Friday, October 14, 2011

Laser Hair Removal - Some Before and After Tips


New and better techniques for hair removal are constantly being developed. Some have been successful, while others have done their jobs less effectively. The success associated with hair removal is still a matter of debate. This debate centres around the fact whether hair removal offers a permanent solution for hair removal and more importantly whether it is safe or not. There are a few things that you must take care of before and after laser hair removal, to get the maximum benefit out of the procedure.
What is laser hair removal?
As the name suggests, laser hair removal is a process of epilation that uses a laser beam to destroy the hair follicle. A laser device emits a beam of light, which is absorbed by the hair follicle. It is the presence of melanin that helps the follicle to absorb this beam of light. In doing so, the follicle is destroyed and permanent hair reduction takes place. A person needs to go through various sessions of laser hair removal in order for this procedure to be successful.
Before laser hair removal - Things to take care
There are some things that you must be aware of and incorporate before you undergo laser hair removal:
- Learn as much as you can about the procedure that your body will go through. This will help you ask the right questions to the expert who is going to perform the procedure.
- It's important that you have no suntan or sunburn when you undergo laser hair removal treatment. At least a 4 week gap between the time you had a suntan or sunburn and the laser hair removal treatment is a must for a successful procedure.
- You might be asked to avoid laser hair removal if you have a dark skin tone. But if you have been given the green signal, you will need to embark upon a bleaching regimen, at least two weeks before you start laser treatment.
- Do not undergo epilation procedures such as waxing electrolysis or tweezing a minimum of three weeks before you undergo laser treatment.
- You need to shave the area that needs to be treated before undergoing the procedure. Discuss with experts as to when this needs to be done. Typically, you need to shave the area around 1-3 days before treatment.
- Before going through the procedure, it's important that you don't suffer from skin infection on the target area for removing hair.
After laser hair removing - Things to take care
Post treatment care is very important. Here are some things that you must consider after the end of the treatment:
- Redness of the skin is a common side effect of laser. Bumps might also appear after treatment. This is normal, and the situation takes care of itself in just a few hours. You can also use a cold compress on the area if needed.
- Liberal use of a moisturizer on the treated area will help the skin remain hydrated. This helps prevent drying of the skin and associated problems with the skin. It's advisable to not use anti bacterial creams, as they might accelerate the drying of the skin.
- A sunscreen lotion or cream should be used for a week post treatment. Preferably a sun block with SPF 25 should be used.
- When you have just undergone laser treatment, stay away from waxing, plucking, tweezing, or bleaching of the area. After a certain period of time, it's advisable to shave.
- For a period of around 3 weeks after treatment, the hair will continue to shed. You might be fooled into thinking that it is new hair growth. A washcloth can be used to help ease the removal of such hair.
- Laser will be even more effective if you don't expose the treated area to sunlight for some time. If you don't take such care, there is a chance that your laser treatment won't be as safe and successful.
Ask the expert for more information on the things to care pre and post laser hair removing. This will help make the treatment even more effective.

Laser Hair Removal Treatment - Skin Care After the Procedure


You might wonder if you had done proper treatment for your skin after your laser hair removal treatment. If you had applied the right moisturizers, if it is recommended to apply make-up and other stuffs that you don't know if it would damage your treated skin. However, this article aims to present the right treatment for your skin right after your laser hair removal treatment.
Right after your laser hair removal treatment, your skin would automatically feel fluffy, painful or uncomfortable to touch, would look red and swollen. The moment you arrived home, you have to continue putting a cold compress on the treated area. This is done to numb your skin so you won't feel any pain and it will also reduce the swelling. Aside from this, you could also put ice packs or you could use a hand towel, dipped in cold water, and apply it repeatedly on your skin. Do this for as long as necessary. Meaning, for as long as you couldn't feel any pain anymore. Normally, it takes 2-3 hours of doing this, before the pain would subside.
Within 24 hours after your treatment, you should avoid sweating. Do not exercise or do something strenuous. It is because sweating will cause irritation to the treated skin. However, you also need to avoid using deodorant, if the treated skin is on your underarms. Deodorant might irritate your extra sensitive skin. What you need to do is to clean the area with a gentle cleanser or soap.
Applying moisturizing creams to your treated skin could also help your skin in healing itself. However, please do not use antibacterial creams since they would dry your skin and would ultimately irritate it. Moreover, within 5 days to 1 week, you can't shave, wax, tweeze, pluck nor bleach the treated area. Your skin is too sensitive at that time for these abrasive methods, which might lead to irritation, infection and inflammation. You can only resume shaving after 1 week. But no waxing, tweezing, plucking and bleaching until you have finished all the required treatments as prescribed by your laser specialist.
One more thing, it is very important to apply sunblock on the treated skin. Protect your skin from the harmful rays of the sun by using sunblocks with higher SPF, 30 or more. Do not, under any circumstances, parade into the sun without any protection. There is a high possibility of burning, swelling or infection.
If you had done everything I've mentioned above, then rest assured you are doing well in taking care of your skin right after a laser hair removal treatment

After Laser Hair Removal, Tips!


