Can I wax or use laser/IPL over a mole?

Short answer: wax around moles with care — never fire laser or IPL directly over one.

Moles come up constantly in hair removal, and the rules are different for each treatment:

• Waxing — avoid waxing directly over raised moles and skin tags. Wax can lift or tear them, which hurts, bleeds, and risks infection. Cover the mole with a small piece of petroleum jelly or a spot plaster and wax around it. Flat moles on otherwise healthy skin are generally fine to wax over, but go gently.
• Laser and IPL — never treat directly over a mole. Moles are pigmented, so they absorb the light energy and can burn, blister, or change appearance. Worse, a change in a mole is one of the key warning signs of melanoma — and laser damage can mask or mimic that change, delaying diagnosis. Cover moles with white pencil or a shield and work around them.
• Any mole that's new, growing, itching, bleeding, or changing colour — stop and refer. Don't treat over it, don't reassure the client it's "probably nothing". Advise them to see their GP. Salon professionals see more skin than most clients' doctors do; you may be the first person to spot something that matters.

Note it on the client's record so the whole team knows: which moles to avoid, and whether the client has been referred. A system that keeps that on file and flags it before every hair-removal appointment means nobody waxes or lasers over it by mistake six months later.