Hair shedding after laser hair removal is a perfectly normal part of the treatment process. Don’t let the connotation with animal hair put you off what is the best form of permanent hair removal!
While the process may have some cons for certain individuals, at the end of the day there is no better way to eradicate unwanted hair on your body. You can even have laser hair treatment for ingrown hairs if you keep getting painful and irritating ingrown hairs.
Read on for more information specifically on shedding during laser hair removal, or get in touch to book your first course of treatment.
What is shedding after laser hair removal?
Shedding is what happens after you treat the hair on your body with laser hair removal. It means that the treatment is working as the hair is dying and gradually falling out.
When you wax or shave, the hair follicle remains intact and therefore the hair can begin to grow back instantly. During laser hair removal, the light used damages the hair follicles more and more with every treatment until the follicles are destroyed and hair cannot grow back.
Because you are only damaging the hair follicle and not the actual hair strands themselves, the hair will remain until the follicle can no longer support the hair and it will fall out, known as shedding.
When does shedding start after laser hair removal?
Text Hair shedding after laser hair removal begins around 7-14 days after you have treatment and will reoccur with every treatment that you have until your hair is removed at a standard that you are happy with.
Because you will need many laser hair removal appointments before your treatment is finished, you will experience shedding quite a lot until you receive adequate hair loss.
The reason for this is that laser hair removal only targets hair follicles in the anagen (growth) stage. Only a certain number of hairs on your body will be in the anagen phase at a given time, so by attending regular treatments you can increase your chance of repeatedly damaging the most hair follicles and as a result decrease the growth of hair in the future.
How to speed up shedding after laser hair removal
You can speed up hair shedding after laser hair removal by gently exfoliating your skin a couple of times a week following treatment.
By doing this, what you will be doing is ridding your skin of any dead skin cells that may be clogging your pores and causing hair to remain stuck to the skin even though it is detached from the follicle.
The exfoliating action can also apply pressure to hairs that are only just hanging on to their follicle and provide some gentle convincing for it to let go.
Wait until you see the first signs of hair shedding after laser hair removal before beginning to exfoliate. We recommend that you try to do this when in the shower to ease the process and rid your body of unwanted hairs all in one easy, manageable go.
You should also only exfoliate this frequently if you know that you will not damage or irritate your skin. So, for example, if you have quite sensitive skin, then you should exfoliate less and with products suitable for use on sensitive skin.
Start your laser hair removal treatments
If you wish to begin a laser hair removal service then get in touch with our beauty experts at The Beauty Barn Clinic and Spa and we can have a consultation with you to ensure you are suitable for laser hair removal before getting you started with your initial treatment.