Hi there,

I am a Punjabi girl with olive tan skin tone and dark facial hair. I have gotten around 5 laser treatments and as much as I want to say I think it works i am not so satisfied :( I had thick hair around my sideburns and yes those have vanished) but hair still keeps growing there but I also get my neck done and i feel like its getting worse and worse, should I keep going in for more treatments?!

What should I do?!

And also, since laser requires shaving won't it make the fine facial hair to grow into more course hair? Because, laser doesn't treat every hair only the thick ones. I was hoping it have a clear face by now:(


Thanks!

Reply Hi, Laser hair removal is a reduction of hair growth, and is not 100% permanent removal.

Therefore your hairs are not expected to completely vanish. It works very well on the Caucasian skin types with black hair. It does also work well with Panjabi skin types with darker hairs, but often this takes longer to treat.

You have only undergone 5 treatments so far, and will require many more due to the face being a very hormonal area.

New hair growth can always be triggered on the face, especially during your periods or at times where hormones flare up. I understand from your email, that your sideburn growth has improved, but yet you are still seeing more hair growth appearing.

This is normal as laser is unable to remove all the hairs in one instance. Laser works with accordance to a cycle of hair growth phases, and hairs which are treated have to be within a correct phase in order to see results; this is the anagen phase (when hair is connected directly to your hair root and blood supply.)


If the hair is within any other phase such as the Catagen or Telogen hair growth phase then your hairs will not be permanently disabled. The cycle will continue to repeat itself through all these three stages, hence why you are required to return within 4 – 6 weeks for your treatments, as the therapist is attempting to catch the hairs during the anagen phase.

However, even if we do manage to catch the hairs during the correct phase, any sudden hormonal imbalance, stress, new medication prescriptions or stages such as menopause can cause the hairs to return.

There are also ‘sleeping’ hair follicles, which are hair follicles that are not growing hair but can suddenly begin to grow at any time. Laser may sometime stimulate the growth from these sleeping hair follicles.

Therefore face laser requires alot of patience. Those who have medium growth do find that the process takes longer, you would require 6 – 12 sessions and then regular top-up sessions in order to keep maintaining the reduction.

You may notice that the upper lip and chin hairs disappear alot faster than the cheeks and sideburns; this could be due to the large number of hair follicles in the area.

I understand your concerns with shaving, but laser works well on a clean shaved area, as threading or plucking of the hairs from the root, would in fact promote more hair growth as you would re-supply blood to the hair root. If you do not want to use shavers, there are lady trimmers available on the market.

You will never be able to achieve 100% removal, and you would need to undergo a maintenance programme, whereby you return every 3, 6 or 8 months. This means that you will have to return for top-ups throughout the year.

Once again the face does take a long time to treat, but you can consult your therapist to see if she can offer another hair removal method such as electrolysis, as this may work better for you.

She may also be able to give you further guidance regarding your concerns.

I hope that helps

Manroop

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