The laser process may be ineffectual on certain hair and skin colors
David Ford asked:
The laser process may be ineffectual on certain hair and skin colors. If you have darker color skin, the pigment in the skin absorbs the laser light. This way the laser doesn’t reach the hair follicle thereby confining the effect of the treatment, and it might be possibly detrimental to the skin. Conversely, because laser hair removal requires pigment to be present in hair follicles to work, unpigmented hair cannot be so easily removed with laser treatments compared to dark hair.
Some of the side effects from laser hair removal are:
• Skin Darkens: Sometimes dark spots seem, on and around the treated areas on a patient’s skin. These spots are called hyperpigmentation. Under normal conditions it is a temporary side-effect, but in rare causes it can endure and becomes permanent. This side-effect, if not gone by itself, usually takes considerable time to get cured. To minimize the opportunities of this occurrence after laser treatment direct sunlight should be avoided for at least a week.
• Skin Lightens: This is the reason of major care in the people who have darker skin. Laser hair removal treatment is best suitable to fair skinned people, but people with darker skin can also be treated of excessive hair by laser hair removal surgical procedure. But it may cause permanent lightening of the skin in the treated area if it is not correctly applied.
The laser treatment works by affecting the pigmentation in darker colored hair. It can sometimes lighten darker colored skin as well. How skin lightening takes place is not known yet, but it seems the laser destructs the skin’s color producing cells.
The skin lightening may be a permanent effect, though it can recover its color very slowly in some cases. Patients having gray or white hair are more likely to have their skin discolored due to the laser hair removal treatment.
• Blisters Might Seem: Blisters can sometimes seem on the skin after the treatment. It is painful and abashing, but it is a temporary side effect. This occurs mostly because of using higher influence laser, especially in the case of dark skin. It can also result from unconventional care of the irritated skin. The pain caused by blisters can be allayed by tissue cooling through a contact chill tip or cryogen spray during treatment and by ice packs after treatment. Your laser clinic should advise.
• Scarring might take place: Inappropriately applied laser hair treatments can cause severe burnings which can result in scarring. If the strength of the laser light applied exceeds what the skin can bear then burning occurs deep inside the skin. However no risk of burning exists if the device is correctly adjusted to the skin color of the patient experiencing laser treatment.
• Changes to hair features: Hair of finer and lighter in color may grow after the treatment. Some people might also see new growing hair in areas next to the treated areas. Extra laser treatments will be required to remove them.
• Alteration of skin texture: The long exposure to laser energy beams might cause skin texture to change its features and it can also damage the skin.
There might be some short term side effects such as, redness, skin irritation or swelling. These usually last for some days and the pain can be taken care of through using anesthetic skin creams. The laser clinic should advise you about this.
While laser hair removal treatment is rather a safe procedure, it is still not entirely risk free. However, if you make sure that the process is done by a certified and experienced doctor or technician, you can significantly lessen the opportunities of side-effects. Don’t forget to take necessity precautions before and after the laser hair removal surgery treatment, to further bring down the chances of side-effects.
Filed under: Laser Hair Removal
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