Eye safety during hair removal After reviewing the medical literature discussing hair removal
products and eye injury (such as  O'Grady 1989), I have
included precautions about hair removal methods.
Lasers
When getting laser hair removal:
Always wear opaque government-approved
eye protection. You should not be able to see light coming in
around the edges when you have the eye protectors on.
As a precaution, I recommend avoiding laser treatments
close to the eyes, such as eyebrows.
See also Russell 1996 and
Bader 1996 for more tips on laser eye
safety.
There have been no documented cases of
eye injury from laser hair removal devices at this time. However,
the possibility exists (see Smith 1994 for a laser
eye damage model). There have been reports of laser eye damage
during other dermatological laser procedures:
Widder (1998):
(laser skin resurfacing)
Trelles (2000):
(laser blepharoplasty)
Spelsberg (2000):
(laser skin resurfacing)
Microwaves
Microwave hair removal should never
be performed on the face or near the eyes. There
is medical documentation that microwave radiation can cause cataracts:
Roberts (1985): (overview
of microwave eye damage)
Lipman (1988): (microwaves
and cataracts)
Cutz (1989): (overview
of microwave eye damage)
Other methods
When treating hair on the eyebrows or near the eyes:
Be careful with tweezers, razors, electrolysis
probes, etc. which can scratch the cornea.
Do not use cream or powder depilatories.
Be very careful when using hair bleaches,
hot wax, or topical anesthetics like EMLA.
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hair removal
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