Hello, I’m a newbie here, but I haven’t been able to find any answers to my question.
Will there be any lasting effects to have laser hair removal done overtop of a scar? I had abdominal surgery a month ago and have a 5" scar on my abdomen. It’s healed nicely but still a pink color. Will the lighsheer diode laser permanently discolor the scar or do any other damage?
TIA 
Hmmm I have a minor scar on my hand. Been treated 3 times, no problem.
Well, just a quick update. I went ahead with the laser hair removal (underarm and bikini), and had the laser pass over the scar. I now wish I hadn’t done that. The 5" scar (about 6 weeks old at the time) got a bit irritated, and turned redder (it still is a bit and it’s been over a week already). Anyway, everything else went fine. I was surprised that it hurt more than I expected. It didn’t feel like an elastic band snapping on my skin, but an intense burning sensation. Next time I will use EMLA! 
Ads and promotions for laser hair removal often underestimate the pain. I will agree that when being treated with appropriate fluences, it does feel like more than just the snapping of a rubber band.
It all depends on how much you want to get rid of the hair and how much pain you are willing to put up with.
There’s no free lunch when it comes to hair removal. It requires substantial amounts of time or money or both. And for permanent hair removal (or reduction, whatever you want to call it) there will be some pain too.
RJC2001
Just to clarify, I didn’t mean that I wish I hadn’t gone ahead with the laser hair removal – I’m so glad I did. I just don’t think it was a good idea to have the laser pass right over my incision site. Next time I will just have the laser pass above and below my scar. I guess with the wound still being fairly fresh, the skin reacted a little more (but it wasn’t painful, just turned the skin redder).
The pain is totally tolerable for such small areas. I was surprised that the underarm area only took about 3 minutes. Worth every stinging bit! I will just prep my skin beforehand with EMLA next time, and then I should be laughing. I’m pleased with the results so far. It appears much more than 20% removal for this first time. I hope the next zapping goes just as well.
Thanks for your input.