By: Dr. Craig Crippen

Lose your hair with Laser hair removal

In this day and age, it pays to be smooth. And you don’t have to take my word for it. Just ask any young adult what his or her opinion of body hair is and you’ll get an earful. Apparently, there is little to no tolerance for hair anywhere on the body except for the head.

Now mind you, that doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily unacceptable. There are certainly a lot of men out there who have chest and arm hair, and yes…hair in their armpits. And although there are men who are now shaving all of those areas, women most definitely have it the hardest.
I can’t tell you how many discussions I’ve had with my friends about threading eyebrows and waxing the bikini area. None of my girls seem to want there to be a strand left anywhere! “Is it just to please the guys?” I wondered. Or is there just something more to it?

For one of my closest friends, hair removal has become quite the expensive process. She doesn’t like to discuss this openly with many people and I can understand why. I mean…what girl wants a moustache? Admittedly, I’ve never seen it at its full length…whatever that is. And I guess I wouldn’t want to.

I just feel sorry for my friend. She doesn’t want to actually shave it, for fear that it would grow back thicker and potentially leave unsightly razor bumps. And waxing is a painful and laborious process. So after our last discussion about it, I asked her if she ever considered getting a laser hair removal procedure.

Laser Hair Removal is a treatment that has become increasingly popular in recent years, as body hair itself has decreased in popularity. With this procedure, lasers heat up unwanted hair follicles so that hair will not grow back again. This, of course, would save my friend a lot of trouble. No more regular bouts with the pain-causing wax strips!

From what I’ve learned, it’s all about heat absorption. When the lasers heat up the hair follicles, it manipulates it in such a way that it can no longer grow hair. Often, this produces immediate results while causing the recipient of the treatment no interruption from any of his or her regular activities.

Usually, more than one treatment is required for full removal of unwanted hair…but it sure beats constant shaving and waxing…especially if you’re female! My friend is looking into getting laser hair removal for a few areas other than her upper lip. The story about those areas however, I’ll keep to myself!