Laser Power – How important is this?

Average Power vs Peak Power Someone asked me recently “Should I buy a 5000 Watt diode laser or a 3500 Watt laser?” I was a bit puzzled… I‘ve noticed a few laser companies promoting their systems om the basis of the “power”. With quotes like “the most powerful laser on the planet” and similar nonsense,… Continue reading Laser Power – How important is this?

Laser-skin treatments and skin cooling – should we do this?

There appears to be some confusion about the use of skin surface cooling and laser treatments. Why should we use skin-cooling at all? Let’s go back to basics… When we use lasers to remove hair, blood vessels, benign pigmentation, acne and tattoos we want to induce some sort of reaction in those targets using heat.… Continue reading Laser-skin treatments and skin cooling – should we do this?

Why do ‘finer’ and ‘lighter’ hairs appear after laser/IPL hair removal treatments?

All hairs are part of a follicular unit which comprises the hair shaft, melanin (not always!!) and germ/stem cells. [There are other components such as the pilo-sebaceous units – but we’re not interested in those here.] The germ cells are responsible for initiating and growing the hair in the anagen phase. They reside in a… Continue reading Why do ‘finer’ and ‘lighter’ hairs appear after laser/IPL hair removal treatments?

Here is a list of my blog posts covering laser/IPL hair removal, tattoos, blood vessels, physics, MasterClasses and other stuff…

Last update – 29.1.23 Below are links to my blog posts… Laser/IPL Hair Removal Fundamentals of Laser/IPL Hair Removal – online now! Hair Removal – Why is it painful? Why are laser/IPL hair removal treatments painful? And how do we minimise it? “I’ve burnt my patient!!” With IPL treatments, that is precisely what we are tying to do… What… Continue reading Here is a list of my blog posts covering laser/IPL hair removal, tattoos, blood vessels, physics, MasterClasses and other stuff…

Hair removal using Diode lasers vs Nd:YAG, Alex lasers & IPLs

Hair Removal Systems These days there are a number of different systems available for hair removal, which can make it a bit tricky when deciding which to purchase. In particular, diode lasers are a different type of laser when compared to the other systems (and IPL). Here I outline some of the differences between these… Continue reading Hair removal using Diode lasers vs Nd:YAG, Alex lasers & IPLs

Applying the SHR technique properly to remove hair…

I’ve seen a lot of videos, recently, where laser operators are showing their prowess with laser hair removal, usualy with a diode laser. However, most of them are doing it wrong!! They are usually seen ‘scanning’ up and down an area, relatively slowly, firing off a whole bunch of pulses of laser energy. Unfortunately, this… Continue reading Applying the SHR technique properly to remove hair…

Tattoo ink colours, absorptions and fluences…

An excellent clinical report by Scheibner (SCHEIBNER, A., KENNY, G., WHITE, W. and WHEELAND, R.G. (1990), A Superior Method of Tattoo Removal Using the Q-Switched Ruby Laser.) found that the minimum fluence required to induce a good reaction from black tattoo ink, using a Q-switched ruby laser, was 2 Joules/cm2. This threshold fluence was for… Continue reading Tattoo ink colours, absorptions and fluences…

Hair Removal – Why is it painful?

We all know that the choice of fluence and wavelength is important when treating hair with light energy. However, many believe that the fluence should be reduced when treating darker skin colours. This is fundamentally wrong!! The pain felt during laser/IPL hair treatments is principally due to the epidermal heating. As a direct consequence, darker… Continue reading Hair Removal – Why is it painful?

Fundamentals of Laser/IPL Hair Removal – online now!

The latest chapter of our eBook is now available online for your perusal. We have ‘hidden’ some pages – the ‘best’ ones, in our opinion, because we don’t want to give away all the good stuff too cheaply… This is the online pdf version which is outlines most of the contents. It will give you… Continue reading Fundamentals of Laser/IPL Hair Removal – online now!