Frequently Asked Questions [FAQ’s]

Heredity and ethnic background constitute the primary causes of hair growth.  Superfluous or excessive hair growth in women often results from normal biological changes that they undergo throughout life, such as puberty, pregnancy, menopause and old age.  Any one of these changes may cause an increase in hair growth in areas that never had hair before, or cause a small to moderate problem area to worsen.  Other causes of hair growth can be associated with certain medications, stress and obesity.

More serious causes can be an abnormality in the endocrine system, such as irregular menstrual cycles; ovarian disorders, such as Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS); and thyroid abnormalities.  If you suspect any of these conditions — or if during your skin evaluation we suspect any of them – we will always recommend that you seek a medical evaluation.

Lasers remove hair for good, giving you a long-lasting, even permanent result.  In only a few treatments, we can clear your skin of the unwanted hair that has bothered you for so long.

Traditional hair removal methods, such as waxing, shaving, depilatory creams, plucking/tweezing, sugaring, and stringing provide only temporary results — some for fewer than 24 hours.  Within hours or possibly days, you are back at it again, hunched over a magnifying mirror to tweeze out facial hair, running a razor over tender skin, or enduring painful waxing.  To make it worse, these methods can often stimulate hair growth!

Once you start LHR, you begin your life of being hair free where you want to be!

Hair removal lasers emit a light at a specific wavelength that is known to be absorbed by the pigment (color) in the hair follicle — without damaging the surrounding skin. The light is converted to heat energy, which in turns disables the hair follicle so that it will not produce another hair.

The most popular areas are Upper/ Lower Lips, Chin, Jawline, Sides of face, forhead, between eyebrows, Nose, Ears, Neck, Axilla (underarms), bikini line, Legs, Forearms, Hands, Fingers, Breast, Chest, Abdomen, Back, Sternal Line (mid chest), Beard Shaping especially in men.

There really is no age limit, but we never treat toddlers. Young people that are not finished growing will develop new hair as they grow, and will require touch ups to maintain the results. We currently do not treat children under the age of 13. Older people usually have gray hair that will not respond to laser.

We use ChillTip based Advanced Contact Cooling System to protect your outer skin during a laser hair reduction treatment.  The laser’s light emerges through a handpiece that is pressed against your skin, to instantly remove the heat that gives you a little “pinch” feeling as the laser pulses. You experience minimum discomfort during a Laser treatment, and many of our patients report that the sensation is much more comfortable than waxing, electrolysis, or even tweezing!

Laser hair removal works best on individuals with light skin and coarse, dark hair (brown and black) hair. 

A number of factors determine the length of time for a treatment.  At VIVID, we plan for adequate time to go as slowly or as fast as is comfortable and appropriate for each patient.  The size and “topography” of the area treated factors into the time required, as does the amount of preparation.  As a general rule, legs and backs take an hour to an hour and a half, while an upper lip or the tops of ears may require eight to 10 minutes.  The front of the neck or underarms can take as little as 20 minutes.

Hair grows in repeating cycles, and only in the actively growing phase does the hair contain enough pigment to absorb sufficient energy to disable the hair follicle.  When hair is in the dormant phase, it has little or no pigment, and it cannot absorb the laser light.  When you come in for your treatment, we disable all of the hair follicles with actively growing hair in the treatment area.  A few weeks later, some of your dormant hairs will have moved into the actively growing stage, and you will come in for a treatment to disable those.  As this cycle gets repeated, you experience increasing reduction of hair.

It will take six to eight treatments to achieve clearance of an area.  We have some patients who are happy after four treatments, and a tiny minority who have needed more than eight —  but far fewer than you would need to achieve clearance using any other method of hair removal.

It may take more sessions if there is underlying horomonal problems like PCOS, etc. 

Waxing, tweezing and depilatory creams are among the top offenders for stimulating hair growth.  When a hair root is pulled at or tugged on to remove it, a blood supply rushes to the area nourishing the hair follicle.  When this process is done regularly the result is growth of very coarse, deep rooted hairs.  Most patients are surprised to learn that years of waxing and/or tweezing have played a role in making the hair growth worse.

