Laser hair removal is all the rage these days, and for good reason. It’s safe, effective, and almost permanent. But it doesn’t work for everyone. Because it targets the pigment in your hair, your hair needs to contain pigment for it to work. That leaves you out if your hair is very light.
But don’t lose hope: There’s an old-school technology that’s tailor made for hair like yours — electrolysis.
At New Life Aesthetics in Bakersfield, California, Dr. Nirav Naik and our team offer this tried-and-true technology to fair-haired women and men looking to ditch their razors, tweezers, and waxes for a more permanent solution.
Given the choice, most people would opt to trade in their cumbersome — and often painful — daily routine of tending to all the hair on their body. After all, it takes up precious time and also costs quite a bit of money.
Over her lifetime, the average American woman spends more than $10,000 shaving, waxing, plucking, and dissolving unwanted body hair. And if you add up the minutes, she devotes about 58.4 days of her life getting the job done.
Fortunately, you have effective options that can save you time and money.
Most people have never heard of light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, but you’ve probably heard its acronym: laser. Lasers are nothing more than focused light energy, but depending on the device that generates that energy and the wavelengths it produces, lasers can perform complex functions.
At New Life Aesthetics, we use lasers for a variety of treatments, including skin resurfacing. One of the most popular applications for lasers these days is the removal of unwanted hair.
To accomplish this, we use the Icon® laser system to destroy individual hairs at their source — the follicle. We can calibrate the device to penetrate your skin at precise depths and target the pigment in your hair follicle.
This works very well for people with a high contrast between their skin and hair color, but folks with light hair — such as gray, white, blond, or red — don’t have as much success with laser hair removal. That’s where electrolysis comes in.
Rather than light energy, electrolysis uses radiofrequency energy to destroy hair follicles. This FDA-approved treatment has been around for years, and it’s been overshadowed by newer technology. But for fair-haired people, it’s still the gold standard in hair removal.
To zap your hair follicles using electrolysis, Dr. Naik inserts an extremely thin needle into your skin. The radiofrequency energy flows through the needle and damages the hair follicle so it can no longer produce hair.
Because he has to repeat this for every individual hair, the process is tedious, but the results are worth it — you can go years without seeing any new hair growth.
Whether you get laser or electrolysis treatments, you can expect to sit for up to six sessions spaced about 4-6 weeks apart. That’s because your hair grows in cycles, and the treatments can only get rid of the hair that’s active at the time. By getting multiple treatments, you can be sure to zap all of your hair as it emerges.
Both treatment types are nearly permanent. That just means that in theory, a damaged hair follicle can’t produce hair again, but occasionally, new hairs pop up, so you may need a touch-up session down the road. If you do see new hair growth, it will be lighter and thinner than the original hairs.
To find out whether electrolysis or laser hair removal is the right option for you, schedule an appointment at New Life Aesthetics by calling us at 661-230-8306 today.
