Laser Hair Removal Treatments … is it what you really want?

A smooth and hairless body is the quintessential image of supreme beauty – or at least that’s what millions of women are made to believe. Massive billboards and glossy magazines display bodies of models with ultra-smooth, hairless skin, and it’s inevitable that every woman would desire such flawlessness.

The truth is achieving porcelain-smooth skin takes a lot of patience and perhaps a lot of beauty rituals for those not blessed with flawless skin. One of the major problems many women would like to do away with is unwanted facial and body hair. It becomes a regular ritual for them to tweeze, shave, or depilate, and these activities can become rather tedious.

Even so-called “metrosexuals,” or straight and fashionable urban men, want to get rid of chest hair and hair on other parts of the body. One only need look at the male models with washboard abs on glossies, displaying baby-smooth hairless skin, to understand that getting rid of unwanted hair is more than just a fad.

Waxing is an option and can be down with do-it-yourself kits in the privacy of your home. However, this method of hair removal does not give permanent results, so it has to be done regularly.

A treatment that involves minimal pain and gives permanent results is laser hair removal. It’s gaining popularity by leaps and bounds and can be done in a matter of a few hours, although more than one session is required as hair growth comes in staggered cycles and only works on growing hair. This is why for some people, it may take treatment sessions over several weeks up to months to achieve fairly smooth skin.

This treatment uses a pulsating beam of laser light in order to permanently remove hair from the upper lip area, neck, face, underarms, chest, breasts, back, bikini line, and legs. Laser hair removal treatments should only be done by licensed professionals, such as dermatologic surgeons or dermatologists.

The principle behind this treatment is known as selective photothermolysis. This means that the lasers only target the heating of dark matter – in this case melanin – in the area of concern. Thus, only the follicle, and not the area around it, is affected by the laser beam.

If done properly, the laser light can successfully reach the bulbs and follicles and generate heat sufficient enough to induce old hair to fall out and keep new hair from growing back.

Very few people report side effects and risks, and these should not be cause for alarm. A few examples of these side effects are swelling, redness, pain, blisters, and possible discoloration or scarring. In spite of these, many men and women still opt for a laser hair removal treatment because of its permanent effect.

This is why even if a single session can cost hundreds of dollars, it is still becoming more and more popular each year. One could do comparison shopping on the Internet for treatment fees and to search for a competent professional. You can also opt to ask your friends to recommend a dermatologist or dermatologic surgeon who has already performed an excellent laser hair removal treatment on them.