History of hair removal by lasers is an interesting tale both achievements and set backs which were encountered during the early days of use of lasers for hair removal. Over the time we have been looking towards new technology for the answer of our various riddles. Since the advent of Laser, it has propagated deep in to the lives of humans. It is being used with great enthusiasm in development of advanced medical and dental equipment. A new area in which laser is gaining
immense popularity is the field of hair removal by laser. The evolution of Laser hair removal equipment has an interesting background.

Lasers in hair removing were first used in mid to late 1960's.At that time it was not possible to effectively control the laser beam hence these lasers caused several side effect and also these were not effective.

During this developing period photo epilators were introduced which targeted hair follicles directly with a wire-thin fiber optic probe .Soon after sometime penlight type device was introduced into the market which found its way to the market illegally without any proper checking. As a result these devices turned out to be ineffective. These were later banned by FDA.

In the meantime another device which used an argon laser was introduced this device was also launched without any significant research and the end results were same as before. This device also found no use in hair removing.

After these ineffective devices scientist started thinking of something new therefore the research was focused on the using lasers in Skin Treatment rather than hair removing. It was found that laser is helpful in removing tattoos and some vascular lesions but it was also observed that hair loss occurred in the areas of treatment which again started the research for appropriate laser hair removal equipment.

At the end of 19th century FDA for the first time cleared a Laser for Hair Removal SoftLightâ„¢ Nd:YAG by ThermoLase. This was a big achievement for the researchers because FDA for the first time cleared a device specifically for Laser hair removal. Unfortunately this product was also sold like the previous ones without proper testing and clinical trials. The treatment with this device was effective then the previous ones but was not able to permanently remove hairs. ThermoLase had to settle several lawsuits when its claim permanent laser hair removal was exposed by clinical studies. Due to enormous amount of investments the company had to roll back and stop manufacturing the equipment.
With the sad demise of the ThermoLase new generation laser devices gained clearance from FDA which targeted melanin instead of chromophore used by previous devices. This new generation of laser hair removal equipment has proved to be more effective than the previous products.

Present Status

Lasers have been around for quite some time now. With a large number of studies and clinic studies on its back lasers of today are ready to compete with other methods in terms of costs and efficiency. With the advancement of technology and new and improved methods of epidermal cooling the Laser hair removing has become efficient and reliable and there are reduced chances of side effects.