If you're considering getting IPL hair removal, you might be curious about how many sessions you'll need. The severity of your disease and the area you are treating will determine how many sessions you need. On the other hand, it is recommended that you undergo a series of five IPL treatments to achieve the best possible outcomes.

5 Treatments, Spaced Out Every 4 Weeks

Why 5 treatments? Because each treatment builds upon the next one and allows the technician to treat your skin gradually to see how you will react. With their IPL machine, they can toggle the settings to reach pigmentation and blood vessels at different skin depths to target a specific area with each treatment.

Regular intervals of 4 weeks are recommended between IPL sessions. It's crucial to wait at least that long between treatments to allow the skin to fully recover because the skin's cells replace themselves approximately every 30 days.

Patients are less likely to complete their IPL series if treatments are too far apart, and they also risk forgetting their skin's appearance before treatment. But don't worry, pictures of the finished product will be shown. It's worth noting that IPL treatments work equally well on brown and red spots on the skin.

The first treatment is the most crucial, so see a trained professional who can evaluate your skin and suggest the best course of action. During the first session, the practitioner will use a hand-held device to send light pulses to the area that hurts. Pigments in the skin, like sun spots and age spots, absorb light energy and are destroyed in the process.

You may need up to three weeks after your IPL treatment to see the full effects, so please be patient. The first treatment won't have many effects, but each treatment after that will make the skin look better.

Typically, the second treatment is carried out two weeks after the first and follows the same procedure. It is possible to have some redness and mild swelling in the treated area after the second session.

Treatments three and four should be spaced four weeks apart, and treatment five should be performed six weeks after treatment four. When you've completed five sessions, it's time to check in with your doctor or therapist to see how things are going.

IPL Treatment for Brown Skin

Sun spots, also known as age spots, are the result of an overproduction of melanocytes, which are cells responsible for the skin's pigmentation (melan means "pigment," and "cytes" means "cells"). These cells, as their name suggests, are linked to skin discoloration. Aging and prolonged exposure to sunlight can stimulate the production of melanocyte pigment.

IPL helps get rid of these brown spots by heating up the pigment while leaving the surrounding tissue alone. This "damaged" area is then brought to the skin's surface, where the body's natural exfoliation process gets rid of it. Once the treatment has taken effect, the brown spots will become darker for about 24 hours before disappearing over the next two weeks.

Some brown spots, although having been treated with IPL, may reappear months or even years later. This doesn't mean that the treatment didn't work. Instead, it means that the treatment did work, but the spot has come back because of natural aging or other lifestyle factors, and it would be best to treat it again.

IPL treatments can reduce or eliminate brown and red spots on the skin, making the skin look healthier and more radiant. Although "little or no downtime" is associated with this procedure, it still takes three to five sessions to see noticeable improvements.

IPL treatment series should be started in the autumn or winter so that the patient may finish it before the summer heats up, and they need to wear sunscreen. This is because it is important to stay out of the sun for at least two weeks before and after the treatment to prevent any problems from happening.

In conclusion, while the number of treatments you will need will depend on the area being treated and the severity of the condition, it is generally recommended that you have five IPL treatments to get the best results. Having the treatments done by a qualified and experienced practitioner and having a follow-up appointment after the fifth session are essential.

Want to learn more about doing at-home IPL hair removal? We covered it all for you. Read here.