25°C in Strasbourg, 27 in Paris and even 28 in Lyon… The first heat wave begins this Tuesday in metropolitan France. Faced with this rise in temperature, you may be going to take your summer clothes out of your closet, a change of dressing room that is sometimes only accompanied by a waxing session.
And to permanently get rid of this chore, some prefer to bet on permanent hair removal. However, this option is not possible for everyone: the most common means are not suitable for all skin tones and are not suitable for all areas.
Laser and pulsed light: not for everyone
Although laser and pulsed light have become widely available in recent years, some people still do not have access to them: these techniques are only effective on people with dark hair and/or light fear. Concretely, the diffused light will be absorbed by the hairs, which will heat it and treat it definitively. If the hair is white, and therefore devoid of melanin, it will not be able to absorb light, according to the well-known laws of physics.
Similarly, these methods of photoepilation are contraindicated for dark or tanned skin because they would absorb light in the same way as hair and risk being burned.
Another contraindication: tattoos. Again, the light provided by these devices may damage the pigments.
The solution: high-frequency hair removal
A definitive alternative remains: high frequency hair removal. This method of permanent hair removal allows you to work hair by hair, and not by area as is the case with pulsed light or laser.
Concretely, the practitioner, an aesthetic doctor or a beautician depending on the areas and the level of hair to be treated, slides a microfilament along the hair. This will send an electric current to the bulb, causing a chemical reaction and overheating which leads to the destruction of the bulb. No longer attached, the hair is then removed completely and permanently.
“Because of treating the hair follicle directly, melanin is not involved in the process, which makes it possible to treat all skin and hair colors”, summarizes Geoffroy Amsellem, president of the medical-aesthetic equipment manufacturer Medical Global Aesthetic, which notably produces Apilus brand devices, a leader in high-frequency hair removal.
Beware of paradoxical regrowth
The technologies of photoepilation, laser and pulsed light, also involve another risk: the light does not manage to eradicate the down, which is very little pigmented, but it can, on the other hand, stimulate it. Some people are thus confronted with the phenomenon of paradoxical regrowth: the appearance of hair (rather fine and long) on a non-depilated area of the face but in the immediate vicinity of a treated area. This is particularly the case on dull skin, when using a flash lamp or a laser that is not powerful enough, or when treating isolated hair in an area without hair but with fine down. .
In women with hirsutism or hypertrichosis, the lower jaw, neck and cheekbones are particularly prone to paradoxical regrowth. The more they will wax these areas, where the hairs are not common and therefore difficult to accept socially, the more they will grow back in large numbers. Except if they opt for high-frequency hair removal, which is the only long-lasting solution for them.
45 euros for 15 minutes
An extremely precise and definitive technique, would high-frequency hair removal be the ideal answer in our war against our body hair?
High frequency hair removal is actually an evolution of electric hair removal. The latter required a pulse time sometimes lasting several seconds, which could cause pain and small skin lesions. High frequency hair removal uses, as its name suggests, very high frequency currents which, by their rapid oscillation, generate intense heat in just a few thousandths of a second.
There remains only the disadvantage of the price, therefore: count 45 euros for 15 minutes. Permanently getting rid of body hair has a cost.