Tag: laser

Laser hair removal. What’s it all about and how can you help it be successful?

Laser hair removal can be a magical thing. We take a laser with a specific beam link to specifically target the juicy root bulb of the hair follicle in it’s active phase and voila! Hair falls out and stays gone! I’m talking permanently gone! It beats a lifetime of painful waxing in my book any day.

So, as I mentioned, laser hair removal is effective when it targets the juicy root bulb of the hair follicle when it’s in its active phase of growth. Well how often is that? For all hair from the waist up, it is about every four weeks. With all hair below the waist, it is about every eight weeks. About how many sessions does it take, depending on the hairiness of the patient, to remove it completely and permanently? It takes an average of six of those monthly or bi-monthly session per body part. It is not a one and done scenario so if you are expecting that, you will be disappointed. Now if you are hairy like a bear or wolf, it may require more. The laser can only do so much

How do you increase the success and decrease the discomfort of your hair removal sessions? First, come on time at the proper intervals. Second, have yourself shaved to the point that there is only a few mm of hair sticking up above the skin surface. Third, have you skin absolutely bare with no lotions, potions, or tanners or cleansers. If there are any substances on your skin, it can confuse or worse, intensify the beam and you will get burned. This is why it’s important to read all those papers and follow the instructions.

I would also advise that you get an actual consult with a test spot before you pay for laser hair removal. This way you can get a small spot treatment with the laser, observe for 24 hours and make sure there is no skin reaction and that the settings picked are appropriate.

Lastly, not every laser can treat every skin type. All lasers are not created equal. Skin types 1 thru 3 and Asian skin type 4 require a shorter Alex beam. Darker Hispanic, Indian, and African American skin types are type 5 and 6 and require the longer Yag beam. Without using the proper beam, the laser could get confused between the patient’s skin pigment and the pigment of the hair. Then, skin damage or burning could occur.

Hope this clears things up. Here’s to being hair free!

Dr. Katz

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

As you may or may not know, I am an ObGyn who also practices aesthetic medicine. We perform all kinds of procedures that tighten, get rid of fat, get rid of hair, tone, fill, contract muscles, etc. We like to post pictures of results to celebrate a patient’s success. Invariably, it seems that someone has to comment negatively that the procedures are not necessary or that they didn’t work or that the patient did not need them. I am never sure what the intent is of doing this? Is it telling the patient that they were not worth investing in themselves? Is it undermining their confidence? Is it telling them that they should not invest in their own sense of beauty? Or are they just trying to interfere with our business and our services? In any case, none of these reasons are healthy or positive and I really wish that people would refrain. All they are doing is causing potential hurt to the patient. I am just not sure that they understand that.

So, let’s talk a little bit about beauty. What does the word beauty mean? What does it mean to feel beautiful? The Oxford dictionary defines beauty as a combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight. It also describes beauty as a combination of qualities that pleases the intellect or moral sense. And finally, it states that beauty denotes something intended to make a woman more attractive.

I think that it is truly difficult to define beauty because it has both subjective and objective counterparts. The concept of beauty as a property of something is the objective part, but it also depends on the emotional response of the observer, whether it is the person themselves or an outside observer. You see, it’s both.

So, who is to say what is beautiful and what isn’t? I suppose that we all think of certain qualities that are essential to all beautiful things like proper proportion, harmony, radiance, pleasure, and value. But, even these qualities can be subjective. There are no absolute measurements for any of them. It’s similar to that one saying that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure . What is beautiful to one person may not be beautiful to someone else. It is ultimately up to the individual to decide. This also applies to someone’s decision to invest in themselves to feel more beautiful. So, the next time you think about making a negative comment, please don’t. All you are doing is hurting the patient’s feelings. Nothing more.

Dr. Katz