It’s Permanent except for
hormonal growth
No matter if an area has been completed with electrolysis or laser, hormonally stimulated hair growth can happen down the road. Fortunately, new hair is rarely stimulated on body areas after puberty, so you will be reaping the benefits of your investment for your whole life. Facial hair growth may however be stimulated due to many situations. When this occurs after laser or electrolysis sessions have been completed, it may seem that the results were just long lasting when in fact they are permanent.
Insufficient treatment
There may also be circumstances when hair is not responding to treatment. As mentioned above, hair follicles that do not provide an enough melanin target for laser may appear to be responding, but will end up regrowing. This may happen with electrolysis as well if the hair is not adequately treated.
Definitions explained
Since the FDA defines both laser and electrolysis as permanent treatments then why do we hear sometimes that electrolysis is ‘more permanent’? Simply, it’s because laser is defined as permanent hair reduction while electrolysis is permanent hair removal. Since laser can only treat the coarser, darker hairs, if there are lighter, finer hairs in that area left untreated, then it is considered a reduction.
Of note however is the fact that electrolysis rarely accomplishes total removal on facial areas, whereas laser can achieve total removal on body areas.
Can laser treat all types of hair?