There are probably one or more beauty establishments in your neighborhood that offer laser hair removal. Laser hair removal uses, as its name suggests, a laser beam that destroys the hair follicle. With a few sessions you can be sure that the hair will not appear again, or at least that it will take a long time. However, laser hair removal can be expensive and painful. There is a gentler alternative that can be used at home: IPL hair removal.
Intense pulsed light (IPL) hair removal has gained popularity in recent years as an alternative to other at-home hair removal methods, such as shaving, waxing, or using depilatory creams. Unlike the latter methods, which last a few days before the hair grows back strongly, IPL hair removal promises gradual and longer-lasting hair reduction.
IPL hair removal uses a broader, less concentrated spectrum of light than laser, covering different wavelengths. This makes its application less precise and less deep, and also less painful than with the laser. But it may require more sessions to achieve similar hair reduction.
How IPL hair removal works
To start IPL hair removal, you need to purchase a device similar to a gun from a science fiction movie, which has a slit through which intense pulsed light is emitted. This intense light is absorbed by melanin in hair, which is the dark substance that gives color to skin and body hair.
By absorbing light, the energy is transformed into heat. This heat inhibits or destroys the hair follicle, thereby inhibiting future hair growth. As with lasers, IPL works through the difference in tone between the hair and the surrounding skin. Dark hair absorbs light and warms up, while light skin reflects it. In this way, the hairs are destroyed without burning the skin.
The fact that IPL technology uses a wider range of wavelengths than lasers allows larger areas to be treated with each pass and is better suited to different skin and hair types. However, it remains light and has limitations. This won’t work well on people with blonde or gray hair, because they don’t have dark-colored melanin to absorb light. There are also difficulties in the case of dark-skinned people, as there is not much difference between hair color and skin color. In both cases, there is a risk of side effects, such as redness or burning.
IPL at home versus other methods
The main difference between IPL treatment and laser hair removal in beauty clinics is the duration. While laser hair removal provides focused light on the desired area, IPL, on the other hand, disperses the focused light over a wider area of the skin. Scattered light, not being as powerful as the focused laser beam, will not be as effective as laser light. Additionally, laser hair removal devices are much more powerful than at-home IPL.
While a laser hair removal session lasts around half an hour, when using IPL hair removal at home we will need more time to remove excess hair in the same area, or several sessions over several days. This means that, for example, although laser can achieve permanent hair reduction in six to eight sessions, we may need to repeat IPL hair removal once or twice a week, which is what the manufacturers recommend. With this frequency, hair removal can take several months, although there will always be variations between each case.
While in a professional setting laser application is supervised by trained personnel, home IPL devices are designed to be safer in anyone’s hands. This means that manufacturers intentionally reduce the power of the light. Greater security is offset by the need for more patience and commitment to achieve results. In addition to skin tone, the effectiveness of IPL hair removal is also influenced by hormonal and genetic factors, meaning that some people may experience less or slower hair reduction than others.
One of the advantages of at-home IPL hair removal is that the application is comfortable and minimally painful compared to professional laser hair removal or methods such as waxing. Most modern devices are equipped with cooling systems and intensity adjustment options that allow the treatment to be adapted to each person’s comfort level, reducing the feeling of heat or discomfort during treatment. use. But be careful, there is always a small risk of side effects, such as redness, irritation or temporary hyperpigmentation, in which case it is advisable to stop the treatment and consult a healthcare professional.
IPL hair removal devices for home use can be a significant initial investment compared to shaving, waxing or hair removal creams. These are devices that cost between 100 and 500 euros. However, the savings are in the long term, especially when compared to the cost of laser hair removal, which can be much higher. In addition, no hair removal method is permanent, and although hair removal can last several months or even years, it is common that periodic touch-ups are necessary, in which case we will already have the device at home and no additional expenses will be necessary. .
At-home hair removal with IPL devices has been studied and found to produce permanent hair reduction in 80% of cases one year after treatment. The key is patience and perseverance, since this method requires several sessions to show visible effects.
