How To Prevent Facial Laser Side Effects

I think one of the main worries crossing the mind of anyone who ever thought of laser hair removal, is about the side effects and risks. When thinking of facial hair removal with laser, the side effects will be much more visible, therefore more troubling.

In this post you can read all about the possible laser facial hair removal side effects and some tips who to reduce or prevent some of them. If you plan a laser treatment at a med spa, ask them all the questions, they should answer each and every one of your inquiries, you are going to pay them a lot of money so at least you get the service.

This post is for those who plan to do it at home with a home hair removal system.

It is known that treating the skin with laser may result in some mild side effects. These side effects will occur because the laser creates heat, and the heat not only eliminates the hairs but also can cause skin tissue burns. If these side effects happen on the legs, they can be covered, but having a red swelling on the face can be agonizing. Don’t worry you can take action to prevent and reduce these side effects.

Laser Zapping Pain When Treating The Face

Pain may be the first side effect you will feel when doing laser hair removal. There are couple of things to do to reduce the pains at a facial hair removal session:

1. Use ice packs – The heat of the light zapping causes pain, when cooling the skin the pain is reduced.
2. Use numbing gel – Though the skin should be clean before a laser treatment, rubbing numbing gel and letting it absorb fully may help reduce the pain.
3. Use IPL and not laser – If you plan to do home facial hair removal, buy a IPL system and not laser. The IPL has a soft pulse and is less painful.
4. Use a lower energy level. All home hair removal systems today have an energy range of 1-5. If the zap is painful reduce the level you are using one grade lower.

Preventing Redness and Swelling at Facial Laser Hair Removal

The redness and swelling happen as a side effect from the heat which is produced by the light and melanin reaction. This side effect has no real danger or long lasting risk. It will pass within 24-36 hours. You can try and prevent it by using the tips mentioned above (reducing the pain) and implementing these tips also:

1. Never overlap at a facial laser hair removal treatment. Pulsing or emitting at the same spot over and over again may cause higher chances for skin burns and these side effects. Make sure you pulse.. and move.
2. Use a white pencil to cover facial moles and freckles. Dark skin spots (beauty spots, moles, skin tags, age spots, tattoos..) will attract more light and will cause more heat. In sever cases deep flesh burns may occur!
3. Use only systems which are allowed for facial use. Not any system has clearance to be used for facial hair removal. TRIA Laser is not approved for facial hair removal. These IPL systems are approved: Me my Elos, Viss Beauty, Silk’n SensEpil.
4. Use makeup to cover redness. The redness will pass within a day or two, in the mean while you can hide the red skin with a concealer foundation.

How To Prevent Facial Discoloration By Laser Hair Removal

The most troubling side effect you should be worried about, is permanent skin discoloration. The laser light can cause adverse reaction to the natural body melanin production. This means the body will either over produce melanin causing dark pigment patches (hyper-pigmentation) or cease to produce melanin causing white ‘albino’ patches (hypo-pigmentation).

The tips you will read below are also our recommendation to prevent any chance of ‘cancer’. Laser or IPL will not cause cancer, but exposure to the sun certainly will..

Here are tips to prevent long term side effects during laser facial hair removal:

1. Do not do laser over dark skin. Nearly all home laser or IPL systems can treat skin tones from 1-4 (from pale to olive skin tones). Me my ELOS can treat up to skin tone 5 (African American/brown skin). Using laser or IPL on dark skin by manipulating the skin tone sensor, may end up by skin discoloration.
2. Do not sun tan! Use tanning beds. Tanning means ‘bombarding’ your melanin with light. Pulsing some more light at a facial hair removal session may cause the melanin production to dysfunction.
3. Stay away from the sun AFTER the facial hair removal. The amount of light which gets absorbed by the facial skin is enormous. Exposing the skin to directs light 3 days after the treatment may trigger the melanin cells destruction resulting with permanent side effects.
4. Schedule your sessions to winter time. Doing laser hair removal at mid summer may provoke more chances to permanent side effects.

Preventing Eye Damage During Facial Hair Removal

Most people do not know how harmful a pulse of laser can be to the human eyes. Unlike the small pen laser pointers which have 8 watts, professional home hair removal lasers can have 800 watts! A pulse of laser close to the eyes can cause eye blinking, vision spots, eye burns and blindness.

Here are some tips to avoid eye damage during laser hair removal:

1. Never treat facial hair with laser too close to the eyes! This means NO eyebrow hair removal with laser! this can be done only at a med spa, where another person is preforming this treatment using a precise laser tip tool.
2. Use safety goggles. The only system which has a facial hair removal kit, is the Me my ELOS system. Using eye goggles will prevent any accidental pulse to damage the eye and vision.
3. Buy systems which have a safety skin-touch lock mechanism. Most systems distributed for home use have a build in safety feature which locks the system from pulsing light unless the lamp window is covered by skin. Thus preventing accidental pulsing.

Conclusion

The BEST hair removal device for facial hair removal is the Me my ELOS, it has low energy light pulses and also has a facial hair removal kit, for personal use.

You can buy the Me my ELOS most advanced home hair removal device, with a facial adapter and 120,000 flashes from Amazon.com.

Doing laser hair removal at home, should be a safe and easy procedure. In order to prevent most of the serious side effects you should be careful which hair removal system you purchase. The DM 7000 laser hair removal is distributed as a home device but it is actually a professional system and does not have the necessary safety features needed for personal home use.

UK customers – Get your Me my ELOS Homedics newest home device here through your local Amazon.co.uk