This is mainly based on the skin type that is being treated. IPL is a gentle way of hair reduction due to the way it diverges or spreads when incident on skin as there are a multitude of wavelengths that are produced in pulses. IPL requires multiple visits to reach a desired outcome as heat needs to travel to the hair follicle from where it is incident. Lasers are focused and monochromatic (single wavelength) and are usually deep pulsed so they can hit the target hair follicles directly in less number of sessions compared to IPL. The choice of IPL/Laser treatment is usually based on the skin phototype, hair color, cost effectiveness (laser is usually the expensive one), etc. But, at Lawnton Laser Clinic, patient satisfaction is our goal so you need not worry about ever changing costs, just leave it up-to our clinical experts to devise a treatment plan best suited to your skin treatment and hair removal needs.
How painful is it?
Ideally, if you have the right machine, an optimised treatment plan, an in-depth skin consultation with a qualified staff, your treatment should not be painful. Recent technology with IPL and lasers have advanced and pain is longer a factor during treatments. With IPLs , a ‘warm and tingly’ feeling is considered normal. A ‘warm rubber snap’ is traditionally considered normal for lasers which are usually a little more uncomfortable than IPLs. At Lawnton Laser Clinic, hair removal treatments will not be as painful as machines are optimised to the thermal relaxation time or TRT [1,2,3] of your hair follicle. This just means we don’t blast you with a large amount of energy in one go but just enough to reach hair follicle damage keeping your surrounding skin and blood vessels less affected by the laser beam and yes the outcome is just no pain!