Recovery after laser hair removal can be aided if the patient takes care and uses the professionally recommended skin care products after the procedure. This step is important to help your skin stay healthy through out. What's more, using such treatments can greatly reduce the risk of complications or pain during and after hair removal. The skin in that area will sting immediately after the procedure.
It may look swollen and be discoloured. After a few hours, the skin will begin to heal and go back to its normal look and feel. If this healing process is taking longer, the patient should relax, and not take on stressful and demanding activities. If you are feeling a lot of discomfort immediately after laser hair removal, try to ease the pain with a soft cold pack, and take pleasure knowing that this pain should soon leave your body.
Another important thing to note after laser hair removal is that there are many moisturisers available for patients. You should take the advice of a fully qualified doctor or surgeon, and use the medication they recommend or prescribe. Take care to use it in the proper amounts and schedule, and try not to deviate from this. Sticking to these guides will help optimise your results and help your skin. For the first few days post hair removal, you should avoid irritating the treated area. This includes shaving, waxing, plucking and bleaching. Keep the area clean to avoid infections. Also make sure you expose the area to a healthy amount of sunlight, as the sun provides essential vitamins for our skin, but take care not to get sun burnt.

What to Expect Before, During and After Laser Hair Removal


Laser Hair Removal in Orange County
If you live in Orange County, laser hair removal options are easy to take advantage of. There are many benefits laser hair removal can offer you, but it can be quite expensive depending on where you go for the procedure. Up to 22% of women in North America have excessive or unwanted facial hair which negatively affects the quality of life for many individuals. There is an abundance of plastic surgery centers and medical spas that perform Orange County laser hair removal. To achieve a satisfactory level of hair removal, a series of 4 to 6 treatments are typically required.
What is Laser Hair removal?
The laser hair removal procedure uses laser light. This is an intense, pulsating beam of light used to remove unwanted hair. It works by the laser targeting the dark pigment in the hair called melanin. When the light beam passes over the hair follicle, the heat destroys the follicle. The near-infrared laser light that is absorbed by the pigment located in the hair follicle. The light is pulsed on the hair follicles for only a fraction of a section. The amount of time that the laser it on the follicle is just long enough to damage it, but not injure the skin of the patient.
What to Expect Prior to the Procedure
Once you decide on an office specializing in Orange County laser hair removal they should give you information on how to prep for the procedure. Typically, you only need to shave the night before. It requires minimal hair stubble and any discomfort that you would feel during the procedure is minor.
What to Expect During the Procedure
During the procedure, the specialist will press a hand-held laser instrument to your skin. With a cool gel on top of your skin in addition to another device designed to cool on contact, your skin is cooled as the laser works on the hair follicles. The length of time for the procedure depends on the area of the body involved and the amount of hair. A small area could take up to 15 minutes while a much larger area, such as a back, may take up to 45 minutes.
What to Expect After the Procedure
Once your specialist has completed the procedure, you may have some minor discomfort and some redness for the first few hours. It's advisable to avoid exercise for the first 24 hours after the procedure. Perspiration is known to cause irritation in the areas the laser was used. You should also avoid sun exposure for several weeks after the treatment and make sure to apply sunscreen whenever you do go in the sun after the initial period.

Avoid Tanning Before and After Laser Hair Removal


Whether you choose to have professional laser treatment at a hair removal clinic or spa or you are planning on buying a laser hair removal machine for use in your own home be sure to stay out of the sun for at least two weeks before your treatment and do not plan any sunbathing sessions for at least two weeks afterwards either.
In many cases you won't want to go sunbathing anyway as you will probably want to cover up until the hair is treated and has shed and gone. But just in case you are tempted here is why you should not.
1. Tanning Makes Skin More Sensitive
Of course you will know the feeling of getting sunburnt and how sore that is. You definitely would not want to feel the sting of laser therapy on your sunburnt skin. However, whether it looks healthy or not, even light tanning actually damages your skin. The color you produce (melanin) is simply your skin's response to the damage caused by the sun. Laser hair removal will make your skin a bit sore anyway so you definitely do not want to increase its sensitivity. Any salon you go to should refuse to treat you if you have exposed your skin to the sun enough to give you any color at all. if they don't then that speaks volumes about the lack of professional care at the salon. Go elsewhere.
2. Tanning Makes the Laser Less effective
Lasers target the dark pigment in hair leaving the lighter surrounding skin undamaged. The darker the skin the more likely it is to absorb some of the laser light waves and the less energy will get absorbed by the hair follicles. While tanned skin will mean the hair follicles won't receive enough laser light energy to destroy them the skin will get enough of it to be damaged. You will not see it straight away but you will have "aged" your skin. Sunlight also has a bleaching effect on hair and that lightening effect again reduces the effectiveness of the laser light therapy.
If you stay out of the sun while undergoing treatment you might miss out on sunbathing or looking a golden healthy color for a while but you will get the most effective and safer treatment as a result.

