A complaint I hear often, and a completely valid one: laser hair removal that seemed to make things worse. It is not a myth, and it is not the patient's fault. It is almost always a mismatch between the laser and the skin.
If the type of laser and its energy are not chosen for your skin type, the thickness of your hair and the kind of hair you have, the result can be the opposite of the one you wanted: increased hair growth rather than reduced, and early whitening of the hair.
The choice is specific. A patient with a fair, beige complexion treated with an alexandrite laser is a poor match; for that skin, an Nd:YAG laser is the right tool. Beyond the machine itself, the energy, the spot size and several other parameters have to be set correctly, and they may need to change from one body area to another on the same patient in the same session.
The takeaway is simple. Trust a qualified person, and a place with the right equipment for the job. The skill is not in owning a laser; it is in choosing and setting the right one for the skin in front of it.
Associate Professor Dr. Lubna Rani Faysal
MBBS (Gold Medalist), FCPS (Dermatology), MHPE · 13 years in dermatology
