REMOVING BLONDE HAIR

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

HI,

I was wondering if anyone could help. I’ve frequented this board and it has beenvery helpful. I wanted to laser the hair off my back. It darker and coarses near the shoulders and the small of my back, but it’s blondish and lighter brown the rest of the way to my tail bone.

I haven’t gone it at all, but I was considering the Apogee Laser, the Flashlamp Lasers (photo/light), or the Gentle Lase. I am in Los Angeles, and if anyone has any recommendations, I would so appreciate it.

Does anyone know if any of those lasers will work on both coarse black hair and light blondish/brown hair? Or, do you have another laser in mind.

I figure if i’m gonna pay for the laser, I want to get rid of all the hair–not just the dark ones.

Thank you!

-John

#2

Blonde, gray and red hairs will usually not respond to laser. There are some topical melanin-based preparations being sold to help treat these hairs with laser, but this is still pretty experimental.

Avoid the sun before and after treatment, and go to someone experineced. That’s WAY more important than laser type. Having said that, alexandrites and diodes are probably the faves around here.

#3

Andrea,

Thank you for the info! What about light brown hair, that I guess is still brown, not blonde, but light though. Do you think that would respond to the laser?

Thank you,

John A.

#4

Lasers target a type of melanin, the stuff which gives hair its color. Think of it like a car in the sun. If a car is white, yellow, or red, it’s not going to get as hot in the sun as a car that’s brown or black. That’s because darker colors absorb more light and therefore heat up more.

There are two types of melanin: pheomelanin, which makes hair look blonde if there’s a little, or red if there’s a lot. If you’ve ever used yellow food coloring, you know it looks kind of red in the bottle, but looks yellow if you spread a drop out. Laser doesn’t heat up pheomelanin very well, because even when it’s really concentrated, it’s not very dark.

The other kind of melanin is called eumelanin, and in its pure form it looks pitch black. The less and less eumelanin you have, the more brownish your hair will look. This stuff absorbs a ton of light, so when you hit eumelanin with a laser, the blast of light causes your hair to heat up super-fast. This rapid heating can cause damage to the hair follicle if enough light is applied with the laser. The heat and the miniature shock wave caused by the blast of energy can actually break open cells in the area. If done right, it can damage the hair growth cells while sparing the cells nearby.

That’s also why people with darker skin or tans have to be careful. Their skin has more eumelanin, and the laser can’t tell the difference between eumelanin in hair and eumelanin in skin. It heats them both up, so if you have dark or tanned skin, the laser can burn your skin the same way it burns your hair. That’s why those clients have to use special lasers performed under the most cautious of circumstamces. The risk of serious skin damage is much higher.

So, to summarize your chances of permanent laser hair reduction if done properly:

black hair: best laser candidate
dark brown: good
brown: OK
light brown: not that great
brownish-red: unlikely
red: poor
reddish-blonde: very poor
blonde: no good
gray or white: not a chance

[ November 08, 2002, 08:30 PM: Message edited by: Andrea ]

#5

That’s one neat thinkg about the Apogee laser. Coarse black hairs will literally fly out of the follicles. You can actually hear them explode. Very dramatic and it gives you immediate feedback as to how the laser is working!

RJC2001

#6

Yeah nothing quite like the sound and feel of the chest hairs getting blown apart by the laser zapps :fearful: . My hairs are mostly black with a few brown ones thrown in. The blonde and white hairs show absolutely no response to the laser pulses as expected. This is ok as electrolysis will get them in the future after the laser has done all it can.

Chris

#7

</font><blockquote><font size=“1” face=“Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif”>quote:</font><hr /><font size=“2” face=“Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif”>Originally posted by Andrea:
<strong>

black hair: best laser candidate
dark brown: good
brown: OK
light brown: not that great
brownish-red: unlikely
red: poor
reddish-blonde: very poor
blonde: no good
gray or white: not a chance</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size=“2” face=“Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif”>Oh boy, talk about nailing it…it might sound strange but I have had a mix of different colour body hair treated with laser and I can tell you for sure that these statements are exact, and I mean exact.

Thanks.

#8

Everyone,

Thank you so much for your input. This info has really been helpful. I’m saving up my money right now, but will get into laser treatments when I can afford it.

Thank you so much!

-John

#9

With the Aurora IPL system (IPL combined with radiofrequency) more than 50% of blonde hair and more than 40% of grey hair is reduced if you use 7 instead of 5 treatments and the skin rejuvenation handpiece each second treatment to reach the more superficial blonde hair bulbs.
Best regards from Munich. Hautmedicus.

#10

Hautmedicus, have you been treated with the Aurora IPL system? We are anxious to hear results from someone who has actually been treated with that system? Does it really work on light colored hair?

RJC2001

#11

Hi Hautmedicus–

These results you report are considerably better than the claims they make in their press kit. I just got a copy last week and will be posting my analysis soon.