You may experience a small but manageable sensation that we describe as a “pinch” or a “zap” when we pulse the laser.  Most of our former patients report that the discomfort is far less than those methods of hair removal.  Stress, fatigue, caffeine, your menstrual cycle and pain tolerance may also influence the level of comfort — or discomfort — that you feel.

That is a myth:  Laser is NOT more expensive, especially when you factor in the value of your time.  Certainly there is an up-front expenditure for a series of laser treatments – but you quickly get a return on your investment, all the while achieving your goal of hair removal! 

Laser is a hair reduction treatment and not a hair removal procedure. It works on the hair follicles, reducing their fertility and capacity to re-grow. In 6-8 sessions, it drastically reduces hair growth, thus resulting is permanently smooth, soft skin.

Laser hair reduction is a process that needs due care both on the part of the technician/doctor as well as on the part of the patient.

The following care check-list is highly recommended:-

• Avoid sun exposure for at least 4-6 weeks prior and post the procedure.
• Do not pluck/ wax hair while under-going laser hair reduction (Even pre/post the session).
• Apply post care ointments as advised by the treating doctor.
• In case you have extremely dense/ fast re-growth, a maintenance touch up session is advisable every 6-12 months.

It is highly advisable to shave before getting a laser Hair Reduction session done. This ensures that there is no hair above the skin which the laser machine will pick. Laser machine tends to target the hair above/ below the skin. Shaving ensures there is no hair above the skin that the laser machine will target, hence preventing potential burns. It is highly advisable not to shave at home, instead let the technician shave just before doing the laser session.

Do not Wax during the course of the procedure even pre-post the sessions.

People often have a misconception that laser causes cancer. The light energy used in laser hair removal only facilitates superficial heating and destruction of hair follicles, thereby resulting in permanent hair reduction. Research proves there is no risk of cancer because of laser.

This is another misconception that People often have viz. Laser has long term side effects. The fact is that laser has no side effects. Our laser ChillTip technology is completely safe with no long term side effects. Temporary side effects like redness, scarring, superficial discoloration of the treated area happens during the procedure but settles down with due post care, as advised by treating doctor.

While botox and fillers are well tolerated and generally regarded as painless. The pain sensation is subjective; well tolerated by some and unbearable for others. For sensitive individuals we suggest numbing gel or topical anaesthesia one hour prior to procedure which reduces the pain sensation considerably. However the latest Q-switch laser is virtually painless with zero recovery time and you get instant results.

No serious side-effects or complications are noted post-treatment, however some patients may get mild redness and inflammation over the treated area which is self-limiting and settles overnight. Ice compresses may be applied to the treatment areas to speed up recovery and to make you more comfortable.

Using dermaroller, mesogun or insulin syringe, microholes are created over the scalp and platelet rich plasma is instilled into the deeper layers of scalp which stimulate the existing hair follicles and promote the new hair growth.

Chemical peels are mild acids derived from organic sources. These acids when applied over skin for a recommended period of time; have ability to penetrate to deeper layers of skin. Once inside the deeper structures these peels have ability to improve pigmentation problems and to produce textural changes, thus rejuvenate skin.

Chemical peels are nowadays being used for a variety of indications like melasma, post-inflammatory pigmentation, acne or pimples, open pores, fine lines, facial rejuvenation, instant glow and to some extent for scars and stretch marks too.

It is better if the skin can be prepared first with night time application of retinoic acid based creams 2 to 3 weeks prior to peeling. Once skin is primed, right chemical peel is chosen for your skin type. After degreasing the skin with acetone, the chemical peel is applied over your face for a specified period of time or till the appearance of areas of redness over face, which is considered the end point. The peel is neutralized with neutralizing solution, followed by application of soothing gel and finally a sunscreen over the face.

There is mild stinging sensation during and after peeling. You will notice redness and there is peeling of skin over 4-7 days. This should subside with a new and fresh looking skin in 14-21 days. Generally, the duration of peeling will depend on the peel used and the concentration of the peel. Your Dermatologist will advise you appropriately. The procedure can be repeated every 2-3 weeks for superficial peeling and 4-6 weeks for deep peeling.

Usually chemical peel is followed by microscopic shedding of dead cells meaning there won’t be any visible changes over the face. Sometimes there is visible peeling of fine layers of skin which lasts for 3 to 7 days.

