How it works - Heating the hairs and not the skin

Laser hair removal works by the laser selectively heating the base of hair in the hair follicle, and this heat resulting in very localised damage to the hair bulb, so that the hair can no longer grow. The selective heating of the hair depends on the melanin (the pigment which gives skin and hair its colour) in the hair absorbing the light from the laser. With the correct wavelength of light, the melanin absorbs much more of the light (and thus generates more heat within it) than the non melanin containing tissues in the skin. As there is more melanin in the hair than in the skin the hair gets a lot hotter than the surface of the skin (where the rest of the melanin is concentrated). Damage to the skin and pain from heating is prevented during treatment by the application of refrigerated air to the treatment area.


Nd:YAG lasers produce light at a wavelength which is absorbed exceptionally well by melanin. The busrt of light required to heat a hair root so that it is effectively killed is about a tenth of a second. (This is a "Long Pulse" in YAG laser machine terms - a "Short Pulse" YAG laser produces pulses of about 20 nanoseconds - not enough to kill a hair root).


Long Pulsed Nd:YAG laser treatment works in all skin types where the hair has more melanin than the skin - i.e. the hair is darker than the skin. No form of light based hair removal works on fair hairs or grey hairs (because they contain little or no melanin). Darker skins have more melanin in them, and thus can tolerate a lower dose of laser light without overheating, but usually the hairs are correspondingly darker still, and heat more with a lower, skin safe, laser dose. Laser hair removal with Coco's Nd:YAG laser is often very effective and safe in dark and black skins. Laser hair removal can also kill ingrowing hairs - a particularly uncomfortable problem in some skin types.


After treatment, the skin should be protected from the sun and other sources of heat. If sun exposure occurs shortly after laser treatment, burning and blistering can occur. At Coco Spa proper aftercare instructions are part of every laser treatment session.