More and more at-home lasers for hair removal have come on the market, and patients can be confused by the efficiency and safety of these home options. Of course, you’d expect us at Romeo & Juliette to tell you in-office treatments are still the way to go. But that’s not simply blowing smoke; there are some important differences between professional, in-office laser hair removal and buying a system for home use.
Let’s get into just a couple of them.
How are in-office treatments different from at-home treatments?
As you would probably assume, the real difference between treatment at Romeo & Juliette and at your home is the quality and power of the laser equipment. At Romeo & Juliette, we have 12 state-of-the-art lasers at our disposal for our patients. This gives us a huge range of treatment options to accommodate different skin tones, hair types, and complexions. Our selection enables us to deliver higher laser energy levels to even patients with darker skin tones, thanks to the selectivity of our lasers. Typically, with single laser shops or at-home lasers, people with darker skin tones are treated much less effectively because the energy applied has to be dramatically reduced to avoid burning the skin.
At Romeo & Juliette, our lasers deliver very specific wavelengths of light energy that we match precisely to the melanin in the targeted unwanted hair. This allows us to deliver high levels of energy, which ensures more of that energy gets down into the hair follicle. More energy destroys more follicles, creating the permanent hair reduction our patients seek.
At-home systems are not actually lasers, but Intense Pulsed Light devices. IPL devices deliver a broader spectrum of light energy, and this tends to be much, much weaker than our single wavelength laser delivery. IPL energy, due to its wider wavelength delivery, is better for things such as ages spots and pigmentation problems.
So, the most important aspect of at-home versus in-office is the power delivered to destroy the hair follicles. You cannot come close to matching the efficiency of our 12 lasers if you seek permanent hair reduction. IPL at-home devices can remove hair, but the lower energy levels typically create damage to follicles, but they often heal and begin to grow hair again in a couple months. They are usually not permanently destroyed. That means you’ll have to keep hitting the same areas with your home system over and over again. Isn’t that the kind of tedium you’re seeking to avoid with laser hair removal in the first place?
Spot size
At-home systems also feature small spot sizes. This is the size of the spot of energy delivered. At Romeo & Juliette Laser Hair Removal, our 12 lasers feature the industry’s largest spot sizes, making for faster treatments by treating larger areas with each burst of laser energy. As you would expect, delivering larger spot sizes makes a huge difference when treating large areas, such as the legs.
Are you interested in real permanent hair reduction? Call New York’s finest laser hair removal practitioner, Romeo & Juliette Laser Hair Removal, at (212) 750-2000 to set up your appointment.