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Hair
Cycle
Our hair starts, grows and dies according to a cycle that
depends on the body area where it’s located. Laser is not the first
permanent hair removal technique that arrived on earth. The first was
electrolysis or electric needle. So for more than three decades the
electrolysis specialists have studied the hair cycle and came to some
key conclusions and analyses.
Among all hair cycle phases, only one will let us kill the
hair permanently. The Anagen phase. It’s the growing phase where the
hair is not only appearing at the edge of the skin at the top of the
hair shaft (made of the same skin as the one we have outside our body)
but, at its bottom, it is ended by a large follicle in which little
blood vessels arrive, and skin is attached to. This follicle, during
the anagen phase, harbors a dermis papilla, also called a “hair
factory”. If heat comes down the hair to that follicle, it will
destroy the dermis papilla or hair factory and no more hair will grow
at the bottom of that shaft. Once the growing phase is fininshed, the
follicle becomes a bulb no longer attached to anything.
During all the other phases, the follicle has died and was
let go from all the little blood vessels and the skin. The hair, now
dead, ended by a bulb, is being slowly expulsed from its shaft. Heat
coming down these hairs will not destroy and dermis papilla. Why?
Because there is no contact between the bulb of an old hair and an
eventual new hair being produced down, under that shaft at the papilla
level. That dying hair will in fact burn and be expulsed but a new
hair will come anyway some weeks or months later. That’s why we need
more than one session to come to a definitive result and often on a
long period of time depending on where the hair is located. The
overall length of the hair cycle will define the length of your
treatment.
During your initial free consultation your laser physician
will explain in detail your treatment protocol according to the hair
cycles of the areas you want to treat. He/she will tell you how long
each interval between session will last defined by the anagen phase
duration on these areas.
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1)
Phase
Growing Phase, called Anagen phase lasts from a few weeks on a
chin to several months on a bikini or on underarms. The amount of
hair in that phase depends on the body area where it’s located.
About 30% on bikini for example. That’s why we need several
sessions to get rid of hair permanently there.
It is during that phase that the hair is the most sensitive to
laser treatment.
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2)
Dying or Regression Phase (catagen), with a duration varying
according to the hair location. Laser will burn this hair but it
yields no permanent destruction since the « hair factory » has not
been hit. |
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3)
Resting Phase (telogen phase), with a duration varying according
to the hair location. At the end of that phase the old hair is
expulsed and falls off. A new hair is being produced underneath
and soon a new hair cycle will begin. |
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