Page 151 - Chapter 3 - An Introduction to Laser/IPL Hair Removal

Chapter 3 – Fundamentals of Laser/IPL Hair Removal 1st Edition
Deeper follicles missed – insufficient fluence
Fluence drops rapidly with depth so deeper follicles need higher incident fluences to ensure proper cooking. This applies, particularly, to regions such as the under arms and pubic areas where follicles can be as deep as 5 mm.
Insufficient skin surface cooling
This will make the process much more painful and possibly lead to long term skin damage, including scarring, blistering, skin colour changes etc.
Using a good level of cooling will make a big difference. Remember, it’s actually quite difficult to ‘over cool’ the skin’ (unless you are using a very cold method which takes the temperature to well below zero!)
Poor patient/client selection
If your patient/client has very dark skin then the risk of skin damage is much greater compared with a pale skinned person. This is simply because melanin absorbs visible very strongly. Only the Nd:YAG laser at 1064nm is considered to be ‘safe’ to use on black skin i.e. a low risk of damage.
Likewise, if the hair is too light-coloured it will not have enough melanin in it for a sufficient absorption of light energy. A light- coloured hair is equivalent to a thin hair – both have low quantities of melanin, which is the main light absorber.
Ultimately, it comes down to fluence! In the majority of cases, insufficient fluence is the leading cause of poor results. A small increase in fluence will induce a larger rise in temperature in the hair shaft and germ cells. This rise in temperature will keep those cells at a higher temperature for a longer time, and hence, will be more likely to cook the irreversibly.
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