Are you tired of tweezing, waxing, and shaving your unwanted hair? Unwanted hair is a common problem, for both men and women. Traditional hair removal routines including shaving, depilatories, plucking, and waxing are time-consuming, inconvenient and often painful. At best, these frequently used methods offer only temporary results. But now, we can offer you another option: treatment with the proven, safe and effective Cynosure Elite+™ laser treatment that offers you a permanent solution while saving you time and money.
How Does Laser Hair Removal Work?
Hair grows from deep within hair follicles, which are thin cavities embedded in the skin. Hair does not grow continuously, but grows in a three-phase cycle.
During laser hair removal procedures, a laser device emits gentle pulses of energy that travels through the skin and penetrate into the pigment in the hair follicle and hair shaft. Pigments are the substances that give skin and hair its color. The energy absorbed damages the pigmented hair follicle, which impairs its ability to grow. Hair follicles that are in active growth phase, have more pigment and absorb more energy, and typically respond the best to treatments. For this reason, it typically takes multiple treatments to achieve the best results – it’s important to “catch” your hair in this active growth phase when you are receiving treatments.
Benefits of Laser Hair Removal
Compare with other hair removal options, the benefits of laser hair removal includes:
Precision: Lasers can selectively target dark, coarse hairs while leaving the surrounding skin undamaged.
Speed: Each pulse of the laser takes a fraction of a second and can treat many hairs at the same time. The laser can treat an area approximately the size of a quarter every second. Small areas such as the upper lip can be treated in less than a minute, and large areas, such as the back or legs, may take up to an hour.
Predictability: Most patients have permanent hair loss after an average of three to seven sessions.
Technology We Use
There are many devices for laser hair removal however, we use the best in laser technology, the Cynosure® Elite+™. The Elite+™ uses two proven laser wavelengths that provide treatments for patients of all skin types. Treatments with this system are fast, effective, and safe.
Fast: With spot sizes up to 24mm, the Elite+™ laser provides fast treatments, allowing you to resume your normal activities as quickly as possible. These larger sized spots make for quick treatments of larger areas such as the back, legs, or chest. Smaller spot sizes are used for smaller areas, such as the upper lip.
Effective: The Elite+™ contains two different types of laser wavelengths that provide effective treatments on patients of all skin types. One of the lasers is better for lighter skinned patients, and the other is better for darker skinned patients.
Safe: The Elite+™ system has been in clinical use for many years and has been proven safe in many clinical publications.
Treatment Procedure
Prior to the procedure, make sure the area being treated in freshly shaven. This will allow for effective energy delivery of the laser device to hair follicles, thus providing a more effective treatment.
During the treatment, the laser technician will guide the handpiece delivering energy over the treatment area. You may feel cold air blowing throughout the treatment for added comfort. You will also hear a slight beep as the laser delivers this energy into your skin. It is normal to feel a slight snapping like a rubber band as the energy is being delivered.
The hair follicles that absorb energy from the laser will be damaged. Hairs that were present in the follicles at the time of treatment will fall out over the next couple of weeks and future hair growth will be impaired.
Since not all hairs are actively growing at the same time multiple treatments are required for optimal results. As the follicles in the transitional and resting periods return to the active growth phase, you may notice some hair regrowth but not as thick as it was before the treatment. This regrowth will become thinner and lighter with each subsequent treatment until there is little, to no hair at all.
Frequently Asked Questions
Hair from the face, back, chest, arms, hands, feet, underarms, bikini lines and legs can be treated.
Since our hair grows in cycles, multiple treatments (4-6) are often recommended for desired results. Also, you would need to return every 4-6 weeks depending on the area to treat the new active growth. Other factors that influence this include hair color, texture and area being treated.
Patients describe a range of sensations from tingling to the snap of a rubber band during the procedure.
Typically, there is no downtime and you can return to your daily activities immediately following the procedure.
