Category: Waxing

Does Brazilian wax or laser hurt more?

We carried out a mini survey in our clinic and had some fun with our clients regarding this question.

We have the bonus that we have the Moveo pain free hand piece, so when we asked clients that were having this, they all said that having a wax was 100% more painful as you genuinely cannot feel anything when having the Moveo handpiece.

With some of the more stubborn hairs we use Nd:Yag laser and you can feel this, overall out of the clients we asked that were having this type of treatment, they said that the Nd:Yag was less painful than a wax.

This makes sense as the wax is ripping the hair from the follicle and it is irritating the dermal and subdermal layer and pulling the skin, so the mechanoreceptors (these sense movement) are going to be stimulated this can also activate pain fibres and make it feel painful.

The laser works differently in that it is heating up the skin, so if you can keep the skin below the heat threshold then the pain fibres will not get activated in the same way. For example, have you ever put you hand over a candle? Yes, we have all tried it when we were younger, what you may find is that for the first second you don’t feel the heat, until the heat builds up more and more then you start to feel it and it causes pain, you then draw your hand away.

A similar thing happens with the laser, if you left the laser in one place it will heat up the follicle but also the surrounding skin and you will feel the pain as a zap. At Surrey Laser we are moving the laser frequently to avoid heating the skin too much but also getting as much exposure to the follicles as possible.

We also precool and post cool the area and apply aloe vera cream to avoid the heat building in the skin. You can get some god quality aloe vera and we would recommend applying that after your laser.

Can I shave 1 hour before laser?

The short answer is no.

The reason is when you shave it can irritate and inflame the skin. You are then going to be having laser which heats the skin up and you want to ensure that you don’t cause any issues following the treatment.

You could also cut the skin very finely, like a micro cut and this can then be susceptible to the laser heat. We would recommend shaving at least 24 hours before your appointment just to let everything settle down so you are comfortable for your treatment.

If you would like to find out more about our laser hair removal introductory offer then please call 01932 553118