How many sessions will I need?
The number of sessions required to reduce or eliminate hair on the body varies from patient to patient and hair growth can be influenced by a wide range of factors. Factors can include your body's natural hair growth life cycle, your skin colour and also any underlying medical conditions such as Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) or any other hormonal imbalances you may have.
The biggest factor in determining how many treatment sessions you will require is the colour of your skin. Essentially the laser needs to selectively target the pigment within the hair follicle without being absorbed too much by the surrounding skin (see How laser hair removal works). If too much of the laser energy gets absorbed by the surrounding skin then it can cause discomfort and irritation to the skin and also increases the risk of side-effects. This is the main reason why we can't treat patients who have recently had large amounts of sun-exposure, since any additional pigment (melanin) present in the surrounding skin increases the risk of side-effects.
Patients with darker skin can still be treated effectively and safely, but the laser settings need to be slightly lower and you will generally require a few more sessions in a course of treatment. You can rest assured that the Cynosure Elite laser that we use is purpose designed to treat a broad range of skin-types and is one of the safest and most effective lasers available for treating darker skin-types.
The table below provides a rough guide to the number of treatment sessions required for our most common treatment areas:
| Treatment Area | Light Skin | Dark Skin | Treatment Interval |
| Lip | 2-4 | 5-7 | 4 Weeks |
| Face | 4-6 | 5-7 | 4-6 Weeks |
| Bikini Line | 4-5 | 5-8 | 4-6 Weeks |
| Arms | 4-5 | 5-8 | 4-6 Weeks |
| Underarms | 4-5 | 5-8 | 4-6 Weeks |
| Back | 4-6 | 6-9 | 4-8 Weeks |
| Legs | 6-8 | 6-9 | 6-8 Weeks |
Why are multiple treatment sessions required?
Multiple sessions are required due to the natural growth lifecycle that hair follows. All of the hairs on your body follow a growth lifecycle which consists of a growth phase, a transition phase and a resting phase, before the hair eventually falls out and growth starts again. At any given point in time each hair on your body will be in one of the following stages of the growth lifecycle:
- Anagen: This is the phase when synthesis of hair takes place. This is an active growth phase in which the hair bulb is intact. The hair grows both upward and downward. During early anagen phase the bulb is closest to the surface of the skin allowing for the most effective treatment. The time span for this phase is measured in months/years.
- Catagen: This brief intermediate phase, measured in weeks, occurs between the anagen and telogen phases. During this phase the body absorbs the lower third of the follicle.
- Telogen: This is the resting phase. The hair bulb is no longer present. It is now a club hair that will fall out or be pushed out of the follicle by a new anagen growing hair. The time span for this phase is measured in weeks/months.
Laser hair removal is only effective when the laser energy reaches hair follicles that are in the growing (Anagen) phase of development (see how laser hair removal works). This is because the laser energy needs to be absorbed by the hair to the full depth of the follicle where it can cause the most damage to the surrounding structures responsible for hair growth. At any given time, only a fraction of your hairs will be in the growth phase where the laser is most effective, so multiple treatments at regular intervals are required to ensure that all of the hair follicles in the area get treated when they are each in the anagen phase.