Do home IPL and laser systems really work?

WhichLaserClinic.com would not recommend buying a home IPL system as we have seen no independent proof that they can provide satisfactory results.

Thousands have been spent on marketing hype by large manufacturers giving the hope of permanent hair reduction in the privacy of your home at the fraction of the cost of a laser clinic.

High energy IPL and laser equipment used in salons are very sophisticated and cost as much as £45,000 to buy and require careful servicing to keep running. However, according to the marketing, similar results can be achieved at home for equipment costing under £400. This does sound too good to be true.

Lasers use wavelengths of light energy to target the melanin in hair, melanin is the pigment that gives hair its colour. Lasers used at home are for the most part not lasers at all but based on IPL, Intense Pulsed Light technology. The advantage of laser light is that the light energy is produced only at the specific wavelengths without wasted light energy whereas IPL uses a flash bulb producing bright white light which is then filtered down producing the wavelengths needed.  Both lasers and IPLs use pulses of light energy to heat up hair follicles. Both technologies work but not all systems work equally well.

For laser hair removal to work the hair root needs to be heated to over 65°C. Clinic systems produce more heat in a more controllable format to attain this temperature and then maintain it for the time period needed to destroy the cells responsible for hair growth. The power required for this is massive (1000VA +) compared to home systems that tend to use a rechargeable battery.

One of the most important measurements when deciding on an IPL machine is fluence which is the amount of energy produced per cm² over the treatment area or ‘spot size’. In general the higher the fluence the better the results but there are boundaries depending on hair and skin colour. If you have fair skin fluencies can be used from 20 to 40 J/cm² for darker skin types 10 to 20 J/cm². A good IPL operator will ensure that the highest fluence is used for your skin type to get the best from the equipment and give you the best change of long term results. Home systems have fluence levels between 2 – 6.5 J/cm².

There are many other aspects to professional machines such as the duration of the light pulse to obtain and maintain effective temperature to provide optimum results which does not appear within the specification of the home IPL systems which we checked.

WhichLaserClinic.com