Does Laser Hair Removal Work on Red Hair

Laser hair removal has long been considered to be ineffective on red hair. But with the advances in laser technology over the past couple of years, is this still the case? The facts are considered here.

There is no doubt that some laser hair removal clinics are claiming to be effectively treating red, blond and grey hair, long considered unsuitable for laser hair removal. To understand this resistance by these hair colours to laser treatment, you will need an understanding of how laser hair removal works.

Laser hair removal works by targeting the melanin in the hair. Melanin is the pigment in the hair shaft. Once the laser has locked onto the pigment, the laser heats the hair up to a temperature which destroys the hair follicle the hair is growing from, making the follicle incapable of growing more hair. Problem is, lasers have difficulty in 'seeing' certain pigments, red being the chief one amongst them. If there is no colour in the hair - as in the case of white or very blond hair, again the laser can't see the hair. Grey is another difficult colour for the laser to see. The truth is, there may have been refinements in laser technology, but the core nature of the laser remains the same, no matter what wavelength has been tried.

Colouring the hair so the laser has a target has also proven to be ineffective. This is because the hair dye cannot reach right into the root of the hair, where it would be effective. The other problem is hair dye colours the outside of the hair, natural hair pigment is within the hair.

One of the results some laser technicians have noted over the years when performing laser hair removal is the clearance of darker hair from an area, only to leave red hair behind. This is not because the laser changed the colour of the target hair from brown to red; it is because there was red hair mixed in with the brown hair to start with. This only became noticeable when the brown hair responded to treatment and disappeared, but the red, resistant hair remained.

To get around the problem of treating red hair, some clinics are offering hair removal by using a combination of laser and radio waves. This two-pronged approach is claimed to better target the melanin in the hair shaft, and also to work directly on the follicle itself.

While this advancement is very welcome to many people, the cost of this combination treatment will often be higher than for regular removal of hair by laser. This is because far more treatments are needed than average to effectively target all hair in an area. Naturally, cost will also depend on the size of the area being treated. Talk to your laser clinic about how many treatments you will need, and what the estimated cost for this will be.