Is Laser Hair Removal Painful?

Overview | Treatment | Before and After Pictures

Are you thinking about laser hair removal, but have heard it hurts too much? If you’re not a fan of pain, then you’re not alone. In fact, we really haven’t met anyone over the years who relishes the thought of being uncomfortable during one of our treatments! While laser hair removal isn’t 100% painless, it isn’t as painful as you might think. Let’s hash out why it hurts in the first place.

The way laser hair removal works is by concentrating a large amount of heat way down deep at the base of the hair follicle. It’s down there that there is a small blood vessel that feeds the follicle and keeps the hair growing. The heat must be great enough to damage this vessel, causing it not to work anymore. If there’s no blood flow, then there’s no more hair. That is how you can get permanent hair removal (75% to 95% hair reduction over 6 to 8 treatments).

The problem is that the base of the follicle is down fairly deep in the skin. So, while we can and do use different things like cold air, cold gels, and numbing creams to help decrease the pain during treatments. The fact of the matter is that, the laser energy has to go farther down than those things can, so you’re going to feel some discomfort no matter what.

There is a device that is currently advertised as “pain-free” laser hair removal by the manufacturer, but be aware that the FDA has not approved this device for that indication. To do so, the manufacturer would have to prove that claim with clinical trials, and they haven’t done that yet. And we would strongly caution you if you’re considering treatment somewhere that offers “painless laser hair removal” because to our knowledge, it just doesn’t exist! If you don’t feel anything, then your laser treatment may not really be doing anything which means while it feels okay, you’re not getting what you paid for—that doesn’t feel so good.

Obviously, over the years, we have seen and spoken to many patients who’ve done all sorts of hair removal procedures before coming to use for permanent laser hair removal. While the laser is uncomfortable, almost every one of them tells us it is better than waxing. And as laser hair removal is practically the most popular laser procedure performed today. That tells you that it’s not completely unbearable if so many people are willing to have it done.

The fact is that it does hurt some. Pain is a very subjective thing, and we certainly understand the natural fear that many first-time patients have when getting laser hair removal. We will reassure you, though, that most patients get through it just fine. They even come back again and again to finish their treatment packages!

At Celibre, we take every measure to make sure that you are as comfortable as we can make you during your treatments. Please, ask us your questions and give us your requests. We will do everything we can to make your experience as pleasant and pain-free as we possibly can and provide the most effective, safe, and efficient laser hair removal treatments in the Los Angeles and Torrance area.