Humans can be funny about their five million hair follicles. Some of these — the ones on our scalps — we want to preserve. But there are millions of other follicles that we spend a good deal of collective time shaving, waxing, and plucking away.
If you’re tired of the daily grind of getting rid of unwanted body hair, it may be time to explore laser hair removal, which can make quick work of hair in most of those troublesome places.
While McHugh Plastic Surgery offers top-notch cosmetic surgical services, Dr. Thomas McHugh also offers advanced laser technologies that accomplish everything from removing tattoos to removing body hair.
So, if you want to find a better way to get rid of the hair, here, there, and everywhere, read on.
To understand why laser hair removal is so effective and safe to use most anywhere on your body, let’s take a closer look at the technology.
Laser hair removal relies on intense-pulsed light (IPL) energy, which we direct into the pigment in your hair. We target the pigment because these melanin cells readily absorb light. The light energy is converted into heat, which is transferred to the follicle where it causes damage that delays or halts hair growth.
We can safely use IPL laser technology on most areas of your body, allowing us to remove hair in the following areas:
The only place where we don’t offer laser hair removal is around your eyes, so you’ll have to continue to shape your eyebrows by hand.
At any given time, your hair follicles are in one of four stages of growth:
Due to these different stages, we typically need to make several passes with our IPL laser so we tackle all of the follicles in your target areas. Most of our patients undergo 3-5 laser hair removal treatments, which we space apart to allow time for all of the hair follicles to reveal themselves.
We ask that you don’t wax or use any other method that removes the entire hair from the follicle before and during your treatments. If you remove the hair shaft completely, there’s nothing that will absorb the light energy. Please note that you can shave, as this only removes the part of the hair above the surface of your skin.
After your final laser hair removal treatment, the hairs will gradually fall out and won’t grow back for some time. When and if the hair grows back, it will likely be more sparse and much finer than before.
Through periodic maintenance treatments, however, you can keep the area free from body hair and, eventually, it should stop growing hair entirely.
If you have more questions about laser hair removal or you’d like to schedule your first session, please contact our office in The Woodlands, Texas.
