Question: I hate my eyebrows. I am a 17-year-old boy, and I have a constant problem with maintaining my eyebrows so they do not turn into a unibrow. I really hate tweezing them, and I would like to be able to just ignore them. Is it safe to have laser hair removal performed on the eyebrows?

Answer: Yes, it is perfectly safe to have laser hair removal performed on the eyebrows, especially the area between the brows where we can try to rid the area of hair completely. When we are trying to sculpt an eyebrow with laser hair removal, it gets a little more tricky due to the fact that we are trying to injure some of the hair in that area and yet retain some of the eyebrow hair that we would like to keep. We can treat the area between the eyebrows rather aggressively as we really do not want any hair at all growing in that location. Assuming that your eyebrow hair is pigmented, you have a very high chance of getting an excellent result with laser hair removal.

Question: As a 29-year-old woman, I have been shaving for about 16 years already. I am just plain tired of it. I do not mind doing it every once in a while but I hate having to do it every other day. Would laser hair removal make my hair grow more slowly after a few treatments?

Answer: If your hair is dark and relatively coarse, laser hair removal treatments should actually rid you of the majority of the hair that you have in that location. Any hairs that remain are typically much thinner and are less pigmented than they had been and are therefore much less of a concern to the patient. Many times after a series of laser hair removal treatments, all we have left are some nonpigmented thin hairs, which the patient can then essentially pluck or shave as they desire as these hairs are extraordinarily difficult to completely get rid of due to the fact that they have completely lost their pigment.

Question: I have thinking about getting laser hair treatments for sometime but I just recently started doing research.  I must say I was amazed to see how many types of lasers can be used for the procedure.  Are there specific lasers that are better for treating facial hair?

Answer: I personally do not feel that there are any specific lasers that are better at treating facial hair than body hair but I do believe that there are lasers that are much better at treating hair than others.  We have several modalities for laser hair removal at Quintessa Medical Spa including broadband light, the diode laser, as well as YAG laser.  In fact, at the Quintessa Aesthetic Center in Mequon, we have the Lumines Duet system, which has a much larger spot size and a suction apparatus that allows us to treat large areas such as backs and legs in a fraction of the time and with a fraction of the discomfort of other laser hair removal systems.  We have been extremely impressed with the speeds at which we can treat patients as well as the significant lack of any discomfort involved with the procedure.  It further shows enhanced results compared to the older hair removal systems.  Both centers use intense pulsed light, which certainly is efficacious but is not nearly as effective as the more advanced treatments that I just mentioned.  Even our broadband light by Sciton will, in my opinion, provide much better results than standard intense pulsed light hair reduction.

Question: I am a 19-year-old woman, and I would like to have laser treatments performed on my legs so I do not have to shave as often. I read something that was a troubling though when I looked online for information. Is it true that finer hair can actually be stimulated to grow by lasers intended to remove the hair?

Answer: I would have to say that that is an urban legend due to the fact that there really is no way for a laser hair removal system to stimulate hairs to grow, as what they essentially do is target the hair follicle and injure this tissue. By injuring the hair follicle, the follicle either does not regrow and thus the hair is removed or it will regrow hair that is much thinner and less pigmented than it had been. Either way, you will not stimulate hair growth, you will not create thicker hair, and you certainly will not darken hair through the use of laser hair removal treatments. If you are going to have your full legs treated, however, I would highly recommend seeking out a medical spa such as Quintessa Medical Spa where we have the Lumines Duet system for laser hair reduction. This system has a much larger spot size and, in combination with the suction, creates greatly reduced discomfort, and we can perform laser hair removal on a large surface area in a fraction of the time compared to the older laser hair removal systems than most facilities still use today.

Question: I am interested in laser hair treatments. I am a 24-year-old man, and my arm, leg, and chest hairs are all far too long. I know that laser hair treatments can thin out the hair somewhat but can they also make the hair shorter?

Answer: That is a great question, and I personally feel that it is on a case-by-case basis as to whether your hair will actually be shorter. In my opinion, in most cases, your hair actually will be shorter but that is not true in everyone. The growth cycle of the hair may not be changed by the injury from the laser hair removal treatment and therefore the hair may be thinner and less pigmented but could theoretically continue to be as long. The upside is that you should have far fewer hairs in the areas that have been treated, and it should give the appearance that you have shorter hair simply due to the fact that you have far fewer hairs that are visible. Ultimately, we never promise a patient that all of the hair will be completely gone nor will we promise them that all of the hair will be shorter but they should have a rather drastic reduction in the number of visible hairs, the visible hairs that remain should be thinner and less pigmented and, overall, the appearance of the area being treated should be greatly improved through laser hair reduction therapies.