Durban - Most of the women I know have run the hair-removal gauntlet.
They begin in their teens with waxing. Hot wax is applied to the skin, a strip of cloth covers it, the wax sets and the strip, pulled back, takes the hair (roots and all) with it.
Wax can be used anywhere on the body. It’s less crude than shaving as skin stays smoother for longer, and the regrowth is finer. There is also the promise that with time you won’t need to wax “at all, ever”.
It isn’t long before good intentions wax and wane.
You’re fed up with waiting for the hair to grow back before going in for your next treatment. You’re fed up with going for your next treatment, and, frankly, the ripping pain is something you could do without.
And beware that trying this at home can be messy.
If you’re a wimp like me, you won’t pull the strip back fast or aggressively enough to get the hair, and you’ll be left with sticky wax on your skin. Because the follicles are left open in this process, there is also the chance of infection.
If you live in Durban, surrounded by the Indian community, you would’ve heard of threading – a method of hair removal that involves twine, which plucks hair at a much faster pace than with tweezers, and with less pain.
Done correctly, it is not as painful as waxing, but then again this depends on where you’re removing hair from. For eyebrows it’s great, but larger areas like legs need their own solution.
Enter smelly creams, and before long the trusty old shaving machine. Neither method attacks the hairs’ roots, but then again neither is painful and you can do them at home. The results are oh so short-lived.
While it goes without saying that all the methods above have come a long way, with many advancements that make the process more comfortable, if you’ve tried them, chances are you know what ingrown hair is.
You’ve only vaguely heard of electrolysis. It has been around for ever – and somehow managed to garner a bad reputation despite claims that it’s permanent – and the word needle (plus the price tag) means you’re not about to try it.
Which is perhaps why, like so many women these days, you’re intrigued by laser hair removal.
Every salon is advertising it, and the prospect of virtually no regrowth after six to eight treatments is enticing.
I tried out two types of laser treatments, which looked similar but were actually different technologies.
Think of the number of razors you see on the shelves at your local supermarket – they’re not all the same, they don’t all give you the same result... the lasers available in South Africa are just like this.
The risks are considerably higher. Horror stories of burns and permanent discolouration abound on the internet.
In America hair-removal lasers are classified as prescription devices and can be sold only to physicians, dentists and other “licensed practitioners”, including nurses and aestheticians (technically, these are people who do facials, tweezing and the like).
The rule of thumb is clearly to go to a reputable clinic or salon. The next step is to know a bit about lasers.
The first place I went to was Skinsation, in Musgrave and Overport, and the therapist used The Apogee Elite Laser Machine from Cynosure.
The machine has a built-in cooling system, so the hand-held device ices your skin before it attacks the hair follicle. Clients are asked to shave the area the night before.
What happens is the laser light is attracted to the dark pigment in the hair called melanin. The energy from the laser travels down to the base of the hair follicle using melanin as a “conductor” where it disperses as thermal energy. This damages the base of the hair follicle, rendering it unable to produce hair as quickly.
This particular machine is also used to treat spider veins and for sun spot removal.
The therapist advises that as melanin is needed for the treatment to be effective, they do not perform laser hair removal on blonde, white or grey hair.
It feels like a pin prick, probably similar to getting a tattoo.
Underarms are done in a matter of seconds. There is the smell of burning hair.
The hair grows back in a few days and falls off. It takes for ever to grow back, which is wonderful. Treatments are more than four weeks apart. After about eight treatments, there is only minimal growth, but you cannot completely stop treatments, only widen the gap between them.
At Umhlanga Laser & Aesthetic Clinic on Umhlanga Ridge the therapist used the Palomar’s intense pulsed light (IPL) system.
Like the laser this technology delivers specific wavelengths, with large spot sizes.
At this clinic they do work on clients of all skin types, hair colours and hair thickness.
Both treatments were conducted in a similar manner, but IPL and laser are not the same thing.
A laser is an intensely concentrated beam of light. The energy is extremely focused. IPL energy is produced by a lamp, a little like a light bulb, and produces a variety of light waves.
Although most websites say laser is more effective, I got the same results and the IPL was cheaper. To a large extent, how new the technology is, and what the machine costs, can help give you an indication of how good it’s going to be.
Would I do it again? Absolutely.
I was fortunate to have two incredible therapists. Both treatments were brisk and both results long-lasting. Various areas of the body are different and we each have our own threshold for pain – I found the bikini area far more painful than the underarm.
WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR
* Laser hair removal has only recently become popular in South Africa – so it’s worth researching what has happened abroad.
* Aim for the latest approved technology from a well-qualified source and experienced therapist.
* Ask whether the laser is appropriate for your skin type, hair colour and complexion as well as the area you want treated.
* Ask to have a test patch done, especially if you have a tendency towards keloids or are diabetic.
* Never allow a laser to be used on your eyebrow or near your eye.
* Lasers may cause scarring, so make sure you’re going to a reputable facility, owned by a medical doctor or where there is one present at all times.
* Ask if your therapist is trained and has removed hair from that particular area before.
The preliminary results of a study at the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery suggest that the plume emitted during treatment releases potentially harmful toxins – such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and diethyl phthalate – into the air.
Right now the biggest risk is potentially to the practitioners who perform these procedures and it is advised that they wear masks. - The Mercury
* Follow me @omeshnie