Page 53 - Mike Murphy's Blog Posts

Hair Growth Cycle - Legs
Let's look at the growth cycle for leg hair.
Generally, around 20% of leg hair is in the anagen phase at any one time. This leaves the remaining 80% in catagen and telogen phases - mostly in telogen.
The 'over-lapping' growth phases of leg hair. Click on the above image to download a larger image.
When looking into the 'over-lapping' nature of the growth cycle, it becomes clear that the 'best' time to carry out any light-based treatment - laser or IPL - should be chosen to coincide with the anagen phase of the cycle.
In other words, treatments should be repeated according to the anagen phase of the cycle. For legs, this is every 16 weeks! By doing this you ensure that you have the maximum number of active, anagen, follicles to target. Carrying out treatments before this time is pointless and wasteful. It will result in too many treatments with little gain, and unhappy patients!
How often do you go for a haircut? Most people leave around four to eight weeks between haircuts. Why? Because of the time it takes to 'grow back'! There's no point going any sooner because there won't be enough growth. Well, it's the same for laser/IPL treatments.
Mike’s Blog Posts 53