April 8, 2025 • 20 mins
In preparation for bathing suit season, we present a discussion of the current status of hair removal treatments. Traditional hair removal methods like shaving, waxing, sugaring, and threading work temporarily, but medical-grade, in-office treatments are more powerful.
Electrolysis is the gold standard—it uses a tiny needle and an electric current to kill the hair follicle. It’s great for small areas, but not practical for large ones.
Vaniqa (ethornithine) was a prescription cream that slows hair growth, and lasers can zap hair for long-term reduction. We can treat all skin types with lasers, but darker skin requires special settings to keep it safe and effective.
Find out:
-
The hair growth cycle, from anagen (active) to telogen (resting) phases
-
Does shaving really make hair grow back thicker?
-
How hair and skin color affect laser results
-
How we protect the skin while targeting melanin in the hair
-
If your hair is too light, can you just dye it before lasers?
-
The best ways to get rid of peach fuzz
-
What areas lasers can treat instead of waxing or shaving
-
The most common hair removal treatment areas for men vs. women
About Dr. Lawrence Bass
Innovator. Industry veteran. In-demand Park Avenue board certified plastic surgeon, Dr. Lawrence Bass is a true master of his craft, not only in the OR but as an industry pioneer in the development and evaluation of new aesthetic technologies. With locations in both Manhattan (on Park Avenue between 62nd and 63rd Streets) and in Great Neck, Long Island, Dr. Bass has earned his reputation as the plastic surgeon for the most discerning patients in NYC and beyond.
To learn more, visit the Bass Plastic Surgery website or follow the team on Instagram @drbassnyc
Subscribe to the Park Avenue Plastic Surgery Class newsletter to be notified of new episodes & receive exclusive invitations, offers, and information from Dr. Bass.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome to Park AvenuePlastic Surgery Class,
the podcast where we explore controversiesand breaking issues in plastic
surgery. I'm your co-host Summer Hardy,
a clinical assistant at BassPlastic Surgery in New York City.
I'm excited to be here with Dr. LawrenceBass, Park Avenue plastic surgeon,
educator, and technology innovator.
The title of today'sepisode is Bare No Hair.
(00:25):
On a previous episode,
we've talked about growing thinninghair and hair transplantation.
Today we're going to talkabout removing unwanted hair.
What should I know to start with Dr. Bass?
Well, the first thing tounderstand is the biology of hair.
We think of hair being on ourheads, but we know hairs fall out.
Then there's something going on there.
(00:47):
So hairs go through a growth cycle,
and there are differentstages of that growth cycle.
So there's a growth phasecalled antigen when the
hair follicle wakes up,
starts to become active andstarts to produce a hair shaft.
Then there's catagen whenthe hair is present there
(01:10):
and then the hair isshed and the hair goes
into a resting phasecalled telogen. Actually,
most of the hair folliclesare in telogen or
resting even on top of our head.
As we go onto other areas of our body,
(01:32):
the amount of time thathairs are in telogen
is longer and the percentage ofhairs that are in telogen is greater.
So on top of our head, as I said,
most of the hairs are probably restingmost of the time and they rest for about
four months and then they perk up andstart growing in a young adult person.
(01:56):
So that affects what happens
when we try to start treating hairthat we don't want to see anymore.
Okay. Now that I'm up tospeed on hair biology,
what are some of the treatment methods?
So we all know the traditionalmethods that are basically not medical
(02:17):
methods. There of course,is shaving and men,
if they're clean,
shave and shave typically everyday of their adult lives or
every day that they wantto look clean and groomed.
And shaving works very well,but it's very temporary.
And then there are things likewaxing, sugaring and threading.
(02:39):
So these are all mechanicalhair removal or hair
reduction methods.
So shaving cuts the outsidevisible portion of the hair
away, so you can't see it.
There's still a hair shaft inthe hair follicle under the
skin, but it's not on the outside. Youcan see it so you don't care that much.
(03:02):
And things like waxing sugaringand threading latch onto
the hair and yank it outof the hair follicle.
So the hair follicle is temporarilyempty and it will take a
period of time depending on what partof the body and how fast the hair is
growing,
but period of a coupleof weeks to maybe a month
(03:26):
for hair to show upagain. So that's again,
a temporary but verycommonly used approach
that's doesn't require avisit to the doctor's office.
