When you’ve looked into laser hair removal, you may have come across a few foreign terms or acronyms and may not have known what they meant or what they stand for. One of the popular buzzwords circulating around the laser hair removal stratosphere is “IPL.”
Just three letters used so casually to describe a process of laser hair removal treatment. But what do those letters stand for? And what does it mean?
Let’s do a deep dive into what IPL laser hair removal really is and what it can do for you and your unwanted body hair.
What Does IPL Stand For?
IPL is short for intense pulsed light, and it refers to a specific type of treatment that is similar to laser treatment that is used for a few different things. It uses flashes of light to interact with melanin in your hair follicles that then is converted to heat energy. More on that later.
Let’s see how you can put IPL treatment to use for the good of your body.
How Does it Work?
You may have noticed that we specified this was not necessarily the exact same as a laser treatment, but it is very similar. There are a few key differences.
An IPL treatment uses multiple different wavelengths all at one time to provide a wider area of coverage. Lasers are more precise and specific, and IPL is scattered. This allows it to penetrate deeply into the second layer of your dermis, getting to the trouble spot without doing too much surface damage.
This quick, wide flash of light zaps the issues that your skin or hair are giving you, treating them at the source of the problem.
What Does it Do?
So what exactly does all of that mean for you physically?
IPL is used for a variety of different trouble spots. It has proven therapeutic for dark age spots, varicose veins, sun spots, and even acne. It works on each of these issues in unique ways, brightening those dark spots and solving common discoloration issues associated with acne scars.
One of the most popular uses for IPL hair removal treatments is for hair removal. Here’s how that works.
For Hair Removal
Like we mentioned earlier, it counteracts hair growth by an intense flash of light that hits the melanin in your hair follicles. This causes them to convert that light energy into heat energy, more or less frying the hair follicle and discouraging new growth.
It sometimes takes a few treatments to start to see results on your body hair, but once you have a few initial treatments done, it is usually more effective than shaving or waxing. You just have to do a few extra treatments every six months to keep the area free from hair.
For At-Home Use
The best thing about IPL hair removal treatment is that there are many devices on the market that are compact, handheld, and intended for at-home use. All you have to do is plug yours in to charge it and then get to work removing unwanted hair from anywhere on your body.
These small IPL tools sell for around a few hundred dollars, which eventually pays for itself since the best ones can last you up to ten years.
Does it Work?
Before you invest a few hundred bucks in a new device, you probably want to know if this thing is actually going to work. Most people have proven results with good quality IPL treatment devices, stating that their skin has never been so smooth for such long durations of time.
