THE LIGHT OF THEIR LIVES; LATEST LASERS OFFER NEW HOPE FOR REMOVING UNWANTED HAIR.

Byline: Phil Davis Staff Writer

It started when she hit puberty. Thick dark hairs began sprouting around her chin.

Hormonal overdrive was to blame, but that didn't ease the decade of torment Natalie Dabboussi would face.

School kids called her a ``camel.'' And even compliments were left-handed: ``You're pretty, but what happened to your face?'' The taunts followed her into adult life, where she continued an unsuccessful all-out war on the facial hair.

``You go from depilatories and plucking to shaving because the hair is growing so fast and so dark that, at 20 to 21 years old, you're out in the dating field and life and work and at 6 or 7 o'clock you have a 5 o'clock shadow,'' Dabboussi said. ``No matter how much makeup you put on your face, it will still show through. I got close with men and couldn't let them touch my face because it was such a scary insecurity of mine.''

Finally, a friend suggested laser hair removal. She was an ideal candidate: fair-skinned with extremely dark hair. The 22-year-old Reseda executive assistant went to LaserSmooth Medical Associates in Encino for her first treatment in April. For 22 minutes, Dr. Adrian Y. Yi applied intense 10- to 30-millisecond bursts of laser light to her chin. The high-energy light was absorbed by the dark roots of her hair, causing a burst of heat that destroyed the stubborn hair follicles.

Three treatments later, Dabboussi's facial hair is mostly gone. She went in for a fourth - and, she hopes, final - treatment on July 23.

``I'm so incredibly happy and changed,'' she said. ``I don't feel like I'm hiding anymore. I feel like a whole new me.''

Not everyone has as much success as Dabboussi with laser hair removal, but more men and women are turning to the latest generation of lasers to banish unwanted body hair. They're enduring stinging pain (each burst feels like a rubber band snapping against your skin) and paying premium prices to reduce the number of hairs sprouting from bikini lines, backs and even ears.

Lasers don't mean the end of unwanted body hair, but many dermatologists and plastic surgeons say the technology is the best available in the hair removal business. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration permits laser owners only to claim ``permanent hair reduction,'' not permanent hair removal.

Anyone who says otherwise is lying.

``You definitely have less hair,'' said Yi, the Encino physician who zapped Dabboussi's facial hair. ``If I say removal and one or two hairs grow back, I'd be a liar. But an amazing amount of hair disappears.''

The few scientific studies on the topic show that the hair that does grow back is usually lighter, softer and thinner.

``It does work,'' said Dr. Gary Lask, head of dermatologic surgery at the University of California, Los Angeles. ``The thing with hair removal is it takes a good year or two to get results. The hair can grow back for up to six months after you treat the spot.''

The technology is relatively new. People have battled unwanted hair for centuries, shaving, waxing and even using the twist of threads to yank it out by the roots. But it always grows back and often leads to new irritations, such as ingrown hairs. Laser surgery shows promise in keeping the image conscious ahead in the battle against body hair - and is very effective in eliminating ingrown hair.

But the laser industry got a black eye a decade ago when the first generation of lasers proved to be ineffective.

``It was a very safe technology, but the company data that told us it was effective was wrong,'' Lask said. ``It wasn't that effective.''

A new wave of improved lasers hit the market a few years ago and led to the explosion of ``banish bikini lines'' ads in weekly magazines and newspapers. Lask said the most popular and apparently most effective machines now on the market are diode, Alexandrite and ruby lasers. Epilight, another popular hair-removal system, is not a laser, although it works on the same principle: Using bursts of high-energy light to destroy hair follicles.

Electrolysis, an older hair-removal technique, also works on that principle, but relies on a tiny sharp needle to deliver heat to the follicle. The process is time-consuming because each hair is treated individually. It is also painful.

``(Laser) hurts much less than electrolysis,'' said Mary Parseghian, who got her job as patient coordinator at LaserSmooth after a lifetime of trying just about everything to remove unwanted body hair. ``But it does hurt. You can tolerate it if it's just a small area, but when you're doing a full man's back you really want to give them something. It takes two hours and they're like, `Yow, wow.' ''

Doctors use a numbing cream and cooling gels (either applied to the skin or on the tip of the laser) to ease the pain.

All lasers (and Epilight) have one thing in common: high cost. The lasers cost in excess of $100,000. And hair removal can run from $200 for a single treatment of an upper lip to $1,000 to do an entire back or both legs. Since hair grows in cycles, three to four treatments are necessary to get maximum results. It gets expensive fast.

Yi suggests prospective clients start with an area they can afford and see if they are satisfied with the results. He said it's possible to get overly ambitious and end up running out of money before enough treatments are done to get the best results.

Dr. Walter D. Dishell, the plastic surgeon who owns the LaserSmooth clinic, said the high cost and the first miscues mean business is fairly slow. Cosmetic surgery and dermatology companies don't keep statistics on the number of patients, but doctors like Yi and Dishell are banking on a boom.

``Our feeling is there is real potential here,'' Dishell said. ``There is a lot of money spent on hair removal in the United States, and if a patient can say, `Gee, this is going to work and I can do this instead of waxing or electrolysis,' then I think it has real potential. At this point it's more of a service, but at some point we're hoping it will become something financially good for our practice.''

Until then, doctors have to hustle. Dishell knows a New Jersey doctor who takes a laser to nail salons on weekends to generate business.

People who've done it say the pain and cost is worth it.

``I'm happy, it's much better,'' accountant Janet Schwartzberg said of the laser treatments she's had on her upper lip. ``There's still some (hair), so I'm coming back for a fourth time. I'm hoping it will be a permanent solution.''

Know the facts before getting hair zapped

Laser surgery is like any other medical procedure; it pays to do a little homework before undergoing the process.

Lasers destroy hair follicles by attacking pigment in hair roots, so the more contrast between the skin and the hair, the better. The process will not work on gray, white or platinum blond hair. It also is less effective on darker skin, because doctors must reduce the power of the laser to avoid damaging the skin. Patients with tans or dark skin can end up with spots that take from a week to a year to fade. Burning or scarring is possible, but rare.

Shop around. Get your physician or dermatologist to recommend someone he or she trusts. Encino plastic surgeon Walter D. Dishell suggests visiting established businesses. ``I'm not going to jeopardize a 30-year practice, where I've done say 5,000 cosmetic procedures, by getting a bad reputation because I'm getting poor results with hair removal,'' Dishell said. California law requires the procedure be performed by a doctor, registered nurse or physician's assistant.

Ask for scientific articles that back up the effectiveness of the laser that will be used in the process. Make sure the laser is FDA-approved. Call the agency's consumer section at [phone], or check its Web site at www.fda.gov.

Bring your checkbook. For best results, a man will have to fork out roughly $3,000 to $4,000 to have his back hair zapped - the most popular male procedure. The price is similar to laser a woman's legs and thighs. Bikini lines, most popular with women, costs about $1,000 for three treatments.

Results may vary. Hair grows in cycles and is regulated by hormones, which vary from person to person. And some body hair is more resilient than others. Doctors report good results with back hair, but ``underarms are very resistant,'' said Isabel Pambakien, head nurse at UCLA's dermatology department. ``That may take more than four treatments.'' Moustaches also are stubborn.

- Phil Davis

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos, Box

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) GOODBYE, RAZOR

Laser Treatment replacing traditional hair-removal methods

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer

(2) Dr. Walter D. Dishell demonstrates a laser treatment for the removal of hair in a re-enactment with patient coordinator Mary Parseghian.

Phil McCarten/Staff Photographer

Box: Know the facts before getting hair zapped (See text)