Does laser hair removal work on blonde hair?

Laser hair removal is one of the most popular procedures we carry out at my clinic, as people want more and more convenience.  It dramatically reduces hair growth after 6-9 sessions, meaning virtually no shaving or waxing, and smoother clearer skin. But does laser work on blonde hair? This is one of the questions I get asked most often. Here’s your answer..

Does laser work on blonde hair?

The short answer is not very well! The way laser works is by the absorption of light. It’s actually the melanin in the hair (the part which gives it colour) which absorbs the laser light, and this turns into heat. It is the heat which travels down the hair and kills off the follicle.

However if the hair is blonde, there is much less melanin.  This means there’s much less absorption of the light, and so less heat.  If there isn’t enough heat the hair follicle won’t destroy. It may get disrupted and delay the hair growth slightly, but overall you won’t get a good result.

What colours of hair will work?

The darker the hair the better for laser hair removal. So black and dark brown hair works extremely well. Medium brown hair will still work. Fair brown hair becomes a little more difficult – by that I mean it may take more sessions to get the same result.

The problematic hair colours are – BLONDE, WHITE, GREY AND RED.

I have seen some decent results on dark red hair, but not fair red hair. Also a dark blonde/ light brown can improve somewhat, but do not expect a fantastic result.

What about ‘new lasers and IPLs’ which claim to work on light hair?

Even as technology improves, the results are still very poor. You may get a slight reduction in hair, but who wants to pay hundreds of pounds to get a 20-30% improvement in your hair growth?! This is the reality of it.

The clinical trials which have taken place on light hair have proved over and over again that laser is not very effective on fair hair. So those who claim it does work, are not being completely honest in my opinion.  Anyone who comes to see me with fair hair will get the same response every time – please don’t waste your money!

There are some systems now which combine Laser and Radiofrequency technology which claim to have  a better success rate.  I’ll research this in a separate article, but for now Laser or IPL alone is not effective.

Will laser hair removal work on light hair if you dye the hair dark?

This is a very good question, but unfortunately the answer is it varies greatly! Attempts have been made to dye fair hair dark using a ‘melanin spray’.

One study using a ‘melanin spray’ found that “Six months after (laser) therapy, average hair count compared with pretreatment showed 14% reduction.” If you’d like to read it for yourself, you can find that study here.

However another study found a much better outcome – an improvement of 75% hair reduction after 10 sessions of laser.  The patients who took part in this study had to spray the melanin product onto their hair 6-8 time per day for 14 days leading up to the treatment.  There was a really big difference in results if the melanin spray hadn’t been used fully. You can read that here.

So although this sounds really positive, the study concluded that “the problem in home treatment is the lack of control of patients’ compliance.”

I’m not sure the average person would stick to this kind of routine 6-8 times per day to achieve this outcome.

Conclusion

Does laser work on blonde hair? The answer I’m sorry to say is still no. There are methods to increase the melanin, as found in the study mentioned, but it’s unlikely to take off!

In my opinion it’s not worth undergoing laser hair removal treatments if your hair is too fair. However if you are dark, this is one good reason to start laser before your hair goes white or grey!

_____________________________________________________________________

If you have any more questions about Laser hair removal, please feel free to contact me at rach@radiantliving.co.uk.

OR visit Radiant Living laser hair removal page here.

Visit Radiant Skin Liverpool laser hair removal page here.