Looking back at 2015, treatments such as water injection and HIFU were extremely popular. But what will be the next big trend in medical aesthetics in 2016? It’s difficult to predict, as there is no crystal ball to see the future.
However, the popularity of medical aesthetics usually correlates with investments in the beauty industry. As long as businesses invest in purchasing products or equipment and then allocate resources to marketing, they can naturally attract consumers. So, what products are likely to catch investors’ eyes in 2016?
Although HIFU and water injection may continue to be popular, consumer demand will eventually require new products and concepts. After all, consumers always want something fresh and new. In recent months, some companies have begun promoting picosecond lasers. I have mentioned picosecond lasers in a previous article, so I won’t delve too deeply into it here. In short, the pulse duration time of the laser is shortened from nanoseconds to picoseconds, with picoseconds being one-thousandth of a nanosecond. The latest picosecond laser has a pulse duration time of a few hundred picoseconds, which is about one-tenth of the nanosecond laser. The main benefit of picosecond lasers is that they reduce the number of treatments required to remove tattoos, and the results are also better. In addition to tattoos, the manufacturer also claims that it can improve pigmentation and even refine pores and rejuvenate the skin.
Picosecond lasers have never been very popular due to their astronomical prices, which many medical aesthetic centers cannot afford. However, more and more manufacturers are selling picosecond lasers, and I have attended their seminars. Whenever more manufacturers start selling a product, market forces will lower the price. When picosecond lasers can be produced by different manufacturers (even in Korea and China), and the prices become affordable for even small-scale beauty centers, advertisements will spread, and it could become the next popular treatment. This is just my speculation, and we will only know for sure by the end of next year.
You may wonder whether picosecond lasers are effective. I am a conservative person and have seen some research results. Based on general medical aesthetics theory, picosecond lasers are effective for removing tattoos, but for other treatments, it is best to wait for more clinical data to be collected before drawing conclusions. I don’t have a crystal ball to predict the future, but I believe there will be many more “shares” and advertisements online in the near future.