Does Permanent Hair Removal Actually Mean Lasting Forever?
A lot of consumers imagine “permanent” means lasting eternally. Sorry to say, that’s not always the case as it’s used in marketing. For example, a permanent wave in your hair is not really enduring, and a permanent marker is not necessarily lasting.
It’s problematical to assess a new hair removal method that claims to be enduring. Most people believe that after a specified amount of time, it’s not likely that a hair will ever come back. That’s why numerous people, myself as well, have recommended a specific definition of “permanent.” Most of these definitions seem poor to me. One firm claims their system is permanent based on results after 8 weeks. That’s outrageous. Waxing can last that long, and it’s been clinically proven to be temporary.
For the purposes of hair removal, our characterization of “permanent” is being able to go a year after your final hair removal treatment without having to use a further procedure of hair removal. Remember that a year might not be sufficient to ascertain valid permanence, but quite a lot of consumers would be content to have one treatment a year.
The solitary method of clinically demonstrated enduring hair removal is electrolysis. Some lasers and flash lamps have been able to achieve lasting hair reduction, as discussed below.
Long-term hair removal
An additional undefined term is “long-term” hair removal. Yet again, it depends on what your definition of “long” is. Our definition of “long-term” is being able to go 5 months after your last treatment without having to use an alternative technique of hair removal. Your definition may diverge, but I don’t believe 9 weeks to be long-term. I subjectively decided on 5 months as a apt definition, since most hair growth cycles will have completed in 6 months.
Hair reduction vs. hair removal
Real permanent hair removal has been recognized as the complete destruction of a hair follicle’s capacity to regenerate and grow hair.
Several lasers have shown permanent hair reduction in clinical studies and are permitted to make this claim by FDA. The word “reduction” adds another term that is vaguely defined. FDA has acknowledged the definition of reduction as a firm reduction in the number of coarse dark hairs. Some laser hair removal clinics have demonstrated in clinical testing that they can reduce the size of hairs and lighten the color. In some patients, this reduction appears to be lasting.
