Laser hair removal is a great way to remove unwanted hair. It can also be used to reduce the thickness of your existing hair. The process of laser hair removal is easy and painless, with no recovery time required.
You may want to consider laser hair removal for baby hair if you have trouble getting rid of stubble or if the hair grows back too quickly. If you’re interested in learning more about laser hair removal for baby hair, keep reading!
How Much Is Laser Hair Removal For Baby Hair
If you’re not happy with shaving, tweezing, or waxing to remove unwanted hair, laser hair removal may be an option worth considering.
Laser hair removal is one of the most commonly done cosmetic procedures in the U.S. It beams highly concentrated light into hair follicles. Pigment in the follicles absorb the light. That destroys the hair.
Benefits of Laser Hair Removal
Lasers are useful for removing unwanted hair from the face, leg, chin, back, arm, underarm, bikini line, and other areas.
Benefits of laser hair removal include:
Precision. Lasers can selectively target dark, coarse hairs while leaving the surrounding skin undamaged.
Speed. Each pulse of the laser takes a fraction of a second and can treat many hairs at the same time. The laser can treat an area approximately the size of a quarter every second. Small areas such as the upper lip can be treated in less than a minute, and large areas, such as the back or legs, may take up to an hour.
Predictability. Most patients have permanent hair loss after an average of three to seven sessions.
How to Prepare for Laser Hair Removal
Laser hair removal is more than just ”zapping” unwanted hair. It is a medical procedure that requires training to perform and carries potential risks. Before getting laser hair removal, you should thoroughly check the credentials of the doctor or technician performing the procedure.
If you are planning on undergoing laser hair removal, you should limit plucking, waxing, and electrolysis for six weeks before treatment. That’s because the laser targets the hairs’ roots, which are temporarily removed by waxing or plucking.
You should also avoid sun exposure for six weeks before and after treatment. Sun exposure makes laser hair removal less effective and makes complications after treatment more likely.
What to Expect During Laser Hair Removal
Just before the procedure, your hair that will be undergoing treatment will be trimmed to a few millimeters above the skin surface. Usually topical numbing medicine is applied 20- 30 minutes before the laser procedure, to help with the sting of the laser pulses.The laser equipment will be adjusted according to the color, thickness, and location of your hair being treated as well as your skin color.
Depending on the laser or light source used, you and the technician will need to wear appropriate eye protection. It will also be necessary to protect the outer layers of your skin with a cold gel or special cooling device. This will help the laser light penetrate the skin.
Next, the technician will give a pulse of light to the treatment area and watch the area for several minutes to make sure the best settings were used and to check for bad reactions.
When the procedure is completed, you may be given ice packs, anti-inflammatory creams or lotions, or cold water to ease any discomfort. You may schedule your next treatment four to six weeks later. You’ll get treatments until hair stops growing.
Recovery and Risks
For a day or two afterward, the treated area of your skin will look and feel like it’s sunburned. Cool compresses and moisturizers may help. If your face was treated, you can wear makeup the next day unless your skin is blistering.
Over the next month, your treated hair will fall out. Wear sunscreen for the following month to help prevent temporary changes in the color of the treated skin.
Blisters are rare but are more likely in people with darker complexions. Other potential side effects are swelling, redness, and scarring. Permanent scarring or changes in skin color are rare.
Costs of Laser Hair Removal
According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the average cost for laser hair removal was $389 per session in 2020. The cost varies widely, depending on factors that include:
- Size of the area being treated and time required for treatment
- Number of treatments required
- Whether a doctor or someone else is performing the procedure
- The part of the country where you are having the procedure
Ask for a consultation to get a better idea of the cost for your particular case.
How To Get Rid of Baby Hairs
“Baby hairs” are the thin, wispy hairs that sometimes grow around your hairline. Also called “peach fuzz” or “vellus,” these hairs have a much different texture than the hair around the rest of your head.
This difference in texture often means that these hairs are hard to style, and they don’t lay flat. Baby hairs sometimes cause cowlicks, which are sections of hair that stick up and away from your head
Despite their name, baby hairs often stay with you past adolescence and late into adulthood.
Keep reading to better understand baby hairs as it relates to:
- why they happen
- how to style them
- how to finally get rid of them if they’re driving you nuts
Where are they?
Baby hairs are a type of vellus hair. This type of hair occurs all over your body, including your chest, arms, and legs. It tends to be softer and lighter than the “terminal hair” that grows out of your head.
Vellus hair that sprouts around your temples, your forehead, right above your ears and at the nape of your neck is what people typically mean when they talk about “baby hairs.”
Vellus that’s right next to your terminal hair creates an irregular hairline. It can also make styling your hair challenging, as these hairs tend to be somewhat resistant to a blow-dryer or straightening iron.
Since baby hairs are short and fine, they also have less weight than the rest of your hair, which makes it even more challenging.
Why do we have them?
Baby hairs grow in during your childhood. They’re meant to serve a purpose, including:
- protecting your skin from irritation
- wicking away sweat
- keeping your body warm
Vellus that grows on the rest of your body may not be as irritating as baby hairs.
But patches of vellus that grows right next to your terminal hair tends to really stand out. It can usually appear as a different texture and lighter color from the rest of your hair.
Tips for styling baby hairs
You can learn to live with your baby hairs by adopting styling strategies to make them work for you. You may also want to consider removing your baby hairs.
Here are some styling tips you can try:
- Go with the grain. If you’re trying to style your baby hairs, try to work with the direction that they grow instead of styling them to lie flat in another direction.
- You can use a small amount of hair gel, mouse, or even water teamed with a small, round barrel brush to bring hairs forward and comb them down.
- Create small ringlets that frame your face or gel baby hairs down so that they form a subtle crown around your hairline.
- Using bobby pins, try to twist small sections of your hair over your baby hairs to create a style that makes them less noticeable.
- If you’re aiming for a pin-straight hairstyle, style your baby hairs separately, using a small, round brush. You don’t want to dry or burn your baby hairs with too much heat from a straightener or curling iron. But you may be able to tame them carefully with some patience and your blow-dryer set on cool or low.
- If your hair is curly or porous, you may be able to create length in your baby hairs by using a fine-toothed comb to pull them down and together. Using your fingers and some hair product, you may be able to create curls that look more intentional instead of small ones that stick up or look bumpy under the rest of your hair.
- When you braid or plait your hair, don’t try to incorporate baby hairs. Pat them down and comb them out into a style of their own.
Removing baby hairs
If you’re not able to style your baby hairs and just can’t stand having them anymore, you may want to consider removing them.
Waxing is one option, but when you’re working with hair on your forehead and nape of the neck, it can be hard to get a result that lasts and looks even.
Laser hair removal for your baby hair is another option. This will remove baby hair, changing the way your hairline appears permanently.
However, laser hair removal will only get rid of some of your baby hairs. Other baby hairs that are shorter, lighter, and finer may grow in to take their place.
Laser hair removal works best if you have dark hair and light skin, according to the American Academy of Dermatologists.
The bottom line
Baby hairs can be a source of irritation, but they do serve a function.
People who have a perfectly symmetrical hairline like you see in magazines are most likely the result of photo editing. For most of us, baby hairs are a part of life.
Learning to adapt to your baby hairs by making them part of your signature hairstyle is one way to rock what you’ve got. Another option is baby hair removal, which can have varying results.