What to Know Before Starting Laser Hair Removal
After a summer of shaving your body hair to be beach ready, you must be over it by now. Laser hair removal seems like a heavenly option in comparison to shaving every other day. That’s because it really is! Instead of spending your time worrying about your body hair, you can be rockin’ your bikini and getting some sun! But before you start your treatments, it’s important to know what happens afterwards. Laser hair removal aftercare is just as important as the treatment itself!
Rules to Play By
- Keep it Cool: Your skin will feel hot and uncomfortable for a few hours after the treatment. That’s totally normal and will fade. To make things feel a little better, use ice packs, cool towels, or aloe vera cream/gel on your treated areas. This will alleviate discomfort, and will even speed up the healing process!
- Lather Up: You’ll want to avoid extended UV exposure for the next 7 days after your laser hair removal. When you do feel comfortable being in the sun again, make sure to apply sunscreen! Stick with full spectrum SPF 30+ sunscreen to make sure you have the best protection. Bonus side effect: using sunscreen will stop you from tanning your skin, which means that your laser treatments will be more effective!
- Stay Out of the Heat: Make sure that in the next few days after your treatment you are staying away from excess heat. Hot baths, showers, tanning beds, and hot tubs will irritate your skin and could even have adverse effects! You definitely don’t want that.
- Scrub-a-dub-dub: A few days after your treatment, you’ll notice what looks like little blackheads in the treated area. This is not hair that’s starting to grow again! These are dead hairs falling out of the follicles, which means your treatment is working. To help these dead hairs move along, you’ll want to lightly exfoliate your skin. Using a loofah or an exfoliating body wash is your best bet. Stay away from rougher sugar scrubs because your skin is still sensitive!
Laser hair removal is a long process, and treatments can do some weird things to your skin! We want you to be prepared so that you can get the most out of your treatment. Doctor Grayman and her team are professionals and can answer any questions you have about hair removal treatments. Give our offices a call or schedule an appointment to come in and talk to our team about what is best for your skin!