Page 87 - Chapter 3 - Laser/IPL Hair Removal

Chapter 3 – Fundamentals of Laser/IPL Hair Removal 2nd Edition
Body Area
Treatment 2 (weeks after first treatment)
4 Any time!
8 4 – 12 12 6–8
Table 18 – After the first treatment session, when is the ‘optimum’ time to treat for the second and third sessions?
Our analysis shows that predicting the ‘best’ time after the second session is very difficult, That is because some anagen follicles will be killed, while others will survive. But it is impossible to know which are which! Consequently, when the next session comes around, some of those anagen follicles which were ‘missed’ previously will be in catagen or telogen, and some will survive the next treatment – perhaps because they are deeper and require a higher fluence than is being administered.
Of course, in the real world, most people will not want to wait 10 or 12 or more weeks between sessions. That’s because people tend to think that a more frequent treatment will generate a faster result.
We are physically restricted by the hair growth cycles, over which we have no control. To achieve the ‘best’ results, we need to wait until the follicles are back in anagen, since that’s the only time we can destroy the stem cells effectively with light and heat.
Applying a treatment too early has no effect if the follicles are in catagen or telogen phase – those treatments will only treat a smaller number of follicles. In fact, our calculations show that there are situations when a treatment will have ZERO effect since none of the follicles will be in anagen phase at the treatment time. This is particularly true for legs, which have long telogen phases!!
In fact, our calculations showed that there can easily be a time when a treatment is completely redundant! There will be virtually no follicles in the anagen phase when they return!! The problem is, that we can never know...
________________________________________________________________________ 87 Chapter 3, Ed. 2.0 Laser/IPL Hair Removal
© The Laser-IPL Guys, 2025
Treatment 3 (weeks after second treatment)
Chin
8
2–4
Upper Lip
Arm Pits
7
6 – 10
Bikini
Arms
Legs & Thighs
8
6–8
It doesn’t!!