IPL hair removal: Could this be your ideal hair removal treatment?

IPL stands for Intense Pulsed Light and is an increasingly popular form of light therapy that can be used for hair removal. IPL differs from other common hair removal techniques, such as laser hair removal. IPL hair removal emits a variety of light wavelengths that distribute within the skin, whereas laser hair removal only emits one type of wavelength.

How does IPL treatment work?

The wavelengths emitted by an IPL treatment remove hair by targeting the pigment hair follicles. The light waves are absorbed by this pigment, which translates to heat energy and effectively kills the hair-producing cells. This means that hair must be living in order for the IPL treatment to kill a hair follicle. At any given time, only 20 to 40 per cent of hair on the human body is alive and dead hairs can remain attached to the body for a few weeks. As a result, up to 12 treatments of IPL are needed in the treatment area to kill all the hairs as they regrow after a cycle of death or life.

What are the benefits of IPL treatment?

As IPL uses multiple light waves instead of one powerful light wave, it is not the most powerful type of hair removal treatment. This makes IPL better suited to fairer skin types or areas of the body with lighter hair growth. A benefit of IPL treatment is that it can be manipulated to specifically target pigments on a customer-by-customer basis, giving you a customised hair removal experience.

In addition to this, IPL is also a cheaper alternative to laser hair removal. However, customers should be warned that an IPL session could be considerably more painful than more expensive therapies like laser therapy.

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