FAQs

Does laser work on darker skin?

Yes!

Although this hasn’t always been the case, today, laser is both safe and effective on humans of every skin colour. At Bluebird, we have lots of experience treating clients with darker skin tones without compromising fantastic results! To explain why this wasn’t possible years ago, but is now, let’s dive into the some science and history:

When laser hair removal first became commercially available in the 1990s, the only machines in use, diode and alexandrite lasers, caused extensive heating in both hair and skin cells. For people with light skin, this wasn’t a problem, because their skin absorbs little heat anyway due to its lower level of melanin.

But for folks with darker skin tones, this was a big problem! For folks with lots of melanin in their hair and skin, older models of lasers would heat up hair and skin both, risking hyper- and hypo-pigmentation, as well as burning. Because of the lack of research and development which would make laser hair removal technology inclusive for all, folks with darker skin tones were told that they weren’t candidates for laser hair removal.

Fast forward twenty years and a new kind of hair removal laser was developed. It was called the neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet, or Nd:Yag for short! This laser works at a longer wavelength of light compared to the diode or alexandrite lasers, and this longer wavelength is not absorbed readily by the melanin in skin cells. The development of this laser has finally made it possible to provide safe and effective laser hair removal to folks with lots of melanin in their skin.

At Bluebird we have two Nd:Yag lasers and use them with great success. It is a pleasure to be able to truly provide great results to every one of our clients regardless of skin colour, and it is our Nd:Yag lasers that make this possible.

If you fall into this category, we’ve got you!

Also read: So how does laser work?