Laser/IPL Hair Removal techniques - how to apply them correctly

Hello there. Today I'm going to talk about the various techniques which can be used in laser and IPL hair removal.

A very popular technique used around the world today is known as SHR, which stands for super hair removal.

This is also known as gliding or in motion or dynamic technique. And what happens here is the IPL or the laser head is essentially scanned across an area to try to kill the hair follicles.

Now, the correct way to do this is to treat a relatively small area, in this case, we're using a 10 by 10 cm area with a relatively low fluence.

Here we're using an IPL system at 15 joules per square centimeter.

Fairly short pulses at 10 milliseconds, but with a relatively high repetition rate of 10 Hz or 10 shots per second.

And the idea of this is that you pass over the same region of skin maybe 7, 8, 9, 10 times, something like that, so that the heat energy accumulates in that area.

If the, uh, if the heat doesn't accumulate, then the temperature will not get sufficiently high to kill the follicles.

So you must repeat this, um, several times, obviously, across different parts of the body, and then once you've, um, completed the area, put on an ice pack to, uh, to cool the area to remove all the excess heat energy.

Uh, because using this technique, we do apply way more energy than is actually needed to kill hair follicles.

The other popular technique is the stamping or static technique, where we just fire one shot at each individual area at a time.

So here we're using, uh, again, IPL at 35 joules per square centimeter in a 30 millisecond pulse.

But now we're only firing one shot, so it's a relatively slow process.

But the idea is that we generate sufficient temperatures to kill the germ cells in one go.

This, um, this can be quite painful if there isn't sufficient cooling, so you have to make sure that you do pre-cool the area for a few minutes.

And then, as you can see here, you put the ice pack straight back on after the treatment.

There's always too much energy swimming about in the dermis, um, with these all techniques, all laser and IPL techniques.

The, the hairs don't absorb that much energy.

Most of it is actually, um, absorbed in the, uh, in the dermis somewhere.

So do, do cool properly before and after each session.

And then, just for completeness, this is how the SHR technique should not be applied.

And yet, I see this online and in videos and in social media posts all the time.

Uh, people are, are basically scanning the, the area, legs or backs or arms with a fairly wide sweeping, um, scans.

Which basically means that the area that you're treating is just too large, and that means that by the time the, the handpiece tip has returned to the original area.

Most of the heat energy will have flowed into the surrounding tissues, so you'll not achieve, um, sufficiently high temperatures.

Um, I also see quite often, uh, people are not, uh, or don't appear to be post-cooling either.

So, quite frankly, if, if you're doing this with your diode laser or your IPL or any other type of equipment.

Um, you're not going to achieve very good results.

Simply because you're not going to get the temperatures that you need.

So, uh, I, I advise against this particular approach.

So the reality is that both techniques will actually work very well, but only if they're applied correctly.

The, the gliding in motion dynamic SHR technique only works properly if you limit the area to a relatively small size.

I, I recommend about 10 by 10 cm square.

And then that way, you will achieve the temperatures required to kill the germ cells.

With the stamping technique, um, you must ensure you do not overlap the spots because the fluences are so high that you could easily, uh, over-treat the areas where you do overlap.

So make sure you, you, you position the, the shots side by side, but not overlapping.

In both cases, I highly recommend pre-cooling the skin for a few minutes with, uh, nice cold ice packs.

Um, that way you will reduce any, uh, well, minimize the, the possibility of damaging the epidermis and reduce the pain significantly.

You can try it on yourself if you don't believe me.

Um, and then likewise, apply ice packs after the treatments to get rid of all the excess energy.

In reality, the, the hairs only absorb less than 10% of the light energy that we fire at the, at the skin.

So most of the energy is not doing the job that we want.

You must keep this in mind always.

I hope this helps to clarify the, the differences between these techniques.

Um, I do often see people doing this kind of thing wrongly online.

So, um, hopefully, uh, you'll, you will achieve better results, um, if you do adopt these, uh, approaches.

Um, we have more stuff, uh, on our blog or on our YouTube channel.

If you go there and have a look, um, today is, uh, Robbie Burns Day, so I'm off to drink some whiskey and eat some haggis and dance about some swords or whatever it is I'm supposed to be doing.

Okay, thank you.

Bye.