02/03/2020
Good afternoon :)
Every time I try to explain how laser works, how many sessions and why multiple sessions are needed and what to expect after each session etc... I wish I had a cartoon that would really show what I am talking about. I could never find anything useful so ...here it is..my own little over simplified cartoon. It's far from perfect, but I hope it will help some of you understand better what happens each session and what to expect in the long run. This is showing a situation where 90% of anagen hairs are destroyed each session and ~15% of the hair is in anagen phase when the laser treatment is performed. All the little lines represent hair follicles (red = anagen hair; black = catagen/telogen hair). The laser treatment will make hair fall out, regardless of the phase it is in, but it will only permanently halt the growth of hair in the anagen phase (explained in a previous post). So because of this, you will see the most dramatic effects after your first and second sessions. Afterwards, you tend to see only the hair in the anagen phase appearing just before you are scheduled to laser the area again. The percentage of anagen hair is different depending on the area and also differs person to person. The higher the percentage of anagen hair at the time of laser, the less sessions will be needed. The duration for the anagen phase is also dependent on the body area and differs from person to person. Generally it is expected to last at least 4-6 weeks. So it is important to stick as close to the schedule recommended by your laser technician to ensure the hair is targeted during its growth phase. It is also important to continue sessions until you no longer see new growth. If you stop prematurely, you will not lose the results you have already obtained, but you do lose the best time to target the remaining hair, so you will end up doing more sessions if you decide to continue in the future. It will also feel like you have lost progress over time because you allow more new hair growth (compare 42 days after 4th session to 1 year later).
I have also attached an image from one client showing her results for her underarm after her first two treatments. Each one was taken ~4 weeks after the laser treatment. You can see that there is not much hair there, but in both cases, the amount of hair there is similar. This client will likely see a bit less hair after the next session, but will still see some nonetheless. After 6-8 sessions, she will likely see only a few odd hairs and, at this point, she will know she is done :)
Just remember that this is very much a textbook perfect scenario. Some clients may not notice the dramatic difference shown after session 1 until after 2-3 sessions. Some may need 12 sessions to get the results shown after 7. There have been some who see these results after 3 or less sessions if they started with very low density hair. This cartoon is meant to show how the laser works in principle, regardless of the person's conditions.
I'm sure I could have explained this better, but hopefully some of you find it useful. Feel free to ask any questions as usual :)
