Through my years as an expert in laser hair removal, I have seen a clear increase in the number of people who are now more aware of body hair issues. Women come to my clinic all the time and ask how they can get rid of their eyebrow or bikini line. In fact, the collective consciousness has changed dramatically over time as to what makes a woman beautiful.

If you take a quick look back in history, the definition of beauty has developed significantly over the years. It is said that public understanding of body image can be traced through the artwork of luminaries such as Reubens and Renoir. In their depictions in the 17th and 19th centuries, the women have full figures and are not considered attractive today. Now, the women who appear in movies and magazines are generally skinny and lack significant definition.

There are even cultural differences around the world as to what defines beauty. For example, there is a small tribe in Burma called the Padaung where young women wear rings around their necks. As they grow, more rings are placed around their necks and their necks are stretched. In Paduang culture this is a sign of beauty. Even closer to home, if you go to the beaches of the French Riviera, you’ll see women with hairy armpits. In French culture, women who have underarm hair are accepted.

In the United States, a general beauty custom is that women should not have visible body hair. In addition to hair on the top of the head, women with excessive hair on their legs, arms, or face are seen as poorly groomed and generally unladylike. However, it’s not like American women have developed a gene that makes us immune to unwanted hair. While that would be great, there are realistic options for removing hair.

As we all know, hair removal can be a painful process and can cost a lot of money over time. In fact, a major national hair removal center recently conducted a study with Zoomerang that found that women spend over $10,000 on hair removal products and services in their lifetime. Respondents also reported that they will spend more than 58.4 days trimming their body hair in their lifetime. Imagine what you could do with all that money and time! The only tried and true treatment that makes hair removal easy, affordable and painless is laser hair removal, which provides permanent hair reduction.

To understand how laser hair removal works, it’s important to understand hair and how it grows. Human hair is made up of three parts: the bulb at the base of the hair follicle (which produces hair), the shaft, and the hair. The bulb and stem are embedded below the surface of the skin, so the hair is the only part visible to the naked eye. The hair growth cycle is made up of three stages: telogen, catagen and anagen.

At any given time, approximately 30 percent of your hair is in its anagen growth stage, which is the only time hair is amenable to laser hair removal treatments. Each laser hair reduction session will permanently damage 30 percent of the hair follicles in the treatment area. Essentially, laser hair removal works by destroying the hair follicle.

The only way to permanently reduce the amount of unwanted hair is to damage the hair follicle to the point where it cannot produce hair. The hairs that are destroyed with each treatment are permanently destroyed. While patient protocol is determined on a case-by-case basis, on average, our center recommends a minimum of six treatments, spread out over approximately two months per treatment.

Modern laser hair removal is truly a marvel of technology and has effectively eliminated the discomforts once associated with laser hair removal and still associated with some of the older equipment out there in non-specialist clinics.

Whether you’re looking for laser hair removal as an alternative to your daily shaving ritual or looking to save money in the long run, the treatments are easy, fast, and painless. In fact, I’ve even had patients come into my office at lunchtime for a session. Laser hair removal will help you regain confidence in your body and give you the peace of mind that you will never have to shave again. And if that’s not beautiful, I don’t know what is!