Does Laser Hair Removal Work On Face Hair?

Face hair laser removal for both men and women is a popular option albeit for possibly different reasons. While women may want to simply get rid of facial hair full stop, men often consider facial hair removal with laser for health reasons:

Given the proximity to your eyes, does laser hair removal work on face hair, and is it a safe choice?

Ingrown hairs, razor burn and other side effects of shaving can be painful and frustrating for men with sensitive and easily irritated skin. Is this a reasonable way to deal with this unwanted hair?

Does Laser Hair Removal Work On Face Hair?

Laser hair removal has typically worked best on candidates with light skin and dark hair. Laser detects the difference between skin color and hair color so the more the contrast, the better.

Laser also tends to work well on coarse hair – as opposed to thin, fine hair – and men’s whiskers tend to be coarser than say scalp hair. So in that regard, laser hair removal should work well on face hair.

Ideal Image MedSpa has an informative page that not only discusses facial hair laser removal for men and women but also shows before and after photos along with an explanation of which areas their clients typically want treated:

Facial Laser Hair Removal can safely, effectively and permanently reduce the hair, without the harmful effects shaving can have on your skin. Our lasers are powerful enough to get rid of the most annoying hairs, and sensitive enough to work on your face, so you can put your confidence in our expert medical staff. The most commonly treated areas for men are the neck, neckline, and beard. For women, common treatment areas include the upper lip, sideburns, chin, and neck.

Ideal Image MedSpa

Benefits of Facial Hair Removal With Laser

As mentioned above, benefits can be both aesthetic and health-related:

Aesthetic Face Hair Laser Removal Benefits

• Eliminate hair that you don’t wish to have to improve your look ie. get rid of vellus (peach fuzz), lip hair, chin hair.
• Rid yourself of sideburns if you’re tired of shaving them or trimming them.
• Get rid of a unibrow and get two separate eyebrows rather than one. Please click the link for a page that discusses various hair removal options including a section on unibrow removal.

Health Face Hair Laser Removal Benefits

• Get rid of facial hair that when shaved, causes ingrown hairs, razor burn, razor bumps and other annoying shaving side effects. These often occur on the neck.
• Eliminate hair that you simply don’t want to shave anymore to save time on shaving.

Face Hair Laser Removal Dangers

Other than the normal precautions of laser hair removal which you can view on my main laser hair removal page, the most obvious danger of laser hair removal on the face area is the proximity of the handheld laser tool to your eyes.

As you can see from the photo above, the patient is wearing protective glasses which are required during laser and IPL treatments for both patient and practitioner. One would expect that the glasses would protect eyes against the harmful rays of the laser.

But there is some research that shows that there have been cases where patients having laser work done on the face did suffer temporary eye damage in very specific instances. I wrote about that research on a page discussing Laser Hair Removal and Eye Damage.

When I had both laser and IPL work done on my back and shoulders, I was lying face down wearing safety glasses and the laser/IPL light wasn’t flashed anywhere near my face.

There were a few treatments where I lay on my back for a few minutes to have work done on my shoulders and I remember closing my eyes, while wearing the safety glasses, just in case. I figured I can’t be too careful and it’s not like closing my eyes involved any extra work on my part especially if it helped protect them.

Conclusion

• Does laser hair removal work on face hair? Yes, it’s a popular hair removal procedure for both men and women.
• Always remember to wear safety goggles that should be provided to you before the treatment begins to protect your eyes from the potentially harmful rays.
• Check out the post Does Laser Hair Removal Cause Cancer which dispels myths regarding laser hair removal and also discusses real dangers that you should be aware of including potential eye damage.