Does Laser Hair Removal Cause Cancer?
The short answer: it remains unclear.
Overview
Whether laser hair removal cancer is real is a myth among members of the beauty community. Since the 1970s, numerous tests and researches had been conducted by scientists and doctors. And yet, their conclusions remain uncertain due to the fact that applications of medical lasers simply do not have enough field data to be thoroughly researched.
The advancement and application of light and lasers for clinical treatment and commercial operation has expanded dramatically over the previous decade. As a result, the number of skin cancer incidents reported by patients after receiving laser or intense pulsed light (IPL) treatment has increased as well.
Long-term risks of laser hair removal
The current research materials were gathered over the course of more than 25 years of laser and IPL applications to date. Researchers have not found evidence in regards to risks related to long-term safety issue, except for a couple of incidents of melanoma post laser treatment in more than twenty years. As a result, there is no proof to conclude that there is an actual risk of skin cancer.
Despite the fact that laser and IPL application has not been related directly to the development of skin cancer, this does not imply that laser and IPL treatments are free of long-term risk. Light treatments and lasers to cure existing injuries and carbon dioxide laser reemerging can be a safeguard measure against the development of basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. This is because carbon dioxide laser is able to eliminate damaged keratinocytes, which is the type of cell that forms the main structure of hair.
With all things considered, a third degree burn, due to misuse, equipment failure, or human error, is likely to be the worst case scenario of laser and IPL incident. After continuously study on medical records collected over more than two decades, patients who suffered burn from lasers or IPL devices are more likely to develop skin cancer in the future, according to a research article published on Lasers in Medical Science in 2017.
Now let us talk about physics.
How laser hair removal works
Laser focused light of a specific wavelength. In order to explain how laser hair removal works, we need to introduce a physical concept called "thermal destruction". Laser beams are a form of highly concentrated thermal energy. Which are capable of targeting and destroying specific types of melanin, or pigment molecules, inside hair follicles under the skin.
Commonly used types of lasers for hair removal include ruby, alexandrite, and diode. These lasers yield the best results on light-skinned and dark-haired candidates. Then there are the Nd:YAG lasers (created by a kind of garnet crystal) that are capable of treating darker-toned skin on African-Americans.
Continue reading: Laser Hair Removal at Home - The Ultimate GuideThe difference between lasers and IPL
Even though both lasers and intensive pulsed light (IPL) are widely used in cosmetic dermatology, many people cannot tell the difference. The first thing we should clarify is that IPL is not another type of laser. A laser beam is created by focusing light of one single wavelength. Whereas IPL is created with a broad-spectrum of light with more than one wavelengths, and thus is scattered and weaker.
The key difference between laser and IPL is their different depths of penetration beneath the skin. Generally speaking, lasers are ideal for hair removal because they can penetrate deeper down the skin to reach active hair follicles. In contrast, IPL technology is more effective for treating skin problems because it can target on the red blood cells found in superficial broken capillaries.
A large number of those considering laser hair removal medicines realize they would not have any desire to develop their hair out anytime during the cycle, and remain as smooth as could expected. Developing the hair out would a major burden to numerous and totally impossible to other people. For this reason numerous imminent customers puzzle over whether they can shave or wax preceding and between laser removal meetings.
Each specialist may have their own perspective with respect to different client requests; that as it may, the solution to the inquiry on whether to shave or wax before treatment is steady. Also that answer is to consistently shave and never wax, and there is an awesome clarification why.
Why laser hair removal works
During a run of the mill meeting, the laser energy will drawn to the melanin (shading) in the hair follicle, and send hotness to obliterate it. Waxing eliminates the follicle from the root, and with no follicle to retain the laser energy, the whole interaction becomes wasteful. The laser needs to have a "focus," for this situation being the hair. The laser separates the more obscure hair from the encompassing skin and targets it. Assuming that the hair is eliminated from the root, there isn't anything for the laser to "target."
Waxing promptly before a laser meeting totally conflicts with the study of laser hair removal. Be that as it may, the individuals who demand just waxing should do as such around a month before the primary meeting to permit the hair to develop back. In the middle of meetings it is feasible to wax as long as the hair has the opportunity to develop out, however to err on the side of caution and not upset the therapy plan, it is most secure just to shave.
Waxing vs. laser
While it is actually conceivable to wax, shaving is the favored technique before a laser meetings. Shaving trims the hair at the surface, leaving the hair follicle underneath the skin. So while the hair may not noticeable subsequent to shaving, it is still there and can treated by the laser. A few professionals even accept that shaving is helpful to laser hair removal, since it permits the laser to zero in its energy on the hair follicle rather than the hair shaft.
Each center has their own particular rules on precisely when to shave. In spite of the fact that it generally expected prescribed to do it two or three days preceding laser treatment. This is on the grounds that numerous laser specialists like to see just short stubble, however there may a few professionals who might want to see more hair. A few professionals like to shave the hairs off themselves not long before the laser meeting. Somebody considering laser removal would essentially have to discover precisely what the laser hair removal expert for their situation suggests.
Hair removal benefits
Having extremely smooth and hairless skin is something. That many individuals need to have and will pay great cash for it. Because of the headways of innovation, eliminating undesirable hair should possible. Without going through the issues (and inconvenience) that accompany shaving, culling and waxing. That advantageous arrangement is, in all honesty, laser hair removal (LHR) which has rehearsed for a long time. Now all around the country and for hundreds to a couple thousand dollars. A patient can at last have that very smooth sans hair skin the individual in question needed.
To place things into point of view it is ideal to remember how LHR functions and what its interaction is. First the laser focused on a specific spot that has hair that should taken out. Hair that gets hit with the laser gets warmed significantly. The hotness goes down the hair, arrives at the root and in the long run annihilates it forever. With the extremely durable obliteration by laser, no new hair will develop.
Back to the current inquiry. The critical response is this. Utilizing a laser to eliminate hair is really 98% to almost 100% long-lasting, not 100% long-lasting. This is on the grounds that the actual laser drawn in. Just to hairs that are in the development stage and there are likewise four phases of hair development to remember. The laser additionally can't obliterate hair that has quit developing. Nor would it able to dispose of hair in the new follicles. These subtleties uncover the shortcomings or impediments of laser hair removal itself. These clarify definitively why patients continue to return to the LHR centers a very long time in the wake of getting treated.
The result
Hypothetically, the best way to accomplish 100% super durable laser removal is for all the hair to become together simultaneously. Which is experimentally impractical by any means. At any arbitrary second, innumerable strands of hair develop at different speeds. They each have distinctive development cycles. And they likewise have arrived at various levels of their development when a LHR strategy performed.
Simultaneously, there is still no laser hair removal hardware. That has endorsed for complete and extremely durable hair removal as of recently. It is likewise essential to remember that the change. And improvement of chemicals in the human body can make all new hair follicles. Even spots that dealt with laser hair removal methodology can ultimately develop hair again later some time. Thusly, further visits to the center for more LHR medicines. Final details and logical investigation are inescapable and sadly for patients needing smooth hairless skin the visits mean more costs. The quantity of visits may fluctuate from one individual to another just as the current necessities.