What Is Permanent Hair Reduction For Men?

Permanent hair removal is a popular online search term. A quick Google search for “permanent hair removal” returns over 362,000,000 results currently. Clearly people are writing about the topic and many more people are searching for it, desiring permanent removal of unwanted hair.

Electrolysis is the only hair removal procedure approved by the Food & Drug Administration to offer permanent hair removal. It’s a slow, time-consuming process since it treats hair on a strand by strand basis, one hair at a time.

You may have heard about another term, permanent hair reduction. Certain other hair removal procedures are capable of offering permanent hair reduction as opposed to permanent hair removal.

So if permanent hair removal is only offered by electrolysis, what is permanent hair reduction and how can someone achieve this?

What Is Permanent Hair Reduction For Men?

Permanent hair reduction is exactly what it sounds like: You are permanently eliminating hair that will not grow back in the future, thus decreasing the total amount of unwanted hair you have. So while the hair removal process you choose isn’t guaranteeing 100% hair removal permanently, it will remove some hair permanently. It’s a permanent reduction of the unwanted hair that you have, over time, with repeated hair removal treatments.

What percentage of hair can you expect to have reduced?

Good question. There’s no easy answer unfortunately, which is why you won’t see any legitimate hair removal process guaranteeing a certain percentage result. The fact is that successful hair removal depends on a number of factors including the:

• Amount of money you’re willing to spend on treatment
• Color and tone of your skin
• Color and thickness/fineness of your hair
• Coarseness of the hair being treated
• Location of the hair being treated
• Amount of hair to be removed
• Skill of the hair removal practitioner performing the work
• Treatment plan and schedule and your willingness to adhere to it over time
• and…

What Permanent Hair Reduction Treatment Exists?

The two hair removal options that offer permanent hair reduction are Intense Pulsed Light hair removal (IPL) and laser hair removal.

IPL hair removal utilizing a broad spectrum light flash and laser hair removal offered with Ruby, Diode, Alexandrite and Nd: YAG lasers both offer permanent hair reduction. This is contingent on a person being an “ideal” candidate with a skin tone, hair color and hair coarseness that works well for the chosen method. It is also necessary to have repeated treatments over time to get best results.

IPL hair removal utilizes a broad spectrum light that hits the hair and the skin around the hair (whether there is hair there or not), travels down the hair shaft, targeting the bottom of the hair follicle attempting to destroy and hair and impair its ability to regrow.

Laser hair removal utilizes a focused single beam that targets specific hairs and is considered by some to be a more effective long term option for hair removal as a result.

IPL on the other hand tends to be better able to clear a larger amount of hair in one treatment session given that it utilizes a larger handheld wand than laser, that is capable of targeting more hair per light flash.

Permanent Hair Reduction Research

There is research available that tracks long term hair removal of patients who had laser or IPL hair removal work done and followed up with them after treatment to see the results over time.

IPL Hair Removal Research: A Danish study called Intense pulsed light photo epilation turns out to be permanent at 5‐9 years follow‐up concluded that after a series of IPL hair removal treatments, the following results were noted:

An average hair reduction of 53.3% (SD.:21.4%) was obtained by 89.9% of the patients.

Skinflow.de

So almost 90% of patients saw a 53% hair reduction with IPL hair removal treatments. These results were noted 7.7 years and 15 hair growth cycles after IPL treatment had been concluded and was thus deemed to be an example of permanent hair reduction.

Alexandrite Laser Hair Removal Study: The Alexandrite laser is a newer technology and is somewhat better than older lasers particularly as it relates to treating finer hairs and a broader range of skin tones. A study specifically tested the Alexandrite laser on 89 patients with skin types 1-4 over 15 months called Laser hair removal: long-term results with a 755 nm alexandrite laser. The report concluded:

The 3-msec cryogen cooling-equipped alexandrite laser can safely and effectively achieve long-term hair removal in patients with skin types I-V. The best results are achieved in untanned patients with skin types I-IV

PubMed.gov

IPL and Laser Hair Removal Comparison: A further research report called Evidence‐based review of hair removal using lasers and light sources which compared all four methods of laser hair removal (Ruby, Diode, Alexandrite, Nd: YAG) and IPL hair removal treatment concluded that the laser options were effective at reducing unwanted hair for up to 6 months at a time with repeated treatments.

Specifically, the Alexandrite and Diode lasers were seen as offering the most promise for long term hair removal, Ruby and Nd: YAG were next promising, and the IPL option didn’t have enough evidence to make a determination.

Which Permanent Hair Reduction Treatment Is Best?

The above study that compared all four lasers with IPL treatment followed up with patients less than one year after treatment at best. Typically, in one year you’d probably get 6-8 total treatments done and that would be doing a treatment every 6-8 weeks consistently.

The Danish study followed up with patients over 7 years after treatment on average which clearly gives a longer time to inspect hair regrowth. It also means that potentially, a patient could have had many more hair removal treatments during that time which would presumably benefit their final results.

To wit, the combined IPL and Laser Hair Removal Study concluded the following:

…evidence exists for a partial long‐term hair removal efficacy beyond 6 months postoperatively after repetitive treatments with alexandrite and diode lasers and probably after treatment with ruby and Nd:YAG lasers, whereas evidence is lacking for long‐term hair removal after IPL treatment.

JEADV

This specifically refers to IPL and laser hair removal services offered by professional clinics, spas or other commercial businesses that employ professionally trained practitioners who operate the machinery. This does not include home-based products that you can buy online or in stores and that you use yourselves.

While the FDA has approved various home hair removal products for clearance, the professionally made commercial machines will almost assuredly offer better results as they are higher powered and are (should) be operated by a trained professional.

Ultimately your best chance for permanent hair reduction is largely dependent on the list of factors mentioned above and most notably, your skin and hair color, since some lasers and IPL work better with lighter skin tones and darker hair.

Consult local laser and IPL practitioners to enquire about which machines they use and which one(s) might be best for you personally.

Conclusion

IPL and laser hair removal are both considered to offer permanent hair reduction over time, with repeated treatments for suitable hair removal candidates. The best choice for choosing one process over another is largely a personal one that takes into account your skin color, hair color, hair coarseness and other personal factors.

Only electrolysis can claim to offer permanent hair removal so permanent hair reduction is the next best thing. As shown above, various hair removal studies have shown at least some correlation between laser and IPL and long term permanent hair reduction.

Check out my detailed pages on both Laser Hair Removal For Men (2020) and IPL Hair Removal For Men for more information including pros and cons of each option. Both pages also discuss ideal candidates for each procedure.