Page 111 - Blog Posts v1

But, at what point after each treatment will 30% of the follicles be back in anagen phase?
The table tells us that the anagen phase typically lasts for 4 months while the telogen phase lasts for 2 months. But of course, the hairs are all ‘out of phase’ with each other. They don’t grow ‘synchronously’!!
So the answer is ‘we don’t really know’! If we wait for 2 months (a full telogen phase cycle), then some of the undamaged follicles will definitely be back in anagen. If we wait for a full anagen phase cycle (4 months), then more follicles will probably be back in anagen phase. But we can’t tell which ones! (Note that none of this applies to ‘dormant’ follicles. There are always some follicles which are not normally active. These might be forced into activity through hormonal changes, pregnancy, trauma or a particularly spicy curry!!)
I suppose the ‘best’ answer is ‘the longer, the better’. But this is not acceptable in the real world when customers want all their hair removed “yesterday”!!!!
So, we need to compromise. My current thinking is that if we leave a full anagen phase cycle between repeat treatments, then we will be able to target many newly growing follicles. (If someone has a better idea, I’d love to hear it!)
This suggests that for armpit hair, we should probably leave a gap of 4 months between sessions, to maximise the treatment effectiveness. However, many clients will not find this acceptable – it’s too long a gap.
The answer here is to compromise with them. Explain the timings in table 1 to your clients and tell them that, in theory, longer gaps between sessions will result in fewer repeat sessions.
However, you can treat them more frequently than the table suggest, but they will inevitably undergo a higher number of sessions. Ultimately, it’s up to them, but at least you’ve given them the option. But the overall time needed to remove all the follicles is still the same (4 sessions, 4 months apart will take 12 months in total from start to finish. 7 sessions at 2 month intervals will also take 12 months!!)
Paradoxical Hypertrichosis
Then there’s this!! Paradoxical Hypertrichosis – when hair appears to grow back more thickly and darker than before. This anomaly appears to be real. There have been reports from many clinics which seems to indicate that new hair growth can appear during treatments.
This is very unpredictable. It doesn’t appear to happen in everyone and it appears to be linked to low fluences. It doesn’t appear to matter which device is used – they can all stimulate this strange phenomenon.
Mike’s Blog Posts 111