What is IPL Laser Hair Removal?

Nowadays, unwanted hair removal treatments are in great demand. Especially for women, it’s now become the hottest trend of removing unwanted hair from the body. In this modern age, a girl who has unwanted hair on her body looks weird and awkward. Therefore, men and especially women use various treatments to remove unwanted hair from the body permanently or for a long time. Shaving your hair is useful for getting rid of hair for a short time.

It’s easy, and anyone can do it, but it has many side effects. For example, shaving damages the skin and even damages the hair follicles, which eventually hurts your skin. This can cause severe pain and redness in the shaved area, and the hair will re-grow in that area in a few days. There are many ways to remove unwanted hair from the body for a permanent solution, such as IPL and laser treatment.

What is IPL Treatment?

So, let’s talk a little bit about IPL and what it’s all about.

IPL stands for Intense pulsed light, a technology used for therapeutic and aesthetic purposes to execute various skin treatments, i.e., such as hair removal, sunburn, skin pigmentation, acne. Technology is also used by optometrists and ophthalmologists to treat meibomian gland dysfunction (a condition in which glands are not secreting enough oil). Mostly it is used for long term hair removal.

It basically sends different wavelengths of light down to the hair shaft, which is absorbed by the dark color in the hair, and it inactivates the cells responsible for hair growth. The light frequency is much wider than Laser, and unlike laser, it doesn’t have any specified target. The light frequency, which is used in IPL, is commonly 500-700 nm unspecified. Now, most people will think that IPL treatment is painful, but it is completely pain-free. According to Braun’s company, their users rated the treatment pain as only 0.5 out of 10 in a survey, indicating a completely pain-free treatment.

Difference Between IPL and Laser

The Laser and IPL are somewhat similar to each other, and their concept is almost the same. Both are designed to eliminate unusual hair from your body for a very long time or completely. But the working of IPL and Laser is a bit different.

At laser removal, there is a beam that releases energy and is focused on a specific area. Then the beam is absorbed by the pigment called melanin within the hair. The light energy is then transferred into heat, which eventually destroys the hair follicles responsible for hair growth. This harm prevents or slows down following hair growth. The laser uses a sharp and specific lightwave, usually round about 755-800 nm. However, this type of hair removal can’t prevent hair growth permanently but delays the process of growth for a very long period. In initial treatments, you need to do multiple treatments, and after that, some maintenance treatments could be needed.

Whereas in IPL (Intense Pulsed Light) treatment, the same beam of high energy is used, but it doesn’t hit at the specific area. The IPL beam is usually wide and spread all over the nearby area; hence, it does not affect the follicle compared to Laser. When hits on the follicle, the light beam burns the follicle and gives you the freedom for about eight weeks from the hair. In contrast, the IPL does not require a specialist, or you do not need to go to the clinic. A user can buy a portable device of IPL machine and do the treatment at home. In general, the IPL beam can exclude a beam of 500-700 nm. Unlike lasers, this treatment is completely painless because you are not hitting the beam in a specific place, which results in a completely painless experience. But compared to laser treatment, it suspends the growth period for a short period of time.

Home IPL hair removal devices:

Home IPL hair removal devices use smaller pulses of light to restrict hair growth. On applying the device, hair goes into its resting phase and eventually falls off. In this way, less hair production occurs in that specific area. Home-based IPL devices use 450-550nm of spectral emissions.

Devices used for Home-based IPL hair removal:

Nowadays, the best devices used for IPL hair removal are:

Bareskin IPL Laser Hair Removal Device for Home use

Remington iLight Ultra face and body at home

Philips Lumea Prestige IPL hair removal

Philips Lumea Advanced IPL hair removal

BoSidin Painless permanent hair removal system

Advantages of IPL Hair Removal

As the IPL laser has a high spectrum and high spectrum light naturally covers a wide area, it usually covers a large area. Therefore, we can treat multiple kinds of skin conditions because it doesn’t have a specific target. Due to their wide coverage, we can make the process much faster and easy but note that you need to do multiple treatments to achieve optimal results. Because of its widespread and un-specified beam, it may require to do repetitions, and you may feel temporary overheating in your skin.

Due to its wide spectrum, it can be used to treat many different skin conditions as IPL treatment is not specific, and because of this, most of the light escapes outside, which affects your skin. So it would be best if you change it according to your skin tone. Because different skin tones have different spectrum limits, if you exceed that limit, it will ultimately damage your skin. Now there is another modern version of IPL called VPL (Variable Pulse Light) in which users can easily change the sensitivity of light according to their skin tone. In VPL, most of the energy hits the follicle, and a few of the light beam hits on the skin so that you’ll not feel any unnecessary heat or burn. These days, most of the IPL device comes with VPL support.

A home-based IPL hair removal device is clinically effective. It is easy to use, eye-safe, no need for training, and cost-effective. The device provides personal easiness with privacy in maintaining his/her skin hair-free for an extended period of time.

Is it Safe to Use at Home?

Yes, IPL hair removal is considered safe because ultraviolet radiations are filtered out although some temporary side effects are related to it. They can be used at home reducing the cost to get hair free skin all the time. There are some things that should be kept in mind after the treatment. Avoid perfumes, hot showers and deodorants for first 24 hours after the treatment. Take extra sun protection after the treatment. Don’t do waxing and plucking after the IPL treatment. Device works best when there is a significant contrast between hairs and the skin. This is not a magical process you have to complete all the sessions to remove your hair permanently but best thing about it is that you can shave your hair between IPL sessions.

Side Effects of IPL

As IPL is efficient quicker but it may have some temporary side effects on the skin of that area treated area. When treated your skin with IPL, the common side effects which occur are redness, soreness, itching, and temporary burn feeling. These side effects will not live more than one or two days and don’t have any permanent damage to your skin. However, depending on some conditions, these side effects can stay longer than two days.

After IPL treatment, your skin condition will be the same as if you expose it to the sun for a long time. So, its best remedy is to apply after the treatment as it prevents your skin from any harmful effects and efficiently reduces the strength of those side effects. It would be best to keep your IPL treated skin clean as it prevents any infectious disease as your treated skin. Because for the first few hours of treatment, your skin will become very delicate.  Mild swelling, pigment changes in darker skin may occur temporarily.

How long after IPL will I see results?

IPL treatment requires multiple sessions, and it can take up to 3-5 months to show the optimal results. Usually, IPL requires 8-10 treatments in 4-5 weeks. Don’t try multiple treatments at once, in fact you should take a break of at least 3 days after each session; the light beam will hit the follicle and if you do more than one session at a time, it can damage your skin as the light here will also affect your skin. The break after each session also depends on the color of your skin and hair, for which you should consult a specialist near you. The blonde skin tones usually have small waiting period and longer prevention of hair growth then darker skin tones. But it’s better that you should consult from your doctor nearby. Making a long story short, depending on skin tones it commonly requires 8-10 treatments in 4-5 weeks’ time and usually shows optimum result after 3-5 months.

Written by Monella

Dua Lipa Launches New Denim Collection with Pepe Jeans

Halloween films

Halloween Films: Our 10 favourites to get you into the Spooky Spirit!