IPL: How often should we be seeing you for hair removal treatments?
/We may of all heard differing views on how often we do IPL hair removal treatments, so let’s settle the matter!
It is integral that your treatments are performed at the right times depending on the location of your body. Generally speaking, most people need between 6-8 treatment sessions to ensure that all of the hair in each cycle has been removed.
We actually need to have these treatments regularly to ensure we catch the hair in the right cycle of growth for our treatment to work, and each area of the body has different cycles of hair growth.
There are 3 important stages of hair growth:
1. Anagen phase
The Anagen phase is when hair is attached to the root. It is the active growth stage and is the ONLY stage we can treat successfully.
2. Catagen phase
The Catagen phase features a hair that has moved up the shaft and is no longer attached to the root and usually lasts 1-2 weeks. This stage of hair growth cannot be treated.
3. Telogen phase
Finally, the Telogen phase is where the hair follicle is totally separated from the root. We cannot treat hairs in this stage either.
At Thrive, we pride ourselves on continued education and staying at the forefront of clinical knowledge and understanding of these treatments. By understanding the hair growth cycle, we can successfully treat clients and significantly reduce and remove their unwanted hair with IPL treatments.
To make it easy and comprehensive, we have formatted a great treatment plan template based on our clinical findings, for our clients to use when coming in for hair removal treatments.
Why do we shave before IPL treatments?
Prior to having an IPL hair removal treatments, you must ensure that you shave the area to be treated. Avoid hair removal methods at home such as waxing, plucking, threading or other hair removal methods as they remove the hair from the root, and we need that intact for our treatment to work best. By keeping the root intact, our IPL can administer its energy right through to the root.
The process of shaving before treatment will ensure we don’t damage the surface of the skin, and you will get the best desirable outcome from the treatment.
Other important considerations:
Treatments can also depend on other certain factors such as age, genetics, hormones, medical factors, and some medications. The speed of hair growth differs from person to person generally and can vary based on the location as we discussed. It’s also important to remember that a thorough consultation process and test patching of the area to be treated is a safe and effective way of ensuring risks are minimised before treatment.
