Expert Insight

• To become a laser hair removal technician, prospective students must choose a reputable, accredited and licensed institution. While this may seem like a no-brainer, there are a number of schools that claim to provide training and certification in this area, but are not respected in the medical community, thereby making the time, money and effort spent in training nearly worthless. This is why laser hair removal technicians must obtain their licensing from schools that are state approved, ensuring that a higher standard is met before they are permitted to practice.
  
  

Function

• Laser hair removal technicians utilize a process that most commonly uses Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) emitters that generate a strong, focused light onto the surface of the skin. Although some laser hair removal processes do involve using laser light, IPL treatment uses broad spectrum light to accomplish the task. When the focused light is emitted, it is rapidly absorbed by any dark particles in the skin. Since eumelanin (the kind of melanin that causes black or brown hair) is a dark substance that is located in and around the hair follicle, the light from laser hair removal treatment seeks out and is absorbed by it, quickly becoming very hot for a brief moment without overheating the surrounding skin.
  
  

Types

• Although it is not commonly known, laser hair removal technicians can only remove the dark hair that is produced by eumelanin in the skin, and cannot yet target pheomelanin, which produces blonde and red colored hair. This is because of the attraction that light has to dark particles. Pheomelanin is not nearly as dark in color as eumelanin, making laser hair removal virtually impossible for patients who wish to have red or blonde hair permanently removed.
  
  

Time Frame

• There are a number of factors that determine the amount of time and visits that will be required for laser hair removal technicians to successfully complete the hair removal process. Some of these factors are gender, skin color, coarseness of the hair and the area of the body being treated. Because hair grows in three phases and can only be eliminated in the actively growing phase, patients must return at later points in time to ensure that each new hair replacement is eliminated through the three phase transitions. Generally, a complete hair removal treatment will require between six and eight sessions to ensure that all growing hair has been completely wiped out.
  
  

Education

• While laser hair removal technician training only requires about 40 hours of coursework on average, licensed training is only available for physicians, nurses, physician assistants and nurse practitioners. This ensures that the only people licensed to perform laser hair removal are also qualified medical experts who have chosen to pursue a career in this field. For those who wish to become laser hair removal technicians, previous medical training is an absolute must.