Skin Care Products & Articles

Many consumers think “permanent” means lasting forever. Sorry to say, that’s not always the case as it’s used in marketing.

For instance, a permanent wave in your hair is not really permanent, and a permanent marker is not automatically enduring.

It’s tricky to assess a new hair removal method that claims to be everlasting. The majority of people figure that after a specified amount of time, it’s unlikely that a hair will ever return.

That’s why quite a lot of people, myself also, have recommended a specific definition of “permanent.” Countless of these definitions seem not good enough to me. One producer claims their system is permanent based on results after 8 weeks. That’s ludicrous. Waxing can last that long, and it’s been clinically proven to be temporary.

Permanent hair removal

For the purposes of hair removal, our characterization of “permanent” is being able to go a year after your last hair removal cure without having to use a new system of hair removal.

Remember that a year maybe not be sufficient to decide real permanence, but many consumers would be comfortable to have one treatment a year.

The only method of clinically confirmed lasting for ever hair removal is electrolysis. Some lasers and flash lamps have been able to accomplish permanent hair reduction, as discussed below.

Long-term hair removal

Yet another undefined term is “long-term” hair removal. Once more, it depends on what your definition of “long” is. Our definition of “long-term” is being able to go 5 months after your final treatment without having to use another technique of hair removal.

Your definition may differ, but I don’t consider 7 weeks to be long-term. I arbitrarily decided on 7 months as a apt definition, as most hair growth cycles will have completed in 6 months.

Hair reduction vs. hair removal

Real permanent hair removal has been recognized as the full 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 unclearly defined. FDA has accepted 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 enduring.

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