Question: Is there any hair type that lasers work best with darker skin and coarse hair? I am African-American and want to have the thick coarse hair on the back of my neck removed.
Answer: Most laser hair removal systems on the market target the pigmentation in the hair and therefore would also target the pigmentation in the patient’s skin if they have a darker skin type. We therefore have to adjust the power settings of the laser to make sure that we do not injure the skin at the same time that we are trying to injure the hair follicles. This therefore makes it more difficult for patients with darker skin to get excellent results with laser hair removal, or at the very least it can take more treatments to achieve the desired result. Unfortunately at this time laser hair removal systems that do not target the pigment are not nearly as affective as the ones that do. I will say that even with darker skin type we still have very successful outcomes with the VasculightDuette laser hair removal system. We have also found that the broadband light system by Sciton is also very affective when appropriate filters and power settings are used.