Can I Pluck The Hairs Right After Laser Hair Removal?


Laser hair removal is an efficient method that can permanently reduce hairs but understanding how it works, and knowing what the entire process entails is a must in order to have a good experience and see satisfactory results. Being aware of the do's and don'ts of laser hair removal is also absolutely essential. While the method is constantly changing for the better, plucking the hair after a laser hair removal session remains a no-no and for good reason.
The reason why hair should not be plucked right after a session is because it will disturb the hair growth cycle. No matter how tempting it might be to pull the hairs out, they must be left intact. The fact that hairs are still there after the treatment doesn't mean that it didn't work; this is simply the case with any laser treatment regardless of results. Unlike other removal methods, the laser device does not extract hairs by the root, but damages them to the point where they are no longer viable. Hair that is dead will be pushed out by the skin and shed, while hair that did not get damaged enough will be targeted in the next session.
While leaving hairs untouched after a laser session can be an inconvenience to some, it is important not to remove them in any way. Removing hairs by extracting them will make laser hair removal treatments much less efficient. The main reason why hairs should not be plucked before a session is because if there is no hair in place it can't be treated. Laser hair removal depends on the hair being in the root so that the hair can absorb the energy, and the heat from the laser device can destroy it. Another reason there should be minimal interaction with the skin is because the skin will most likely be red and sensitive after the treatment. Avoiding activities that can further irritate the skin will help in the healing process.
Many laser removal practitioners will allow shaving as it does not extract hairs but only removes the top part, but this is at their discretion. Some practitioners like to see how the hair grows before they may or may not shave it off themselves. The best way to get a definite answer is to ask the person who will be performing the treatment. It is important to find out what their opinion is. Once all the planned laser hair removal treatment sessions are completed, other hair removal methods that extract the hair by the root, which includes plucking and waxing, can be used if needed. However, if laser hair removal needs to be resumed for any reason, these methods should be avoided again starting two weeks prior to the scheduled session.

You'll Be Smooth and Sexy After Laser Hair Removal


Let's face it. There's no better way to free a person from getting out the tweezers, the razor, the wax, or the bottle of depilatory cream, than laser hair removal.
Laser hair removal is by far the most sought-after solution to permanent hair removal by just about everyone. It has left good old electrolysis, which was considered the recognized way to get rid of unwanted hair, in the dust.
Electrolysis certainly worked, but it was painful, tedious, and very time-consuming. It's possible to have areas of your face or your bikini line done in less than ten minutes. Laser hair removal is also much more gentle than electrolysis and it won't hurt our sensitive pores and underlying skin layers.
The cost is reasonable too. A small area can cost around sixty dollars, and if you wish to treat different trouble spots, there are package deals available. When getting a price quote as about any existing referral programs. You may be able to save money by recommending your friends.
It's important to take advantage of the free consultation that is commonly offered by good laser hair removal clinics. This will ascertain exactly what treatment you require depending on your hair color and skin type.
The easiest hair and skin combo is dark hair and light skin because these folks have the most melanin in their hair. The color contrast makes the process very easy, however everyone who has at least some melanin can be treated.
Candidates with darker skin need a little more tender loving care, so it is wise to choose a reputable facility where they will take the time to evaluate and treat you properly. Sometimes a spot treatment is performed to be absolutely sure.
If you are considering the benefits of laser hair removal, but have not yet made an appointment for a consultation, you can do a little homework to speed up the process. Maybe spring is just around the corner and the beach is beckoning.
For three to six weeks prior to your anticipated appointment, forgo electrolysis, waxing or plucking. Depending on the area you wish to have treated, shave only. Another hint would be to avoid tanning both by sun or booth and any associated products.
After treatment, a gel pack or cool compress will relieve any redness or swelling. Within a few hours you'll be feeling quite normal, but remember to pamper your skin for a little while. Don't use harsh skin cleaners, and avoid the harmful rays of the sun with a quality sun block lotion.

