You must be living under a rock if you haven’t heard about Intense Pulsed Light machines.
Gone are the days when people endured super painful hair removal methods such as waxing, threading, and tweezing.
IPL is the latest painless, efficient and effective technique, and it’s here to stay.
However, if you’re new to this treatment, it’s only fair to question its effectiveness.
Therefore, this article will cater to all your concerns regarding the success of IPL hair removal.
Factors Influencing the Effectivity of IPL Hair Removal Treatment?
While IPL is a generally effective treatment, it usually has different results for different people, and the results are generally determined the following factors:
1) Skin Color
People with lighter skin color and fairer complexion get better results with the hair removal treatment.
2) Hair Color
Individuals with darker facial hair can significantly benefit from IPL hair removal.
Suppose you’re wondering how these factors contribute to the procedure’s effectiveness.
In that case, the light emitted from the IPL machine attacks the dark pigment of the hair follicle and destroys it from within.
However, when dark hair is present on light-colored skin, it doesn’t harm the skin. This is because it has minimum melanin or dark pigment.
Conversely, when this treatment is used on someone with a darker skin tone, they will have more chances of burning their skin since the light energy will attack the melanin in their skin and hair.
So, in addition to burning your skin, people with darker skin tones may not find the treatment as effective as lighter skin tones.
The IPL hair removal technique doesn’t work on golden or light hair either since the hair has zero to very little melanin, which can’t be attacked by the light energy, leaving their hair as it is.
3) Phases of Hair Growth
The melanin in dark hair takes up the light energy from the IPL device.
This energy is transformed into heat, and it destroys the hair follicle.
While the hair is growing actively, it is connected to the follicle through a consistent blood supply.
Therefore, when the hair is destroyed in its growing phase, the follicle is also destroyed along with the hair.
This means that no hair would grow from that particular place ever again.
On the other hand, if the hair has progressed onto the later growth phase, the hair is not connected to the follicle anymore.
Therefore, when it’s attacked by light energy, the hair will be destroyed, but the follicle will remain unharmed.
This means that the follicle can still grow new hair and replace the one lost to the IPL hair removal treatment.
In such conditions, the hair usually grows back after a few weeks or a month.
This also justifies why it’s required to take several treatments repeatedly. In addition, you need to keep repeating the treatments after a specific time since it helps to destroy several follicles that are still in their growth phase, permanently stopping hair growth in that particular area.
Number of Sessions Required for Effective Outcomes
There isn’t a fixed number of sessions as different people require different numbers of sessions.
Furthermore, the interval between each session isn’t predetermined either, as every individual will require a specific interval based on their needs.
The number of sessions required can be determined by the IPL machine, the skin color, the hair color of the patient, and the area being treated.
However, research shows that 20% to 30% of hair is usually permanently lost with every treatment.
Furthermore, the gap between hair regrowth increases with each session as well.
Therefore, you could start with one session every one to two months, and this will naturally be followed by one session after every 3 to 4 months.
Conclusion
IPL hair removal is undoubtedly an effective treatment capable of giving long-lasting results as opposed to the former and outdated hair removal methods.
However, you need to take your skin color, hair color into account before proceeding with the treatment, and the results will only keep improving with time.
