Laser hair removal is a fast, safe, and effective technology. It’s all about targeting the hair follicle which contains melanin, the laser will hit the pigment then turns into heat, which in turn will stun the hair follicle and prevents hair regrowth.
As mentioned before, the side effects of laser and IPL hair removal are normal and rarely last for 2-3 days. However, it’s important to identify them in order not to freak out when you happen to experience some of them.
Normal side effects which you may experience one or more of them include:
- Skin irritation
- Acne and blisters
- Itching
- Redness
- Swelling around the treated area
- Discoloration
Then, there are very rare side effects which happen in extreme cases. The following side effects are not caused by light-based hair removal methods first-hand. They’re mainly triggered because of other diseases as the patient himself should have asked a doctor before using.
Over the past decade or so Laser Hair Removal has massively progressed. We went from having IPL (an intense pulse of light energy) to full on lasers. Laser is the more effective of the two, it causes little-to-no damage to the surrounding skin.
What is the difference between laser and IPL?
Modern lasers are generated by a diode stack that outputs the laser at a specific wavelength. An effective wavelength of laser hair removal for Fitzpatrick skin types 1–5 is 808nm. Unlike IPL which fires a light spectrum (e.g. 690–1200nm), the 808nm laser is an exact wavelength that targets the root hair cell directly instead of in a broad spectrum that can skin damage at high power outputs.
Does Hair Removal Hurt?
Many people describe laser hair removal as having an elastic band loosely pinged against the skin, with a slight heat. Most if not all people agree that Laser is less painful than Waxing.
There are methods is IPL that are completely Pain-Free. Take LiteFlo for example, this is a great machine that truly is pain-free, but will require more sessions (and therefore more money) to be permanent.