What is IPL hair removal and how does it compare to Laser treatment
IPL stands for Intense Pulsed Light. IPL is not only a hair removal treatment but can be used for many other skin treatments. In IPL a broad spectrum of light. The light is applied to the skin and it will strike the hair shaft and travel down to the root, it heats it up and the root is destroyed.
IPL can only be used on light and medium skin and dark hair. This is because it sends out quite a lot of different wavelengths of light into your skin and if your skin is too dark the light will actually heat up and burn the skin as opposed to the hair.
IPL can be quite painful due to the amount of wavelengths being sent into your skin.
So if we compare these facts to Laser hair removal. Laser hair removal is the far more effective and sophisticated form of hair removal which developed out of IPL. With Laser hair removal just one specific wavelength is sent out (which is set depending on the skin and hair colour) to really target the hair. Whereas in IPL with the multitude of wavelengths it is more diffused and energy is lost into the rest of your skin.
The good news is that Laser hair removal is also less painful than IPL. There is some pain and it is described generally as having an elastic band pinged on your skin. This does vary from person to person and depend on what part of the body the hair is being removed from. Many Lasers also come with cooling air that cools while it Lasers.
Whereas IPL can only be done on fair skin Lasers are now available for darker skin – just make sure the clinic has the correct Laser. On both IPL and Laser though ensure you do not arrange any treatments while tanned. Neither Laser nor IPL can currently work on fair hair yet.
Both IPL and Laser hair removal can create permanent hair removal after the series of treatments but we would certainly recommend booking yourself in for Laser treatments!
For further information about laser hair removal, please visit this page