Got it. So I have to ask, does shavingmake the hair grow faster or thicker?
Is that a myth or is it reality?
(03:48):
So shaving does notactually make a bigger,
fatter or faster growing hair,
but what it does do is cut the hair
sharply and leave the blunt,
thick part of the hairvisible when the hair next
(04:09):
grows. So the hair that's not shaved,
that sits outside the body over time,
that hair gets worn downand it thins and softens,
and the edge of that hair istapered instead of being blunt
and sharp when the hair has been shaved.
(04:29):
So that makes the hair appearfiner and a little bit less visible
compared to a shaved hair.
So you're not actually changingwhat the hair follicle is doing,
but you change a little bit theexternal appearance of the hair.
Thanks for explaining. Now, back tohair removal and reduction methods.
(04:50):
What else is there?
So the gold standard is electrolysis.
Electrolysis is a techniquewhere the tiny needle
is introduced down thehair follicle itself.
You follow down from the opening inthe skin where the hair shaft comes out
(05:11):
down into the hair follicle andthen apply an electric current
slowly until the hair follicle is killed.
That sounds great.
Doesn't that mean the problem issolved or are there disadvantages?
So the advantage ofelectrolysis is it's the most
reliable and the most permanenthair method that we have.
(05:36):
Occasionally a hair regrowsa little bit in a few years,
a little finer and thinner, but mostlythe hairs are permanently removed,
permanent,
the way you and I think of permanentbecause the way FDA thinks of permanent
when they talk aboutpermanent hair removal with
lasers or energy devices,
(05:58):
they mean longer than thegrowth cycle of the hair,
which is not really what youand I think of as permanent,
it just means long term.
Or in another definition theysometimes use is six months,
which again, since we'regoing to live decades,
is not really permanentthe way we think about it.
(06:19):
So long-term is a better way to look atthat. But getting back to electrolysis,
the big disadvantage is it's asingle hair at a time. So if you
have three hairs growing on your chinand you don't want to look at them,
electrolysis is a reallygood way to get rid of them.
But if you have a full male beard,
(06:40):
like some ladies have so muchhair growing on their face,
it's like a man's beard,
or if you're a man trying toget rid of your hairy back
or your hairy belly,
there's just no way electrolysiswould be a lifetime project.
So it's too slow to deal with large areas.
(07:01):
Sometimes you get scarring if a littletoo much energy is applied and it's
very slow and very painfultypically has to be done in
multiple sessions doing onlyso many hairs at a time.
So it's not practical for big areas,
even though it's very effectiveif you only have a few.
That makes sense. So are theremore alternatives, Dr. Bass?
(07:25):
So there are a variety ofother things that are done,
and one thing is pharmacologic.
Basically a topically applied skinlotion that contains a medication
called Vaniqa.
And Vaniqa is a medicationthat's used in ladies that
slows down the growth of the hair.
(07:45):
So it doesn't take the hair outand it doesn't eliminate the
hair from growing, but itslows it down dramatically.
So if you were shaving twice a week
or every other day because ofhair on your face and you're
a lady and you wantthat hair to slow down,
(08:06):
you go on Vaniqa and you might onlyhave to shave every two or three
weeks a single time tokeep the hair controlled.
So that is the rightfit for some people for
some areas on their body,principally the face.
The other big thing thatyou used nowadays since the
(08:29):
1990s are lasers and other light sources
that can be used to zapthe hairs and create hair
reduction that way.
Lasers sound very cool,but will they work?
I know there have got to be advantagesand disadvantages. So lay it out for me.
(08:49):
So you're exactly right.
Any technology is going to haveadvantages and disadvantages,
really important tounderstand what they are,
so if it's a good fit for you or not.
So the first thing to understandwhen we turn to the light-based
devices is to understand alittle bit about how they work.
(09:11):
So hairs contain melaninpigment and the way
all of these devices work,
they're wavelengths or colors oflight that are heavily absorbed by
melanin.
So the melanin in the hair shaft itself
absorbs the hair, the hair shaft heats up.
(09:33):
That heat is conducted into the adjacent
cells of the hair follicle that grow hair,
damaging those cells.
And if the folliclecan't grow hair anymore,
the hair grows out a littlemore and then falls out.
(09:53):
So that's the mechanism by which
light-based devices help reduce hair.
