It works best for patients with light-colored skin and dark-colored hair.

However, so many advances have been made that we can now also treat patients with darker skin and dark hair as long as there's a contrast.

Prior to your treatment, you do want to shave the area about two days beforehand.

We want little stubble to be present, but not long hairs.

Patients also are given the option of using a topical anesthetic before their treatment.

Now, this is kind of important in some more sensitive areas like the bikini line or the underarms.

The first treatment that you have, you're going to feel the most from the laser.

It's going to feel a little bit like a light rubber band snapping against your skin.

What we're really looking to do is to destroy the hair follicle and this one particular area called the bulge.

That is where new hairs begin from.

The treatment takes usually 10 to 20 minutes.

Two weeks after the treatment, you're going to notice that the hairs start to kind of fall out.

We will do about five treatments separated by about five weeks.

With each successive treatment, you're going to have fewer hairs.

And we have found after five treatments, we've reduced the hair by about 90 or 95 percent.

Immediately following the procedure, you should expect to have a little bit of redness, some warmth, and a little tiny bit of swelling around the hair follicles.

Your dermatologist will oftentimes give you some ice packs and they may give you a corticosteroid cream to put on to calm down that swelling.

They're going to give you some post-treatment instructions which will say things like avoid the sun, don't get a tan in the area, be gentle to the area.

Make sure to voice your questions because we're always happy to answer them for you.

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