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[music] Hello, I’m Dr. Neal Schultz
[pause]
and welcome to DermTV.
Unwanted facial hair is usually more of a problem for women than men. The 2
most common ways of permanently removing unwanted hair, regardless of where
it is on the body, is laser hair removal and electrolysis. And for facial
hair, both of these techniques result in permanent hair removal. But,
there's a lot of differences between them. Today I‘ll explain those
differences and why I believe that in most cases, laser hair removal is
much better. Laser hair removal usually requires 3-6 treatments, spaced
anywhere from four to six weeks apart. At each treatment, the entire area
of unwanted hair is treated. With Laser removal, there's a small amount of
discomfort, and if that is a problem for you, it can be controlled with a
topical anesthetic cream. All hair lasers require that the hair be darker
in color than the surrounding skin. This applies to all skin colors. So,
laser hair removal doesn't work for blonde, white or grey hair. Treatments
are relatively quick, they take five or ten minutes for most facial hair
treatments because dozens of hairs are treated with each laser pulse. And
there are no marks or scars after the treatment. Electrolysis on the other
hand, takes much more time for each treatment, because the electrolysis
needle needs to be inserted into each individual hair. So many more
treatments are needed if there are a lot of unwanted hairs since relatively
fewer hairs can be treated during each treatment. Pain is minimal but on
occasion electrolysis can cause permanent small pitted scars. But...
there's one big advantage to Electrolysis: it can remove any colored
hair... even blonde, white or grey… So, if there are relatively few
unwanted facial hairs, electrolysis can compete effectively with laser hair
removal, but if large areas of hair need treatment, laser hair removal is
the better way to go, as long as the hair isn’t lighter colored than your
skin.