The issue is, remember I said many,
many of the hair folliclesare in telogen resting face,
so they have no hair shaft.
So the telogen follicles orresting hair follicles are not
(10:17):
treated in any given treatment.
So that means there's always a seriesof treatments because even if you
succeed at treating a hundredpercent of the actively growing
hairs that contain a hair shaft,
you're not going to treat anyof the resting hair follicles.
All of that makes sense to me. Butisn't there melanin in my skin? Also,
(10:42):
how does my skin color and haircolor affect the treatments?
So that's the milliondollar question, Summer.
Skin is the other main item that
contains melanin.
And so your skin is also targeted by these
light or laser-based sources along
(11:05):
with the melanin and the hair shaft.
And so it's a competitionbetween the melanin in the hair
shaft and the melanin in your skin.
What's going to absorb the energyand what's going to get potentially
affected by the laser light.
We want a lot of light and energyin the hair follicle to get
(11:26):
a lot of heating there in thehair shaft and the hair follicle.
We don't want a lot oflight or energy in the skin.
And melanin in the skin is atthe base of the epidermal layer.
So it's relatively superficial wherehair follicles are a little bit deeper.
So the trick of laser treatments for hair
(11:49):
is to get the light deep into the hair
follicle with a very mild effect,
ideally no effect on the skin.And this is done a couple of different
ways. At the same time,
how much your skin absorbs is going tobe affected by your skin pigmentation,
(12:10):
how much your hair absorbs is goingto be affected by how dark the
hair is. So the fatter thehair and the darker the hair,
the better it gets zapped and the lighter
the hair or the thinner thehair, the less it absorbs,
the less it gets zapped. Andthe lighter your skin is,
(12:32):
the less your skin will potentiallybe affected by the laser treatment.
So the ideal patient hasa big, thick, dark hair,
black hair or dark brown and very fair
skin.
Okay, that's really interesting.
Could I get my hair lasered if Ihave white or gray hair? And if not,
(12:54):
couldn't it just be dyedto absorb the laser then?
Well,
the problem with dyeing hairsis it's too superficial.
So when you dye your hair,
it's the hair outside yourbody that's absorbing the dye,
and we need dye in the hairshaft that's inside your
(13:15):
skin, still inside the hair follicle,
and it's really sealed in there.
And at the very dawnof laser hair removal,
they tried to zap hairsby putting on a carbon
paste and getting itdown into the follicle.
But studies eventually revealedthat you could not get the
(13:39):
carbon particles successfullydown deep enough into the hair
follicle to effectively
target the carbon pigmentinstead of the hair pigment.
And there was other researchtrying to use nanoparticles of gold
thinking that the very tiny particleswould succeed in getting down there,
(14:01):
but it still didn't really workout to be a usable hair removal
system.
So what that means is if you have white
hair or gray hair,
that's not going to workwell for laser hair removal
and we have to look at other strategies.
(14:23):
Gotcha. And then whatabout any peach fuzz?
So that's another importantquestion because a lot of people
have little fuzzy hairson their upper lip or
in front of their earsand their sideburn area,
and those hairs are so fineand they're often very light
(14:45):
that they don't get enough melaninabsorption to be treated by
light-based devices.
So those are hairs you're going to haveto chase with waxing or threading or
sugaring or you go on themedication Vaniqa that I described
before and try to slow downthe growth of those hairs.
(15:05):
Okay. So let's turn to morepractical considerations.
What areas are people treating?
So that's an important consideration.
So the main light-basedtreatment areas are
areas that are also commonly treatedwith waxing and things like that,
areas like mustache areas, chin,
(15:27):
neck and jawline areas andsideburn areas. For ladies,
they don't want to see a lot ofhair in those areas. And as I said,
some ladies have so much hair,
it's like a man's beard andthey're shaving every day
or every other day, and the hairis still a little bit visible.
(15:48):
They really want to tryto get rid of that hair.
And light-based devices area good way to chase that.
There are a lot of bodyareas, the tummy area,
the bikini area, instead of waxing,
you can treat that area currentlywith laser treatments and get the hair
gone from those areas.
(16:10):
And armpit areas are also very commonto either eliminate the hair so you
don't have to shave or justreduce it tremendously so
that shaving becomes avery infrequent event.
And another common areaare our arms and legs.
