Laser hair removal may seem relatively new, but it actually has a long history of experimentation before it was ever used for laser hair removal. For 20 years before it became commercially available, laser hair removal was used only in experiments to determine if it was going to be safe for human use. By the mid-1990s, laser hair removal was becoming widely used by consumers and in 1998 the first published article that described laser hair removal was published by a group of doctors at the Massachusetts General Hospital. The year before the publication of that study, the Food and Drug Administration of the United States approved laser hair removal for permanent hair reduction.

How It Works

Laser hair removal works through selective photothermolysis. This means that there is selective damage done to the hair, using concentrated light in a variety of wavelengths depending on the individual’s skin type and the type of hair they have. The laser will cause localized damage to the melanin, which is the dark matter around the area that grows hair, which is the follicle. The great thing is that the light damages the follicle, effectively destroying it, but does not heat up the rest of the skin. The light is completely absorbed by the dark melanin and follicle.

Melanin is the most commonly targeted part of the hair by lasers currently in use today. Melanin gives both skin and hair its colors, and in hair there is the eumelanin, which creates brown or black hair, and pheomelanin, which creates blonde and red hair. Since laser hair removal lasers target dark melanin, only eumelanin, or dark hair, can be targeted with any degree of efficiency.

Typically, laser hair removal will work the best on dark and coarse hair. If the customer has light skin and dark hair, then they have the ideal combination, which makes it easiest for the hair to be removed. It is also quicker and safer when the customer has dark hair and light skin. That being said, there are new lasers that can target dark hair on dark skin. If there is white hair or blond hair on light skin, it cannot be removed by laser yet.

Men and women will get laser hair removal done, but women account for most of the laser hair removal market. Typically, laser hair removal will be done in areas that a person has to shave a lot and no longer wants to shave. The places that are treated by laser hair removal are:

• Abdominal
• Arms
• Back
• Bikini
• Chest
• Facial
• Legs
• Underarm

The most expensive areas to treat are the back, legs and face because of the number of hairs and the size of the ears. The cheapest areas to treat are the toes, hands, underarms, bikini area, ear lobe, lip and chin.

Make sure to read our FAQs and laser hair removal articles before going for a laser hair removal session.