Today, the market for cosmetic services offers many options for hair removal: from household epilators to sugaring and waxing. Unfortunately, such methods of solving the problem are only temporary, their effect lasts from several days to a couple of weeks.
However, the beauty industry does not stand still, and cosmetology equipment is constantly being improved, so modern humanity now has access to such procedures that theoretically allow you to get rid of unwanted vegetation forever. There are only 3 of them – photoepilation, laser hair removal and electrolysis.
Let’s consider each of them.
Photoepilation.
This type of hair removal is applicable only to remove pronounced dark hair on light skin. The fact is that a special flash of light affects the color pigment melanin, destroys it and gets to the hair follicle. If the hair is not colored enough, the energy of the light beam is scattered without finding a conductor. A day or two before the procedure, the hair should be shaved so that its length is 1-1.5 mm. In addition, the flash affects a part of the body with several hairs at once, which makes it impossible to remove hair in this way to correct, for example, the eyebrow line. After each flash, the specialist performing the procedure applies ice to the treated area of skin – for cooling and pain relief.
Laser epilation.
With this type of epilation, a monochromatic light of a laser beam acts on the area of \u200b\u200bthe skin with hair. Lasers are alexandrite, ruby, neodymium and diode. The first two are the most common, but their disadvantage is that they only cope with dark hair on light skin, however, alexandrite has higher power and speed. A diode laser can only deal with slightly lighter hair on slightly darker skin, a neodymium laser is ideal for dark skin.
It is worth knowing about the various cooling systems that are used in laser hair removal for pain relief. They are contact and non-contact. Non-contact – this is a simple supply of cold air to the treated area and spraying liquid cryogen. From contact cooling systems, cosmetologists offer sapphire glasses, copper plates and cooling gels. The most effective are considered to be liquid cryogen supplied to the skin before the flash, and modern sapphire glasses, between which a cooling agent circulates. Sapphire does not convert or slow down the action of a laser pulse and works both before, during and after it.
Electrolysis.
Most cosmetologists recognize that this type of removal of unwanted vegetation on the body is the most radical, since in this case, work is carried out with each individual hair, regardless of the intensity of its color and thickness. A thin needle is inserted under the skin into the hair follicle, then an electric discharge is applied through it, after which the “killed” hair is removed with tweezers. In order to see the direction of hair growth, its length must be at least 3-4 mm.
To prevent or make less noticeable such undesirable consequences of epilation as redness, itching, swelling and burns, after the procedure, you can treat the skin area on which the work was performed with D-Panthenol or sprinkle it with baby talc.
After all types of hair removal, the following rules apply:
- at first, wear only soft loose underwear to protect injured skin from friction;
- for several weeks, both before and after the procedure, tanning in a solarium and under the open sun is strictly prohibited;
- you can not visit the bath, swimming pool, take water procedures in the first days after epilation.
It is necessary to know that each hair goes through three stages of its development – a period of rapid growth (anagen), a period of cessation of growth and cell division (catagen) and a period of death (telogen). Hair removal is effective only during their active growth. It simultaneously contains from 60 to 90% of all human hair. Thus, if the hair was removed in the phase of death or growth arrest, it will definitely grow back.
That is why cosmetologists talk about several repeated procedures, and if you are assured that the hair will disappear forever in one, two or even three procedures, do not believe it and choose another specialist or clinic. It is impossible to say exactly how many repeated procedures will be required for the final result, and with what frequency, but each time the hair will really become smaller and they will be much thinner and lighter.
All of the above types of hair removal are quite painful. This is especially true for electrolysis. People with high sensitivity should consider anesthesia, especially when it comes to the traditionally most painful area – the bikini area.
Firstly, an hour before the procedure, you need to eat a heavy meal in order to “dull” the sensitivity of the receptors. Secondly, for the same purpose, you can take a good antispasmodic. If it is acceptable for a patient to drink 50-100 g of cognac or other strong drink, then this method is also suitable – everyone knows that alcohol slows down the body’s reactions.
Emla cream (based on lidocaine) can serve as a local anesthetic. It is applied in a thick layer half an hour to an hour before the procedure and covered with cling film. This cream is quite expensive, and it does not work for everyone, however, with a low pain threshold, it is better to take not one type of anesthesia, but a whole complex.
Contraindications.
Despite the apparent safety of the above cosmetic procedures, there are a number of absolute contraindications even for them:
- pregnancy and breastfeeding;
- some chronic diseases;
- diabetes;
- oncological diseases;
- herpes and pustular rashes on the skin;
- varicose veins;
- tanned, swarthy skin.
The success of each type of epilation depends on it, because for efficiency and safety it is necessary not only to correctly determine the phototype of your skin, but also to set specific parameters on the device: intensity, power, duration and temperature…
