monterey laser clinic, offers affordable laser hair removal treatments in a comfortable and private office setting,

HOW DOES HAIR GROW?

Hair forms in a pouchlike structure below the skin called a hair follicle. What we see as hair is actually the hair staff, which is the keratinized, hardened tissue that grows from this follicle.

Humans have more hair follicles per square inch of skin than most higher primates, including chimpanzees and gorillas. Because most of this hair is fine and pale (called vellus hair), it usually isn’t visible to the naked eye. Consider this: the forehead has more hair follicles than any other part of the body. The thicker, fully pigmented hair most people consider “real hair” is called terminal hair. This hair is found on the scalp, eyebrows, legs, back, underarms, and genital areas. This is the hair the LightSheer™ diode laser treats.

Everyone’s hair grows differently, depending on age, weight, metabolism, hormones, ethnicity, medications, and others factors. But all hair goes through three distinct growth phases:

Hair's active growth phase is called anagen. During anagen, the hair contains an abundance of melanin.

Catagen is the regresion phase when the lower part of the hair stops growing, but is not shed, and the follicle is reabsorbed.

The resting phase is called telogen, during which the old hair falls out in preparation for the development of new hair

1) Active growth phase (called the anagen phase), which lasts up to several years. At any given time, the majority (85%) of our body hair is in this phase. During anagen, the hair has an abundance of melanin.

2) Regressive phase (catagen phase), which lasts about two weeks, during which the hair stops growing but is not yet shed. About 3 – 4% of our body hair is in this phase at any given time.

3) Resting phase (telogen phase), which lasts 5-6 weeks, at the end of which the hair falls out and a new hair begins to from. Approximately 10-13% of our body hair is in this phase at any one time. The LightSheer™ diode laser most effectively disables hair that is in the active growth (anagen) phase. Because all the hair in a treated area may not be in the anagen phase, more than one laser treatment may be necessary to remove the hair that subsequently enters the growth phase.