during/ post pregnancy as it tends to be hormonal and will disappear without intervention. Lasers are not used during pregnancy, we have no clinical trials that can assure us of the safety, therefore, we do not treat women who are pregnant.

DIFFERENT HAIR TYPES

With so many different types of hair to consider it can be difficult to get the correct treatment. This can result in limitations for some clinics as they only have one wavelength laser and in this case, no one parameter fits all. Here at Everything Skin Clinic, we use 755nm Alexandrite laser for lighter skin types and NdYAG 1064nm for darker skins the Duetto enables us to mix the two wavelengths to give the safest most effective treatment on all skin types.

POLYCYSTIC OVARY SYNDROME

We have a wealth of experience treating patients with laser hair removal for those with PCOS. We are able to give help advice and clear realistic recommendations to those seeking to hair growth related to this hormonal disorder.

HIRSUTISM

More often than not Hirsutism treatment usually involves techniques to remove the excess hair and treatment to help slow down its growth or to prevent it coming back. Main treatments include waxing, prescriptive cream and oral tablets from the GP. Laser hair removal is a great treatment for people suffering from Hirsutism and can offer long-term relief.

TRANSGENDER PATIENTS

For many people in the trans community, being able to control hair is more than just a cosmetic preference, it’s a gender-affirming act. We have been providing hair removal treatments to Transgender patients. Our patients are extremely happy with the level of service they receive within our clinics from our sensitive, professional caring practitioners.

Laser hair removal isn’t described as painful but more like an elastic band flick. As your treatments go on, this feeling will lessen as there are fewer hair follicles to target. During your free consultation, you will have a patch test where you will be able to feel the sensation of the lasers before treatment starts.