So ladies love to treat legs sothey don't have to shave their legs.
(16:33):
If they choose to be bare and hairless,
they can get the laser,
get the hair off and not have togo through the recurrent process of
shaving the legs.
That makes sense. Isthis mostly for women?
Well, it's really for everyone.
And men also chase a lot of areas.
(16:56):
So men that are very hairy andbody areas that have a hairy
back or chest or abdomen,
which they or the person they'rewith does not find attractive,
may look to reduce the amount ofhair or sometimes eliminate hair
in those areas. If they havehairy years, which some men have,
(17:17):
particularly as they age, thiscan be another application area,
although not all laserdevices have a delivery
system or applicator that cantarget a small and curvy area like
that. They tend to do betteron big flat open areas.
And then there are othersmall niche areas like hairy
(17:41):
knuckles and hairy toes thatoften men and women find
unattractive and they chase with lasers.
Okay, Dr. Bass, thanks for explaining.
So time to share yourtakeaways with our listeners.
So the main thing is to planenough sessions and start early
enough to be ready for summertimeor whenever you're planning
(18:05):
to show your skin.
That's going to depend on the areayou're treating, how much hair is there,
and how dark and thick the hairsare, and how dark your skin is.
So all skin types can be treated,but if you have darker skin,
we have to use a littlebit lower energies.
(18:26):
We have to use differentwavelengths typically on dark skin,
but we have figured out how totreat even very dark skin patients.
Typically you do a treatment once amonth for three months and then you
do another treatment a few months laterand another treatment a few months after
(18:48):
that to catch any straggler hairs asthey wake up from the resting phase.
But even with that,
there may be some touchups requiredlong-term with these lasers.
So you may come back in six months,
a year or two years and do anothertreatment just if a few hairs
that got missed or skipped or wereresting are now showing themselves.
(19:12):
Even when hair grows back though,it tends to be thinner, finer,
and slower growing.
There are a lot of systemsout there for hair reduction,
but the medical office systemstend to be more powerful
and they also have moresophisticated cooling options.
(19:33):
So some use contact cooling,
some use cryogen cooling where a little,
the laser pulse fires andfive to 20 milliseconds
later a little pulse ofcryogen fires to cool the
skin. Or you can pre-cool theskin with a little cryogen.
You have a lot of control overtiming the cooling compared to the
(19:58):
laser, so the skin is not damaged,
but the hair can be targeted effectively.
For any area with a lot of
hair, this is probably a good candidate
area for treatment with laserand light-based devices.
Thank you Dr. Bass for sharing the insand outs of hair removal technologies.
(20:22):
Definitely good to have these technologiesavailable if you want to go bare.
Thank you for listening to thePark Avenue Plastic Surgery Class
podcast. Follow us on Apple Podcasts,
write a review and sharethe show with your friends.
Be sure to join us next time to avoidmissing all the great content that is
coming your way. If you want tocontact us with comments or questions,
we'd love to hear from you,
(20:43):
send us an email atpodcast@drbass.net or DM us on
Instagram @drbassnyc.
Welcome to Park AvenuePlastic Surgery Class,
the podcast where we explore controversiesand breaking issues in plastic
surgery. I'm your co-host Summer Hardy,
a clinical assistant at BassPlastic Surgery in New York City.
I'm excited to be here with Dr. LawrenceBass, Park Avenue plastic surgeon,
educator, and technology innovator.
The title of today'sepisode is Bare No Hair.
(00:25):
On a previous episode,
we've talked about growing thinninghair and hair transplantation.
Today we're going to talkabout removing unwanted hair.
What should I know to start with Dr. Bass?
Well, the first thing tounderstand is the biology of hair.
We think of hair being on ourheads, but we know hairs fall out.
Then there's something going on there.
(00:47):
So hairs go through a growth cycle,
and there are differentstages of that growth cycle.
So there's a growth phasecalled antigen when the
hair follicle wakes up,
starts to become active andstarts to produce a hair shaft.
Then there's catagen whenthe hair is present there
(01:10):
and then the hair isshed and the hair goes
into a resting phasecalled telogen. Actually,
most of the hair folliclesare in telogen or
resting even on top of our head.
As we go onto other areas of our body,
(01:32):
the amount of time thathairs are in telogen
is longer and the percentage ofhairs that are in telogen is greater.
