[Laser epilation. A systematic review of evidence-based clinical results]

Unwanted hair growth remains a therapeutic challenge and an effective treatment modality without side effects is needed. Today, hair removal is offered with lasers and light sources and patients may expect long-lasting or permanent hair removal. Evidence-based clinical results have been considerably examined for ruby and alexandrite lasers, whereas there is little documentation on Nd:YAG and diode lasers. The results with the diode laser are, however, promising. No controlled clinical studies have been published with intense pulsed light sources. We conclude that there is scientific evidence of a short-term effect after hair removal with ruby, alexandrite, Nd:YAG, and diode lasers (three, six months). Ruby and diode lasers may have a long-lasting effect (one year), but this, however, must be further clarified. No studies have examined whether laser hair removal may be permanent. The occurrence of postoperative side effects is reported to be low for all laser systems. From this review of the literature, we conclude that laser hair removal does not at the moment have a permanent or convincing long-lasting effectiveness.