Laser hair removal in Menlo Park

Anyone with unwanted, thick hair which is significantly darker than his or her skin is a good candidate.

While your appointment time will be a little longer, the treatment takes anywhere from 1 to 20 minutes or longer, depending on the area treated.

Modern laser hair removal lasers are much less painful than in the past. Most people say it feels like a rubber band snapping against the skin.

LHR usually has no downtime.

You may notice thinner hair even after the first treatment. It usually takes 4 to 6 weeks for the hair to resprout. The hairs usually become thinner with each treatment.

LHR permanently reduces (shrinks) the hair bulb (root) of the hair it targets. Unless the bulb is hormonally influenced, such as with certain medical conditions such as PCOS, it remains gone or so miniaturized that people never need to worry about it again.

You should repeat treatments precisely every 4 to 6 weeks to have the best chance of affecting the hair bulb. This catches the bulb in the early, active growth phase (anagen), giving superior results. If you treat any sooner or later, you will miss this window of opportunity.

The cost is anywhere from $250 per treatment. Members save 20%.

Preparation for laser hair removal is refraining from sun exposure to the area to be treated, and allowing the hair roots to grow-in (no plucking, tweezing, waxing or threading) for at least two weeks. Also, refrain from self-tanner for at least two weeks before treatment.

Treat skin gently after LHR, as if you had a sunburn. The skin is usually recovered from any redness, tenderness, or swelling within an hour.

IPL stands for Intense Pulsed Light and is not a laser. IPL has multiple wavelengths (non-coherent light). Laser is one wavelength (coherent light). For purposes of hair removal, the diode laser is the gold standard. At Entre Nous Aesthetics, we use the Lumenis Light Sheer diode laser. While IPL can be effective for hair removal, in our experienced hands, we have found that laser is more effective for hair removal.

Light energy from the laser is converted into heat when the laser hits its target. Diode laser targets melanin, which pigments the hair (and why having a tan could burn your skin). When the melanin absorbs the laser light, it destroys the hair follicle. If the follicle is in the early, active (anagen) growth phase, it is more likely to be miniaturized permanently. If the skin is significantly lighter than the hair, the skin is far less affected and laser doesn’t “see” it, so the skin is left unaffected, and only the follicle is destroyed. The thicker the hair, the easier it is for the laser to “see”.

The most popular areas are female underarms, bikini area, lower legs, upper lip, and the male back.

While they may help over time, they are not powerful, require a lot of time, and may be tedious to use. Our laser hair removal treatments are quick and highly effective.

Laser hair removal is much faster. Electrolysis hair removal has been around for a very long time. It involves a needle entering a single hair root, then sending an electrical current through the root to kill it. This requires a significant amount of time because it treats only one hair at a time, whereas laser hair removal treats a large area (up to the size of a quarter or larger) with each pulse. With laser hair removal, man’s entire back can be treated in 15 minutes or less.

If you have a tan, the laser could burn the skin. We will not treat tanned skin.

We recommend hair having fully grown-in before LHR to avoid having to retreat or touch-up later. Generally, the minimum age is 15 years old. However, there are certain special circumstances in which we may treat someone younger if the child is motivated and embarrassed by the hair and LHR would greatly benefit them.