So on top of our head, as I said,
most of the hairs are probably restingmost of the time and they rest for about
four months and then they perk up andstart growing in a young adult person.
(01:56):
So that affects what happens
when we try to start treating hairthat we don't want to see anymore.
Okay. Now that I'm up tospeed on hair biology,
what are some of the treatment methods?
So we all know the traditionalmethods that are basically not medical
(02:17):
methods. There of course,is shaving and men,
if they're clean,
shave and shave typically everyday of their adult lives or
every day that they wantto look clean and groomed.
And shaving works very well,but it's very temporary.
And then there are things likewaxing, sugaring and threading.
(02:39):
So these are all mechanicalhair removal or hair
reduction methods.
So shaving cuts the outsidevisible portion of the hair
away, so you can't see it.
There's still a hair shaft inthe hair follicle under the
skin, but it's not on the outside. Youcan see it so you don't care that much.
(03:02):
And things like waxing sugaringand threading latch onto
the hair and yank it outof the hair follicle.
So the hair follicle is temporarilyempty and it will take a
period of time depending on what partof the body and how fast the hair is
growing,
but period of a coupleof weeks to maybe a month
(03:26):
for hair to show upagain. So that's again,
a temporary but verycommonly used approach
that's doesn't require avisit to the doctor's office.
Got it. So I have to ask, does shavingmake the hair grow faster or thicker?
Is that a myth or is it reality?
(03:48):
So shaving does notactually make a bigger,
fatter or faster growing hair,
but what it does do is cut the hair
sharply and leave the blunt,
thick part of the hairvisible when the hair next
(04:09):
grows. So the hair that's not shaved,
that sits outside the body over time,
that hair gets worn downand it thins and softens,
and the edge of that hair istapered instead of being blunt
and sharp when the hair has been shaved.
(04:29):
So that makes the hair appearfiner and a little bit less visible
compared to a shaved hair.
So you're not actually changingwhat the hair follicle is doing,
but you change a little bit theexternal appearance of the hair.
Thanks for explaining. Now, back tohair removal and reduction methods.
(04:50):
What else is there?
So the gold standard is electrolysis.
Electrolysis is a techniquewhere the tiny needle
is introduced down thehair follicle itself.
You follow down from the opening inthe skin where the hair shaft comes out
(05:11):
down into the hair follicle andthen apply an electric current
slowly until the hair follicle is killed.
That sounds great.
Doesn't that mean the problem issolved or are there disadvantages?
So the advantage ofelectrolysis is it's the most
reliable and the most permanenthair method that we have.
(05:36):
Occasionally a hair regrowsa little bit in a few years,
a little finer and thinner, but mostlythe hairs are permanently removed,
permanent,
the way you and I think of permanentbecause the way FDA thinks of permanent
when they talk aboutpermanent hair removal with
lasers or energy devices,
(05:58):
they mean longer than thegrowth cycle of the hair,
which is not really what youand I think of as permanent,
it just means long term.
Or in another definition theysometimes use is six months,
which again, since we'regoing to live decades,
is not really permanentthe way we think about it.
(06:19):
So long-term is a better way to look atthat. But getting back to electrolysis,
the big disadvantage is it's asingle hair at a time. So if you
have three hairs growing on your chinand you don't want to look at them,
electrolysis is a reallygood way to get rid of them.
But if you have a full male beard,
(06:40):
like some ladies have so muchhair growing on their face,
it's like a man's beard,
or if you're a man trying toget rid of your hairy back
or your hairy belly,
there's just no way electrolysiswould be a lifetime project.
So it's too slow to deal with large areas.
(07:01):
Sometimes you get scarring if a littletoo much energy is applied and it's
very slow and very painfultypically has to be done in
multiple sessions doing onlyso many hairs at a time.
So it's not practical for big areas,
even though it's very effectiveif you only have a few.
That makes sense. So are theremore alternatives, Dr. Bass?
(07:25):
So there are a variety ofother things that are done,
and one thing is pharmacologic.
Basically a topically applied skinlotion that contains a medication
called Vaniqa.
And Vaniqa is a medicationthat's used in ladies that
slows down the growth of the hair.
(07:45):
So it doesn't take the hair outand it doesn't eliminate the
hair from growing, but itslows it down dramatically.
