Does your hair color effect the effectiveness of Laser Hair Removal?

This is true. The Laser for Hair Removal can only treat hair with pigment.
If you are blond, red head or have silver or white hair the laser will not
work.
The laser light is attracted to colored hair.

Published on Jul 11, 2012

Hair color has a significant effect on laser hair removal (LHR). Red,
blond and gray do not respond well to LHR. There are a few companies
that will tell you that their laser will remove these color of hair
but do not do it very well. When you look at the studies very closely
the improvement is minimal at best when compared to other lasers.
The reason that lasers do not work well on these colors is because the
target for the laser is melanin. Melanin is a brown/black pigment
that is in the hair. The darker the hair is the more melanin there is
in it. Gray, red and blonde hairs do not have melanin in them to
absorb the laser energy. The lighter the hair the more difficult it is
to get rid of with lasers.

Published on Jul 11, 2012

Yes that is correct, laser hair removal can become less effective in lighter hair; however, it also depends on the machine and the skin color as well. If you have extremely light blonde hair or grey hair it does not work. I would recommend visiting an office that provides such procedures and see which machine they have and see if it will work for your type of hair. Have a wonderful day!

Published on Jul 11, 2012

Yes, laser hair removal is more difficult with lighter colored hair including red and light brown. Blond and gray hair is not worth treating because it does not have enough color for good results.

The reason hair needs color for effective laser hair removal is that it must be able to absorb light and dark colors absorb light more easily than light colors. We make the analogy that if you walk outside on a sunny day with a black sweater you get warm because the dark color absorbs the light. If you walk outside on a sunny day with a white
sweater, you are not quite as warm because the white color reflects the light instead of absorbing it. It is the same for laser hair removal, dark colored hair absorbs the light energy of the laser, which makes it easier to remove.

Published on Jul 11, 2012