Before and After Laser Hair Removal


The Laser Hair Removal Process
As the name suggest, this hair removal process involves laser to eliminate undesired hair strands. Laser process involves a very fine beam of laser that passes through the skin to the root of the strands. Process involves affecting the hair root follicles with laser beam that results into destruction of roots. Multiple sessions will help you retain hair free skin for longer period.
In the beginning of the process, both doctor and patient are made to wear special goggles to protect the eyes from any possible laser spill out. Secondly, Anesthetic is applied to person's skin to nullify any uneasy sensation caused due laser sting. Laser is pressed against the skin in conjunction with cooling devise to minimize the itching impression.
Before the treatment
1. Stop Using Depilation creams, sugaring tweezing, epilating, waxing, or any other harsh hair removal procedures, at least two weeks prior to the appointment.
2. Remove any tan on your skin. Technically, whiter the skin is more effective and yield long lasting results.
3. Application of anesthetics such as EMLA is excellent preventive measure if you are concerned about the pain caused during treatment. But before anything, read the direction manual carefully or ask your doctor for assistance.
4. If you are getting your underarms treated, don't apply any deodorant.
5. It is better to shave off hairs beforehand, as Short hairs are highly recommended for the treatment.
Problems with Laser Hair Removal
Hair color can be attributed as the biggest obstacle for laser hair removal operation. Lighter skin and darker hair are found to be more successful comparing to blond, red, brown, auburn or white hairs.
Furthermore, treatment could result into hyper pigmentation. Normally, hyper pigmentation is found to be temporary phenomenon; but on rare occasions hyper pigmentation could take much longer period to revert back to normal skin condition. Oyo! Sometime a reverse phenomenon could occur, called hypo pigmentation.
After the treatment
After successful laser hair removal treatment; patients are advised to avoid sun exposure and direct contact with the treated region. However, patient may resume his or her daily routine just after the process.
Conclusion
Results for laser hair removal may vary from person to person. Usually the process could eliminate somewhere 20 % to 90% of the hairs. Multiple sittings are required for effective and long lasting result. Treatment could span between six to eight weeks for the desired result. It may require few weeks of periodic maintenance treatments.

The Importance of Skincare After Laser Hair Removal


Laser hair removal is a proven method of getting rid of unwanted hair permanently, whilst also ridding you of the cumbersome routine of shaving and waxing. Although new laser technology means virtually no chance of nasty side effects it can leave your skin more sensitive than usual, so it is important to take care of your skin after laser hair removal treatment.
Here are some quick, simple ways to take care of your skin after you have had laser hair removal:
• Exfoliate. Exfoliate at least once a week. The skin may be sensitive and easily irritated immediately after your treatment but it is still advisable to exfoliate the skin once a week to remove dead skin cells, promote healthy rejuvenation and improve circulation. Buff away dead skin cells using a loofah or a soft exfoliating pad in order to make it easier for skin to grow new skin cells and heal properly.
• Milk-based lotion. Use soothing skin care products that contain milk, rosemary and green tea. These help reduce any irritation or inflammation of the skin.
• Chocolate. It is known that chocolate contains several anti-inflammatory agents and skin softeners, when used in skin care products these help soothe and repair the skin instantly. Chocolate isn't just a tasty treat, it can add real value to your skin care regime.
• Body wraps. Body wraps infuse the skin with moisture and nutrients help to repair sensitive skin after treatment, helping you achieve a soft, smooth, silky finish in the ling term. Even though you will still need to apply a good moisturiser immediately after your treatment, body wraps provide your skin with a boost of nutrients that help make it resilient and more responsive to other skincare treatments.
• Makeup. If you have had laser hair removal on your face avoid wearing too much make up, these sensitive areas may be more liable to irritation, discomfort and breakouts, even non-comedogenic makeup. Try not to use liquid based makeup to keep the skins and its pours clear and fresh. There are make ups made from minerals which may be alright to wear on sensitive skin but we advise wearing minimal make up for at least a few weeks after treatment.
• Avoid the sun. After laser treatment skin can become more sensitive to heat and light for a short period of time after the treatment. Avoiding over exposure to the sun and especially sun beds will ensure that the skin is able to grow new healthy cells and the skin can completely heal.
Laser hair removal does take a number of treatments to achieve complete permanent hair reduction so you will need to take care of your skin between treatments giving it resilience against irritation and enabling it to heal better and more quickly. Taking good care of your skin and following a daily skin care routine will promote a healthy recovery and repair process making it easier for your skin to heal and regenerate, whilst also making your treatment plan much more effective.