If you've grown weary of regularly waxing, shaving or plucking unwanted hair from somewhere on your body, then you might be interested in learning about laser hair removal treatments. The use of lasers to remove unwanted hair is a professional alternative to home methods that provide only a short-term solution and can be both painful and irritating to your skin. However, don't throw away your razor just yet. Laser hair removal is not the miracle cure that some portray it to be. Let's take a closer look at this popular beauty technology.

Surprisingly, no one is completely sure how laser hair removal works. Here's what happens: a laser emitting pulses of light (each pulse lasts about a millisecond) is focused on the area of your skin with unwanted hair. The light passes through the surface of your skin and is absorbed by the pigment in your hair follicle. Experts believe that this generates heat and breaks down the hair follicle, disabling the follicle's ability to grow. After treatment, the unwanted hairs gradually fall out.

Laser hair removal methods are most successful on people with light skin and dark hair. People with dark skin have extra pigmentation in their skin. As it turns out, this extra pigmentation absorbs most of the laser's energy. So instead of reaching its targeted pigment in the hair follicle, the laser could end up damaging your skin. Laser hair removal is often not effective on individuals with light hair because their hair follicles don't contain much pigment in the first place.

To be truly effective, laser hair removal treatments must be repeated several times (with about six to eight weeks between each treatment). And you'll probably need to wait almost a full year before you'll know for sure how effective the treatments have been. There are no guarantees. Even if you have light skin and dark hair, the effectiveness of laser hair removal varies from person to person. If it works really well for you, hair counts could be reduced up to 80 percent. But it's possible that it won't help much at all.

There are some risks associated with laser hair removal, including darkening or lightening of the skin, blistering, and changes in skin texture. However, these side effects are rare. There is some pain associated with the process of laser hair removal. Most people describe it as similar to the feeling of being snapped with a rubber band. This minor pain can usually be avoided with topical anesthetics during the procedure.

Even the biggest supporters of laser hair removal will admit that it's not for everyone. For those with light skin and dark hair, it can be a relatively fast and less painful way to permanently remove hair. If it sounds like you're not a good candidate for laser hair removal, don't lose hope. Electrolysis is another method for permanent hair removal. Although it's slower and somewhat more painful than the use of lasers, the results are more predictable and certain.