Help! My Brows Are Darker After My First Laser Removal!

I thought the laser was supposed to remove my old microblading, not make it darker!

Obviously the goal of laser removal is to lighten the pigment over time until it's either fully removed or it's light enough to cover with a better method and shape.  

But progress isn't linear! Sometimes the color has to turn darker before it lightens!

Wavelengths

With laser removal, there are different light wavelengths that target different pigment colors. If you look at the color chart below, you can see that the wavelengths that remove red/orange/yellow pigments will not remove black or blue pigments. 

But Why Does it Look Darker?

When you have a very dark color like black or gray, and you mix a little bit of orange or red into that color, it will appear lighter. Removing that warm color again will make it appear darker. So when we target the warm tones in old microblading or tattoo, there's a good chance that the brows will be darker.

This is a good thing! Usually, warm colors are harder to remove. If we see your eyebrows darken significantly after the first laser removal session, it means that we were successful in removing some of that more stubborn coloration. 

Once we're done removing the warm tones, the blacks and blues are easy!