The immediate differences are the size, complexity and power of the machinery, the person who operates it and the cost.

PROFESSIONAL TREATMENTS

With professional treatments at a leading clinic, you’ll get the latest laser technology with advanced configurations for all skin colours and various hair colour combinations. You’ll also have a trained, skilled operative working under medical guidance. At Laser Skin and Hair Clinic we use Soprano ICE, which is a Diode Laser Machine. It destroys the hair follicles completely so the results are more permanent.

Most body areas are treatable including men’s beards.  But home devices are not safe for this. In addition, the hard-to-reach areas that men are mostly concerned about such as back and chest are difficult to treat at home.

A course of professional treatments is more expensive than a home-use device too. How much depends on where you live, the size of your treatment areas and if you want IPL or laser. Laser is most expensive and, considered by those that offer it, superior to IPL.

AT HOME DEVICES

At home, you’ve got a scaled-down, small hand-held device. It’s got simple controls, safety switches and features so it’s safely operated by anyone.

Home use devices range from around R800 up to R9000. They’re a much more affordable option for most people. Although you get awesome results at-home treatments, you can’t stop dormant hair follicles activating months or even years afterwards. A home device is always on hand to zap those new hairs.

DIFFERENT POWER

The power of professional machinery, such as the ones we use, is much greater too. A professional laser and IPL machine outputs optical energy around 40 J/cm2. At home IPL devices output maximum is around 7 J/cm2 and at home laser is 20 J/cm2. It’s a significant difference and means you need a higher number and more frequent home sessions to get your best results.

So, which is it? It’s actually both of these things! To explain, let’s start by comparing how each works.

THEY WORK IN DIFFERENT WAYS

In just one session, professional laser hair removal destroys key follicle areas in active hair.
IPL and laser hair removal both use different types of powerful light energy to remove hair. The light travels through your skin where the dark melanin pigment in your hair absorbs the energy. It converts to heat and destroys specific areas in your hair follicle (the bit below the skin).
The high power of professional machinery destroys key areas of the follicle of actively growing hairs in just one session. This damage breaks the hair growth cycle for long lasting smooth results. You need a course of 6 to 8 to catch most of your hairs in the active growing state.
Home-use devices are much less powerful, so they work in a slower way. At first, during the start-up phase, they quickly cause temporary hair removal. This is where your hair falls out but can start a new growth cycle a few weeks later.

Home devices get you smooth fast, but hair grows back if you stop too soon.

However, with continued but less frequent top-ups, it builds damage to the key follicle areas. This eventually breaks the hair growth cycle and your smooth results last. As a result, you need more than double the sessions to get similar results. So, the top-ups are super important.

Therefore, the end result of professional and home-use laser is about the same: hair-free, silky smooth skin. But the way they do it, the lasting effects and how long they take is very different.