With summer and swimsuit season coming up soon, now is the time that people start thinking about their options for hair removal. As an aesthetic laser provider, physician, or medical spa, offering a hair removal treatment may seem like a no-brainer. But it can be challenging to determine whether most of your clients will want laser hair removal or electrolysis and which one offers the best solution for them and your business.
We understand how important the decision of which hair removal equipment to invest in can be. We’ve listed some pros and cons for two popular treatment options to help make the process easier for you as a hair removal specialist.
What is Electrolysis?
Electrolysis is a hair removal option that has been around for nearly 150 years. The purpose of electrolysis is to destroy hair follicles with electricity permanently. This hair removal method has gained approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as the only cosmetic treatment option available for the permanent removal of hair due to its targeting of the hair follicles. Electrolysis can be especially useful for white or blond hair since it doesn’t differentiate pigment types.
The biggest downside of electrolysis is time. Treatments can take hours, and your clients may need to wait several weeks to months to see the results they want. The reason for the lengthy treatment time with electrolysis is that the hair removal specialist must target the client’s unwanted hair one strand at a time. For some areas of the body, such as a man with an overly hairy back, this can mean sitting through an appointment that takes several hours to complete. Not only is this inconvenient for your clients, but it can be extremely taxing and time-consuming for your staff as well.
One last issue to consider with electrolysis is that it can be quite uncomfortable. Treating each individual hair follicle requires repeatedly placing a tiny probe into the client’s skin. The destruction of each hair follicle involves the transmission of electricity through it, which many patients have expressed discomfort.
What is Laser Hair Removal?
Laser hair removal is the newer of the two procedures, receiving FDA approval a few decades back. According to the FDA, laser hair removal is cleared for permanent hair reduction. But don’t get this phrasing wrong, laser hair removal still produces permanent results for the majority of patients.
Permanent hair reduction occurs due to the physical properties present in light connecting with melanin in the hair shafts. This treatment targets hair that is actively growing at the time of the laser therapy. The laser causes thermal damage to hair follicles that make it difficult for them to produce hair again in the future. Unlike electrolysis technology, newer laser hair removal technology like the Asclepion MeDioStar, backed by Astanza, offers contact cooling and an integrated skin cooling system that effectively cools the skin immediately before each treatment pulse, increasing patient comfort for virtually painless treatments.
The FDA labeled laser hair removal as a permanent reduction rather than hair removal because hair can grow back for a small portion of clients when they experience hormonal changes like pregnancy or menopause. When clients do have hair grow back, it is typically lighter, thinner, less dense, and comes in much slower than it did before laser hair removal therapy. Most patients reach up to 90% in permanent hair removal within six to ten sessions per area.
Perhaps the most significant advantage when considering laser hair removal vs. electrolysis is that you can complete a session in just a few minutes. The MeDioStar features the industry’s largest spot size at 10 cm2 and can treat a large back in a record-breaking time of 4 minutes. (Check out our blog on the Best Spot Sizes for the Most Popular Laser Hair Removal Areas.) Think of all the patients you could treat and the profits you could make with laser hair removal in the same amount of time it takes to perform a single electrolysis treatment. Patients will need to return for multiple sessions, but most find that preferable to sitting for many hours in a single electrolysis session.
Discover the Future of Laser Hair Removal
While both electrolysis and hair removal effectively remove hair and provide a successful solution for your patients, it’s essential to determine what fits best for your practice.
To learn more about the advantages of laser hair removal and how to add this profitable procedure to your aesthetic practice, be sure to check out our FREE ebook, Expanding Your Aesthetic Business with Laser Hair Removal. Please don’t hesitate to contact us at Astanza Laser with additional questions about laser hair removal technology.
