More and more will see that beauty salons increasingly advertise for “permanent hair removal”, “Flash light hair removal” or “laser hair removal” as a new treatment to offer. IPL seems to be the new hair fashion removal product and is a new treatment method with light flashes, led by the pigment in the hair, destroying the hair follicles, no new hair can grow.
Contrary to what the ads promise to be not all the IPL treatments will permanently remove all hair but there will be at most a reduction of the hair. The outcome mainly depends on the quality of the device used, the professional skills of the therapist, and your own body’s acceptance of the process.
Intense Pulsed Light
IPL (Intense Pulsed Light), also called photo-epilation hair removal is a technique where a light emitting device , through a series of flash bulbs emit light of different high energy wavelengths. You can compare it to the wavelengths of a normal light bulb, but much stronger. The light penetrates into the hair root where the concentrated energy is absorbed by the pigment of the hair resulting in a n overheating of the hair follicle. This heat eventually leads to destruction of the hair follicle. It is virtually painless.
As dark colors absorb the heat better, there are two main consequences: As dark colors absorb more heat, it works best on dark hairs, on the contrary, light skin absorbs less heat so there will be more heat going into the darker hair… This makes that this technique works best on people with dark hair on light skin. With a darker skin, skin burns and pigment changes may occur. It is therefore advisable to test first on a less obvious area of skin to test how the skin reacts and to see if you have any hair removal side effects.
Number of treatments
Advertisers do often claim falsely that only 3, 4 or 5 treatments are needed and that hair then will not grow back. There are no guarantees given by any knowledge of the facts that this will happen. The number of treatments depends on the amount of hair each location requiring treatment and you bodies adaptability to this process. Agree in advance with the therapist how many treatments you might need to the desired area for hair removal to 75% -80% to avoid disappointment and expensive extra treatments after wards.
Laser hair removal is a simple procedure, see this video:
Laser hair removal versus IPL hair removal
Similar to IPL , a laser light burns the follicles , so the follicles are destroyed. The laser used here is 1 wavelength (think of the laser pointer pen, a straight red beam) while with IPL the lights flash a mix of many wavelengths of light. The high power (energy per cm2 skin) of a laser can reach deeper resulting hair removal in places where the intense pulse lights sometimes fail. Lasers need to be operated by highly trained professional and are generally find in the better private clinics or the specialized very large beauty salons. As this IPL is less painful and intrusive, it seems to be the preferred laser hair removal for men.
What equipment and / or beauty?
There are many different types’ laser hair removal machines en and IPL devices used for hair removal. All work in a different way and the result of one is better than the other. Before your “permanent” hair removal, before you allow a beauty therapist to do any work, we advise you ask the following questions,
- Is it a laser or IPL treatment?
• How many treatments do you need to achieve a good reduction of hair growth?
- Is therapist thoroughly educated and experienced in IPL or laser hair removal?
Are there before and after pictures of people treated? Ask especially what the results with the device are and how many treatments are necessary to achieve that.
One more advice: For a nice, smooth body, it is better to spread the consults over a longer period of time and use some natural products to smooth.