Humans have been removing their unwanted hair for thousands of years with techniques such as shaving, tweezing, sugaring, and threading. The first technical solution for hair removal, electrolysis, is not as new as you might think. It has been used for well over one hundred years.
While electrolysis has been updated and perfected over time, new hair removal techniques have become available too, such as waxing, depilatories, and most recently, laser treatments.
If you are considering electrolysis, you might wonder if it is still the best option or whether it has been surpassed by the latest laser technology. Let’s examine the pros and cons of both.
Electrolysis can be used by anyone with any skin color or hair color, and can be used almost everywhere on the body. Laser treatments can only be used by people with light skin and dark hair. As you can imagine, this eliminates a large segment of the population.
The laser focuses on destroying the pigment in hair which is why it won’t work on light or gray hair. In most cases it is ineffective on women’s facial hair. Since the laser is attracted to pigment, it can damage the surrounding skin for those who have dark complexions.
Electrolysis hair removal is the only treatment the FDA considers permanent. Laser technology has still not been approved as permanent nor has it been evaluated to be safe for the user’s skin. According to the Mayo Clinic, lasers can reduce the number of hairs by 40-80%.
Electrolysis is much less expensive than laser treatments, but you generally need more treatments to get desired results. An electrolysis treatment will generally cost around $50, but one laser treatment can cost anywhere from $200 to $500, or even more. That is a tremendous difference!
Laser is considered more efficient for doing large areas because a larger swath can be done at once. Electrolysis must be done one hair follicle at a time.
Both treatments are performed by a doctor, aesthetician, or a licensed practitioner. If your budget does not allow getting professional treatments, there are at-home systems you can try.
There is a range in the quality of home electrolysis and laser systems, with a wide range of prices to match. On beauty product websites, you can spend as little as $50 or as much as $500. As you would expect, the systems with the largest number of happy customers cost $200 or more.
Some health care professionals recommend you not use at-home hair removal systems. If not used correctly, they can cause infection, scarring, burns and changes in pigmentation. When you consider that a professional has spent 300 to 1,500 hours training to perfect their technique, you can see that it would be nearly impossible for you to get similar, side-effect free results at home.
After weighing all these factors, electrolysis still seems to be the gold standard of hair removal. Laser technology is still in its infancy though it will likely continue to improve.