After initial 5 to 6 sittings, one needs maintenance sittings every 3 to 6 months depending upon requirement for more long lasting results.

No, chemical peels are safe procedures when done by an expert. Infact, they have rejuvenating or antiaging qualities over long run.

It is best to avoid salon procedures like bleaching and facials while undergoing chemical peels.

• Avoid sun-exposure for at least 48hrs after peeling
• Use sunscreens before going out and every 2-3hrs thereafter.
• Don’t use make-up immediately after peels: It is often best to do peels near weekend, so you can rest your skin without any make-up over the weekend.
• Avoid exercise for 12hrs after peel, to prevent excessive sweating.
• Do not shave for 24hrs after peel

Melanocyte transplantation is a surgical method which replenishes the melanocytes in the areas devoid of them. A thin, small piece of normally pigmented skin is obtained, usually from patient’s buttock/thigh. Through a highly specialised procedure, normal functioning melanocytes are separated from this piece of skin and made into a liquid suspension. This suspension is applied on to the white patches. Melanocytes, then start to proliferate and produce melanin and within a period of weeks to months, natural looking pigment covers the patches, making them indiscernible from the surrounding skin. This procedure is also called ‘non-cultured epidermal cell suspension transfer’ or ‘non-cultured cellular grafting’ or ‘melanocyte-keratinocyte transplantation procedure’.

Other surgical procedures for vitiligo are Punch Grafting, Split-Thickness Skin Grafting and Suction Blister Epidermal Grafting. Compared to these methods, Melanocyte Transplantation has the distinct advantages of requiring a small piece of donor skin (about 1/4th to 1/10th the size of recipient patches) and resulting in better colour match than other methods by providing pigmentation similar to that of surrounding skin. Melanocyte Transplantation is a specialised procedure requiring expertise, sophisticated techniques and devices.

In Advanced Melanocyte Transplantaton,  we extract melanocytes from the skin directly without removing your skin.

The procedure is done under local anaesthesia where the skin operated upon is temporarily rendered sensation-less and no/minimal pain is felt during the procedure itself. A small piece of skin graft is taken from buttock/thigh (donor area) which is dressed immediately. The white patches are also similarly anaesthetised before they are prepared for application of melanocyte suspension. Thereafter they are covered with special dressing material. The dressing on both donor and recipient regions remain for about 7 days.

Melanocyte transplantation is a process of restoring the cells which produce pigment (Melanocytes) at the white patches of Vitiligo (which are devoid of them). After the procedure, the patches are covered with dressings for seven days. After seven days of healing, the operated area usually appears red. As the redness subsides, it appears white (as before the surgery). With suitable environment, nourishment and stimulation, the newly placed melanocytes start to produce pigment which eventually covers the whole patch. Pigmentation after a melanocyte transplantation typically starts appearing after few weeks. Within a span of four to six months, usually, we expect good coverage of the lesion with pigment. You may be advised certain medicated creams or phototherapy (NB-UVB) after 2-3 weeks of surgery to stimulate melanocytes.

Patients with stable disease are the right candidates for melanocyte transplantation. We define stability as no new white lesions and no increase in size of old lesions for a minimum of 2 years. Also, features such as Koebner’s phenomenon (depigmentation at sites of trauma on skin), Keloid (large scars) formation should be absent in the ideal candidate. Thorough clinical examination, review of old treatment and photographic records are important for ascertain suitability for melanocyte transplantation. Generally, Segmental Vitiligo patients are known to respond best to melanocyte transplantation. Palms, Soles and Acrofacial Vitiligo (involving fingertips and region around mouth) are difficult to re-pigment.

Our approach towards managing a patient of vitiligo is meticulous, evidence-based and in accordance with international guidelines. The therapies, reagents and protocols used by us are of international standards. We are ever-mindful regarding suitability of different treatments for different patients and try to tailor the treatment according to the patients’ needs and lifestyle. Melanocyte transplantation is a highly specialised procedure which requires unique set of skills and expertise. At VIVID, we attempt to deliver consistently good results with their standardised technique. VIVID Skin Care & Cosmetology Centre is among very few centres to offer Vitiligo Surgery in Rajkot esp.  Melanocyte Transplant and Advanced Melanocyte Transplant.