So if you were shaving twice a week
or every other day because ofhair on your face and you're
a lady and you wantthat hair to slow down,
(08:06):
you go on Vaniqa and you might onlyhave to shave every two or three
weeks a single time tokeep the hair controlled.
So that is the rightfit for some people for
some areas on their body,principally the face.
The other big thing thatyou used nowadays since the
(08:29):
1990s are lasers and other light sources
that can be used to zapthe hairs and create hair
reduction that way.
Lasers sound very cool,but will they work?
I know there have got to be advantagesand disadvantages. So lay it out for me.
(08:49):
So you're exactly right.
Any technology is going to haveadvantages and disadvantages,
really important tounderstand what they are,
so if it's a good fit for you or not.
So the first thing to understandwhen we turn to the light-based
devices is to understand alittle bit about how they work.
(09:11):
So hairs contain melaninpigment and the way
all of these devices work,
they're wavelengths or colors oflight that are heavily absorbed by
melanin.
So the melanin in the hair shaft itself
absorbs the hair, the hair shaft heats up.
(09:33):
That heat is conducted into the adjacent
cells of the hair follicle that grow hair,
damaging those cells.
And if the folliclecan't grow hair anymore,
the hair grows out a littlemore and then falls out.
(09:53):
So that's the mechanism by which
light-based devices help reduce hair.
The issue is, remember I said many,
many of the hair folliclesare in telogen resting face,
so they have no hair shaft.
So the telogen follicles orresting hair follicles are not
(10:17):
treated in any given treatment.
So that means there's always a seriesof treatments because even if you
succeed at treating a hundredpercent of the actively growing
hairs that contain a hair shaft,
you're not going to treat anyof the resting hair follicles.
All of that makes sense to me. Butisn't there melanin in my skin? Also,
(10:42):
how does my skin color and haircolor affect the treatments?
So that's the milliondollar question, Summer.
Skin is the other main item that
contains melanin.
And so your skin is also targeted by these
light or laser-based sources along
(11:05):
with the melanin and the hair shaft.
And so it's a competitionbetween the melanin in the hair
shaft and the melanin in your skin.
What's going to absorb the energyand what's going to get potentially
affected by the laser light.
We want a lot of light and energyin the hair follicle to get
(11:26):
a lot of heating there in thehair shaft and the hair follicle.
We don't want a lot oflight or energy in the skin.
And melanin in the skin is atthe base of the epidermal layer.
So it's relatively superficial wherehair follicles are a little bit deeper.
So the trick of laser treatments for hair
(11:49):
is to get the light deep into the hair
follicle with a very mild effect,
ideally no effect on the skin.And this is done a couple of different
ways. At the same time,
how much your skin absorbs is going tobe affected by your skin pigmentation,
(12:10):
how much your hair absorbs is goingto be affected by how dark the
hair is. So the fatter thehair and the darker the hair,
the better it gets zapped and the lighter
the hair or the thinner thehair, the less it absorbs,
the less it gets zapped. Andthe lighter your skin is,
(12:32):
the less your skin will potentiallybe affected by the laser treatment.
So the ideal patient hasa big, thick, dark hair,
black hair or dark brown and very fair
skin.
Okay, that's really interesting.
Could I get my hair lasered if Ihave white or gray hair? And if not,
(12:54):
couldn't it just be dyedto absorb the laser then?
Well,
the problem with dyeing hairsis it's too superficial.
So when you dye your hair,
it's the hair outside yourbody that's absorbing the dye,
and we need dye in the hairshaft that's inside your
(13:15):
skin, still inside the hair follicle,
and it's really sealed in there.
And at the very dawnof laser hair removal,
they tried to zap hairsby putting on a carbon
paste and getting itdown into the follicle.
But studies eventually revealedthat you could not get the
(13:39):
carbon particles successfullydown deep enough into the hair
follicle to effectively
target the carbon pigmentinstead of the hair pigment.
And there was other researchtrying to use nanoparticles of gold
thinking that the very tiny particleswould succeed in getting down there,
(14:01):
but it still didn't really workout to be a usable hair removal
system.
So what that means is if you have white
hair or gray hair,
that's not going to workwell for laser hair removal
and we have to look at other strategies.
(14:23):
Gotcha. And then whatabout any peach fuzz?
