Have you ever heard of Laser hair removal or IPL 👀? Or you might often hear people talking about them. But what are they exactly and what’s the difference🤷♀️?
What is IPL?
IPL or Intense Pulsed Light is a hair removal technique that uses broad beams of light to target the melanin of the hair and bring it into the resting phase, growing less body hair in the area.
What is laser hair removal?
Laser hair removal uses a single concentrated beam of light to remove unwanted hair. In hair removal, the single laser light will heat the hair follicle then prevent or delay future hair growth. Anyways, even though both IPL & Laser seem similar, there are huge differences in these 2 methods.
What are the differences?
1. The effectiveness
IPL has broad spectrum light to distribute the power to the skin🌈. Because of the energy distribution, IPL has a great coverage and can take more hairs in one time. Also, IPL hair removal results can last for up to 6 months.
Meanwhile, laser hair removal works with single spectrum light to target the skin. Yep you’re right… Just like a flashlight🔦. Then it has more power to reach the bottom of the roots and take out the hair follicles. As a result, Laser is more effective in fully removing the hair and giving a longer result for years. In addition, the hair growth reduced with Laser is greater than IPL🙌.
2. Treatment time
In terms of treatment time, laser is faster than IPL. For example, you need 60 minutes to treat both legs with IPL. As of Laser, you may need around 15-20 mins to treat both legs🦵🦵
3. Number of Treatment Process
Laser hair removal equipment may focus light down into the pores of the skin, reaching closer to the follicle to treat it and eventually prevent regrowth. Because single hairs are burned to damaging temperatures at a faster rate with laser hair removal than with IPL, it can provide significantly faster results. As a consequence, achieving the same outcomes may need fewer laser hair removal treatments.
4. The Cost
Time to talk about the money💸 YEP…..There’s a huge difference in price between IPL and Laser hair removal💰For example, the Philips Lumea IPL Device for self-treatment €499.99. On the other hand, Laser hair removal treatment has to be done at a salon with a professional. The cost for the whole laser treatment (7 sessions) ranges between €330 - €1380 depending on the area you want to treat. You can use our price calculator to compare the Price of Laser vs Waxing and find out which is best for you.
5. Suitability on Different Skin & Hair Tone
IPL treatment works on light skin shade and dark hair color such as dark blonde, brown, and black hair. IPL works on the basis of light absorption from the melanin in the hair. Darker hair colors have more melanin and can absorb more light to transfer power to the skin.
For Laser, the mechanism is way simpler. Laser hair removal works effectively on all skin tones. Wow Great 🤩 For those who have olive skin - dark skin, it is best for you to go for Laser hair removal because the laser technology uses different light colours to target different skin and hair colours.
6. The Machine
Even though IPL and Laser are both hair removal techniques, they are using different machines and technology. The example of an IPL Machine is Philips Lumea IPL 900. It uses a Smartskin sensor to match the color of the skin and hair treated.
Laser hair removal machine is larger and usually owned by the salons. For example, our salon uses the Alma Soprano Titanium Machine. This machine has a cooling system technology that makes treatment less painless and faster(on the right)
7. Knowledge to use the device
There’s also a difference in the knowledge required for IPL and Laser. As such, you can do self IPL treatment at home by yourself. But this is not the case for Laser, it has to be done at a salon by the professional. The laser practitioners must have done a training course before doing a treatment for the patient.
Pros & Cons of IPL and Laser Hair Removal
IPL (Intense Pulsed Light)
PROS | CONS |
More Affordable | Risk of hair growing back is pretty high |
Available for home treatment | A lot of treatments needed to achieve the same result as Laser |
| Is not suitable for dark skin types and light hair colour |
Laser Hair Removal
PROS | CONS |
More effective in removing hair permanently | High cost (€330 - €1380 ) for the whole treatment (7 treatments) depending on the area |
Significant hair growth reduction | Reduced effectiveness if there is hormonal imbalance |
More precise than IPL | |
Can selectively target dark and coarse hair while keeping the skin undamaged | |
Suitable to all skin color and hair types | |
Deciding which ones for you
Now that you know about Laser and IPL, also the pros and cons of them. You might be thinking which suits you best 🧐Here, we will help you make the decision based on the discussion above 🤓
IPL is for you if
First off, the cost and flexibility. If you think that it is better to have more flexibility to do it at home and a cheaper price then IPL is the right solution for you 👍Also, for you who have light skin tone, you can consider IPL as an option. Important to know, IPL results last for 6 months and generally you need to do more treatment with IPL.
Laser Hair Removal is for you if
If you have the budget and want to invest in hairlessness 🤑, we highly recommend you to take the laser hair treatment. Here is Why.
Even though it is more expensive, the result is far more effective and requires less treatment ✨
Also, it is proven to be safer as it is done by the technicians at the salon 🧖♀️Plus, not to forget laser hair removal is suitable for every skin color from light to dark.
Once you get laser or IPL, you do not have to book your waxing appointment at the salon every 4 weeks. What’s more, you can say bye forever to strawberry skin and ingrown hairs 👋
What if both option is out of my budget 👉👈
Despite the benefits, we understand that both IPL and Laser are highly expensive 💸 If these options are out of your budget or if you do not want to spend that much money. Don’t worry you can surely go with the cheaper hair removal method. Later, when you have the budget, you can surely consider one of these 2 options to enjoy the freedom of hairless skin in a long lasting effect.
So? What do you think? Which option will you take🤔? Are you interested in laser hair removal?
Then you can book a free intake here so you can have a chat with our practitioners and try out how laser hair removal works on your skin!
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