What Risks Are Involved ???
Though most people just consider laser hair removal a cosmetic procedure, rest assured, it is indeed a medical procedure. After all it involves a laser that penetrated the skin and kills cells. Any and all medical procedure involve a certain level of risk, and ask safe as it is, one should consider possible side effects and weigh them against any possible side effects. This is why it is important to do your home work and consult a qualified clinician.
In order to explain the most common and minor side effect, you need to know what “melanin” is. Melanin determines hair and skin color. The more melanin, the darker the hair. The laser is designed to target the melanin within the hair follicle. That is why you will find in your research that dark haired, fair colored people have better results from laser hair removal. Since the laser is really burning the hair follicle using an infrared beam, some people experience a small amount of pain, develop some redness and swelling. Again, the darker the skin, the more uncomfortable it can be. This can be overcome with a local anesthetic and don’t last longer then a couple of days.
There are a few more serious side effects to laser hair removal risk though. For that we need two more vocabulary words. “hyperpigmentation” and “hypopigmentation”. HYPERpigmentation is when the pigment in the skin gets darker and is typically reversible. On the other hand though, HYPOpigmentation is where the skin getting lighter and unfortunately it may not be repairable. That is why it is so important to get an experienced, qualified, licensed laser hair removal technician to minimize the possibilities. The whole process revolves around how dark the hair and skin is. You want it to target the dark hair, not the skin. Therefore you should avoid sun tanning and spray or cream tanning agents at least 4 to 6 weeks before beginning .
Another important thing to remember is that some medications, perfumes, lotions and deodorants have been known to cause a severe allergic reaction after the laser interacts with it. Be sure to go over the list of med, vitamins and herbal supplements that you may be taking. Before any treatments are preformed, a qualified technician will take the time to sit with you to cover these factors and answer any questions. If not, then you need to consider finding a different clinic.
Probably the most substantial risk to come from the laser hair removal procedure involves the anesthetic. Many clinicians will give there patients topical anesthetics that they can apply before being treated. This part rarely presents a problem but if the treatment becomes more painful then expected, or a larger area is to be covered, a second anesthetic can be interjected into the skin. This has been known to cause severe allergic reaction and present a more serious consequences. So you can see why it is important to relay any past experiences like this, along with any allergies, or medical conditions before any treatment begins.
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