I had a treatment for laser hair removal yesterday and now have a burn. Is this permanent?

Hi RS.
The good news is that the burns that you have do not look severe enough to cause permanent scarring. It looks like you have olive skin and with this skin type you may have some dark marks for a period of time, but these will be lessened if you stay our of the sun and use bleaching cream (hydroquinone) after the area is healed.
For right now, you should immediately return the person that performed this procedure to review your situation. If they do not have a product to aid in healing, look for antibacterial creams at your local pharmacy.
Finally, the Alexandrite laser is designed for lighter skin types so if you do have an olive complexion (and after you are healed) look for a physician that uses a Lumenis Lightsheer. It will have less risk with the same results. Good luck.

Hello, thank you for your question. I am sorry to hear about your experience. It is important to make sure your skin type is accurately identified as to avoid burns. Looking at your picture, it looks like these should all heal with minor to no visibility, but I would definitely put antibiotic ointment on this area and keep it covered until it heals.Good luck!

LASER hair burns vary severity from mild to severe.  Many mild laser hair burns often respond with solely supportive treatments and topicals.  Deeper burns may require more extensive treatments including possible debriding and more aggressive treatments including possible laser treatments to treat the burned area.

Burns can happen and you are at a higher risk when the treatment is performed by an inexperienced aesthetician. The discoloration can sometimes be permanent but yours don't appear to be so.

Unfortunately this can be a common side
effect of lasers. It is important to go
to a fully trained professional. Burns can leave permanent scars that may fade with time. Prior to getting a laser treatment done make
sure your technician performs a test patch.
On darker skin types test patches should be done several weeks prior to
treatment to ensure this does not happen again. Sorry to hear about your experience.

Laser hair removal can cause burns in patients who have long hair that is unshaven at treatment.  Pigmented skin or ethnic skin can also absorb some energy and burn.  Most of the time, these burns are superficial.  In my practice, I perform the treatments and have not had permanent scars from a burn to date.Our advice would be to apply Melarase AM and Melarase PM to the affected area to reduce the likelihood of permanent discoloration. Raffy Karamanoukian MD FACS