While it has often been stated that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, for women there are not many more troubling conditions from a beauty perspective than the presence of facial hair. Attractiveness is largely driven by facial beauty, and is independent of ethnic extraction [4]. Several studies have demonstrated that the presence […]

Pete Styczynski1, John Oblong1, and Gurpreet S. Ahluwalia2 1 The Procter and Gamble Company, Cincinnati, OH, USA 2The Gillette Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of The P&G Company, Needham, MA, USA 5.1 Introduction 158 5.2 Overall Contribution of Facial Hair to the Perception of Beauty 158 5.3 Survey of Facial Hair Removal/Management Methods 160 5.3.1 […]

Many different light-based systems can successfully remove unwanted hair. The major­ity of laser and light-based systems used today appear to be equivalent in efficacy. The decision of which system to use is likely to be based largely on practitioner experience with a particular system and also on patient population treated. (Nd:YAG lasers are preferred by […]

A more different problem is the laser and light-based removal of nonpigmented hair. Since laser hair removal of unwanted hair is based on melanin absorption, blonde, and white hair have proved to be very difficult to treat. A variety of methods have been utilized with less impressive results than are seen with the removal of […]

Nonlaser induced selective photothermolysis can also be used for hair removal and has been utilized with a filtered flashlamp intense pulsed light (IPL) sources. The IPL technol­ogy emits a broad spectrum of light that is filtered to allow release of varying emitted wavelengths of light. Cutoff fillers are utilized to select either shorter or longer […]

Bencini et al. were the first to evaluate hair removal efficacy with a long-pulsed millisec­ond Nd: YAG laser [28]. Such a system theoretically combines the pigmentation safety of a near-infrared laser with the photothermal benefits of millisecond pulsed technology. They studied 208 subjects who were treated during an 11-month period at multiple different areas. The […]

Diode lasers emit monochromatic laser light at a wavelength of 800 nm or 810nm [19-21]. Dierickx evaluated the effectiveness and safety of an 810 nm pulsed diode laser for the permanent reduction of unwanted hair. He studied 95 subjects composed mainly of Fitzpatrick II-III skin phenotypes and those with brown or black hair. Subjects were […]

5.2.1 Alexandrite Laser (Fig. 5.1) A multitude of lasers and light sources have been shown to be effective for laser hair removal. The first effective light-based systems were 694 nm ruby lasers. Although highly effective for the removal of pigmented hairs on light-skinned individuals, such systems are now rarely used. Today most light-based hair removal […]

5.1 Introduction Over the years, numerous laser and light-based devices have been developed to effec­tively remove unwanted hair. These innovations have been based on applying principles of laser physics to selectively targeted hair follicles. As our understanding of hair biology has grown and laser technology has advanced, various different light-based sources have become increasingly effective […]