I was bored today, so I thought I’d make a couple of wee videos. The first one is about why we must apply our lasers at the skin surface properly, particularly with tattoo lasers. We DO NOT want to hear the ‘cracking; sound – that is completely wrong. The second video is about the relationship… Continue reading Two new videos – “Chasing the crack” and “Skin tones and fluence”
Author: Mike Murphy
I started in medical lasers in 1986! I have been involved in clinical research, medical laser and IPL development, sales and marketing across Europe and South East Asia, business start-ups, theoretical research into laser-tissue interactions, training course development, writing articles for peer-reviewed journals and industry magazines. I am currently the Chairman of the Association of Laser Safety Professionals.
What is a Laser Protection Adviser and what do they do?
Today I was asked ‘what exactly is a Laser Protection Adviser (LPA)?’ So I thought I’d tell the whole world… In the UK, we have a number of specialists, who have a lot of experience with lasers and their safety aspects, who are known as LPAs. There are two groups of such people – the… Continue reading What is a Laser Protection Adviser and what do they do?
My most viewed videos, so far…
I was looking at my stats on my You Tube channel (youtube.com/@laser-guys) and noticed that my two top viewed videos were the following: This one discusses the differences between lasers and IPLs in the removal of hair. And While this one looks at the correct choice of fluence in laser/IPL hair removal and the importance… Continue reading My most viewed videos, so far…
The hair growth cycle in humans
Human hair grows according to a cycle. This cycle can be broken down into three main phases – anagen, catagen and telogen. To understand this process, we need to look closely at the follicles, and their structure. All follicles are comprised of two distinct parts – the upper, permanent part which includes the stem cell… Continue reading The hair growth cycle in humans
The “Hairy Trinity” – How are fluence, follicle depth and treatment frequency related in hair removal treatments?
As many of you know, I like to build and develop computer models investigating how light energy interacts with skin constituents etc. I’ve been doing this since 1987 and am now beginning to get the hang of it!! One model I built, a few years ago, looked at the hair growth cycles across the body.… Continue reading The “Hairy Trinity” – How are fluence, follicle depth and treatment frequency related in hair removal treatments?
Fitzpatrick Type – what does this really mean and how does it affect our laser/IPL skin treatments?
Here we go again! Fitzpatrick – the most mis-understood concept in laser/IPL therapies. Everyone who does laser/IPL treatments on the skin talks about the “Fitzpatrick”. Yet most people don’t really know what it means! Here is my take: There are two things you MUST understand: Dr Fitzpatrick was an American dermatologist who devised a scale… Continue reading Fitzpatrick Type – what does this really mean and how does it affect our laser/IPL skin treatments?
Human retinal sensitivity to wavelengths
Most people can see a wide range of coloured light, from around 350 up to 750nm. But, our sensitivity is not the same for all colours. Our human retina sees different colours differently. The graph below shows how this is – we see violet very poorly. Likewise with the ‘deep’ reds, out at 700+ nm.… Continue reading Human retinal sensitivity to wavelengths
“Mike doesn’t know our lasers…”
I heard an interesting story today. One of my trainees has been told by her laser supplier not to use my recommended fluences for hair removal – “they are too high”, they said. “Your laser can’t do that for long periods of time. Mike doesn’t know our machines like we do…” Well, that bit is… Continue reading “Mike doesn’t know our lasers…”
Tissue denaturation triangles – why temperature AND time are both important in laser/IPL treatments
Proteins in cells are typically composed of three animo acid chains, wrapped up tightly around each other. A single cell may contain up to 20 million copies of the same protein, whilst there are around 50,000 different proteins encoded in the human genome. A computer-generated representation of a protein complex (Courtesy of Lucy Colwell/www.pymol.org) In… Continue reading Tissue denaturation triangles – why temperature AND time are both important in laser/IPL treatments
Tissue denaturation temperatures and times – how are they related?
I occasionally see comments such as ‘the target needs to be heated to 70°C to be properly killed’. This is only half the story. As with all cooking, a target may need to be heated to 70°C to be properly cooked, but it must be maintained at that temperature for a certain amount of time… Continue reading Tissue denaturation temperatures and times – how are they related?
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