Can a laser stimulate hair growth?

I have seen this at my practice as well. It is most common in East Indian and certain Hispanic populations. Of these there is a small subset of people with unwanted hair that is fine. These seem to be the most at risk for this complication.

I once worked for a large franchise medspa. The protocols we were told to use were extremely conservative, and generally resulted in poor overall satisfaction, but most upsettingly, this very complication.

My theory is that both the wavelength, pulse-width, and optical energy need to be perfectly balanced in order to insure a good outcome without complications. Under-treating retards, but does not eliminate hair, and yes, seems to occasionally result in more hair.

For those of East Indian or Hispanic descent, a problem may be that they are risky to treat on one machine, but too light to get good results on another. Some clinics simply do not have several lasers to choose from to insure the best results, but they are going to sell it anyway and hope for the best. Brown skin also tends to be very prone to post inflammatory hyperpigmentation, so a treatment setting that does not burn may still leave a mark. It is important to be sure you aren't harming someone, but then you have these few with the issue of more hair, or less than satisfactory results.

Now, not all people with brown skin have this problem. So if you have brown skin, don't worry just yet - it can be done! Especially if the hair is coarse, and you can be compliant with sun protection.

When we perform consultations at my medspa, we are careful to look for certain traits, such as brown/light brown/dark brown skin (regardless of nationality) with lots of fine, vellous hair in the treatment area. We are sure to inform clients of this rare possibility. Then they are booked with our most experienced techs, if they choose to go ahead with treatment. I am happy to say I only very, very, rarely see this at Pure.

I am not very familiar with the technology your clinic is using, but you may want to bring your fears to the attention of your tech or the head nurse. They may switch you to a different machine, or a more experienced tech.

Sadly, it probably really isn't the clinic's fault this happened. There is no way to really say who this will happen to, and safety of the client is always the number one concern over everything else.

Good luck!

Absolutely, laser treatment can stimulate hair growth. In fact, there is a very good article about this in the Journal of ASLMS.

I have noticed that the hair stimulation tends to be worse in darker skin types. I find one can easily reduce this by making absolutely sure that the patient is cooled down once the treatment is done. Make sure that you are cooled with ice for at least 15 minutes post-treatment.

There are some lasers that are supposed to stimulate hair growth to help with thinning of the hair on the scalp. I have not been impressed with the results.

However, I believe you are more interested in increased hair growth as an undesirable side effect of laser treatment. Although it is rare, increased hair growth has been reported associated with Laser Hair Removal. The theory is that the inflammation caused by the treatment can stimulate areas of skin near the treated area to grow more hair. Fortunately, if you keep on treating the area with appropriate settings, the treatments will eventually cause permanent hair reduction.