So that's another importantquestion because a lot of people
have little fuzzy hairson their upper lip or
in front of their earsand their sideburn area,
and those hairs are so fineand they're often very light
(14:45):
that they don't get enough melaninabsorption to be treated by
light-based devices.
So those are hairs you're going to haveto chase with waxing or threading or
sugaring or you go on themedication Vaniqa that I described
before and try to slow downthe growth of those hairs.
(15:05):
Okay. So let's turn to morepractical considerations.
What areas are people treating?
So that's an important consideration.
So the main light-basedtreatment areas are
areas that are also commonly treatedwith waxing and things like that,
areas like mustache areas, chin,
(15:27):
neck and jawline areas andsideburn areas. For ladies,
they don't want to see a lot ofhair in those areas. And as I said,
some ladies have so much hair,
it's like a man's beard andthey're shaving every day
or every other day, and the hairis still a little bit visible.
(15:48):
They really want to tryto get rid of that hair.
And light-based devices area good way to chase that.
There are a lot of bodyareas, the tummy area,
the bikini area, instead of waxing,
you can treat that area currentlywith laser treatments and get the hair
gone from those areas.
(16:10):
And armpit areas are also very commonto either eliminate the hair so you
don't have to shave or justreduce it tremendously so
that shaving becomes avery infrequent event.
And another common areaare our arms and legs.
So ladies love to treat legs sothey don't have to shave their legs.
(16:33):
If they choose to be bare and hairless,
they can get the laser,
get the hair off and not have togo through the recurrent process of
shaving the legs.
That makes sense. Isthis mostly for women?
Well, it's really for everyone.
And men also chase a lot of areas.
(16:56):
So men that are very hairy andbody areas that have a hairy
back or chest or abdomen,
which they or the person they'rewith does not find attractive,
may look to reduce the amount ofhair or sometimes eliminate hair
in those areas. If they havehairy years, which some men have,
(17:17):
particularly as they age, thiscan be another application area,
although not all laserdevices have a delivery
system or applicator that cantarget a small and curvy area like
that. They tend to do betteron big flat open areas.
And then there are othersmall niche areas like hairy
(17:41):
knuckles and hairy toes thatoften men and women find
unattractive and they chase with lasers.
Okay, Dr. Bass, thanks for explaining.
So time to share yourtakeaways with our listeners.
So the main thing is to planenough sessions and start early
enough to be ready for summertimeor whenever you're planning
(18:05):
to show your skin.
That's going to depend on the areayou're treating, how much hair is there,
and how dark and thick the hairsare, and how dark your skin is.
So all skin types can be treated,but if you have darker skin,
we have to use a littlebit lower energies.
(18:26):
We have to use differentwavelengths typically on dark skin,
but we have figured out how totreat even very dark skin patients.
Typically you do a treatment once amonth for three months and then you
do another treatment a few months laterand another treatment a few months after
(18:48):
that to catch any straggler hairs asthey wake up from the resting phase.
But even with that,
there may be some touchups requiredlong-term with these lasers.
So you may come back in six months,
a year or two years and do anothertreatment just if a few hairs
that got missed or skipped or wereresting are now showing themselves.
(19:12):
Even when hair grows back though,it tends to be thinner, finer,
and slower growing.
There are a lot of systemsout there for hair reduction,
but the medical office systemstend to be more powerful
and they also have moresophisticated cooling options.
(19:33):
So some use contact cooling,
some use cryogen cooling where a little,
the laser pulse fires andfive to 20 milliseconds
later a little pulse ofcryogen fires to cool the
skin. Or you can pre-cool theskin with a little cryogen.
You have a lot of control overtiming the cooling compared to the
(19:58):
laser, so the skin is not damaged,
but the hair can be targeted effectively.
For any area with a lot of
hair, this is probably a good candidate
area for treatment with laserand light-based devices.
Thank you Dr. Bass for sharing the insand outs of hair removal technologies.
(20:22):
Definitely good to have these technologiesavailable if you want to go bare.
Thank you for listening to thePark Avenue Plastic Surgery Class
podcast. Follow us on Apple Podcasts,
write a review and sharethe show with your friends.
Be sure to join us next time to avoidmissing all the great content that is
coming your way. If you want tocontact us with comments or questions,
we'd love to hear from you,
(20:43):
send us an email atpodcast@drbass.net or DM us on
Instagram @drbassnyc.
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