IPL?
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free skin care · Sun Sep 10, 2006 7:10 am

Hi
Did anyone had IPL trt before? How is it? I want to get it down, but I dont know if it is a good idea,, Question

free skin care · Sun Sep 10, 2006 8:51 am

I've had 6 or so IPL's, several just for specific areas. They can be expensive. It does hurt, sometimes more than others depending on the degree the machine is cranked up. I have bruising and my face swells up for 4-7 days, especially my eye area which swells shut. Now that I have my baby Quasar, I haven't had anymore done. We'll see if I need to.
It just depends on what you are trying to accomplish with your skin, specific needs, etc.

free skin care · Sun Sep 10, 2006 10:45 am

i did three sessions of IPL with 3 different derms. rsults vary according to settings and machine and skill of technician. if the derm is not doing it herself n assigns an assistant to do it, i will be wary, they are cutting corners and since it is such an expensive procedure make sure u ask beforehand who is going to be doing it.

find that it helps a lot with scarring and freckles. but freckles do come back(sometimes even more obvious than b4). new freckles seem to appear too..(i confess i havent been v dilligent abt sunscreen so might not be a good gauge)

i hav sensitive acne prone skin, find that sometimes after a week of the ipl i break out even worse. heard from others than IPLs sometimes triggers breakout for my skin type(which doesnt stop me from trying somehow!?)

it however does improve the overall texture of the skin and helps with open pores.

get a good derm!!
good luck

Tue Sep 12, 2006 3:09 am

I've only had IPL done for hair removal, with mixed results so far.

free skin care · Tue Sep 12, 2006 3:34 am

How many trt do we need?I heard after IPL trt the pigment getting darker than before, is that ture? How long will that take for lighten the pigment? Question

Tue Sep 12, 2006 3:43 am

i'm very interested in getting iPL done for acne scars but most importantly for large pores. has anyone had good results for closing up pores and slight pock marks?

free skin care · Tue Sep 12, 2006 4:05 am

Hi my mum had IPL treatments for her age spots. She is 72 years Shock

She said that it was not really painful, it felt that her face was being flicked with a rubber band. After the first treatment, the spots turn darker in colour and sort of dries up. The treated skin will peel and the new skin beneath will be lighter in colour.

How many treatments you need depends on your dark your pigmentation is.

As she lives in another country, I haven't seen her since her first treatment. I forgot to ask her how many treatments she has had. She told me that her spots are nearly all gone but she needed another treatment because she was in the sun without her sunscreen recently Crying or Very sad

free skin care · Tue Sep 12, 2006 4:31 am

I purchased a series two years ago and found that it hurt a lot. The effects are only temporary. I found that it did temporary remove the red tiny veins on the side of my nose and burned off some of my freckles.

But eventually they all came back and overall I found it was not worth it.

free skin care · Tue Sep 12, 2006 7:13 am

It does not reduce pore size, nor wrinkles.

free skin care · Sun Sep 24, 2006 3:26 pm

I had 3 session done last year then the clinic I went to closed down ; it felt like an elastic snapping my face. And some areas hurt more than others (upper lip or around the eyes area). In terms of results, it somehow helped with my spots, not all, but some faded. But overall speaking, it was too expensive for the kind of results I got Sad

Thu Oct 26, 2006 12:10 pm

I just had my first IPL for some ugly spider veins on my face and nose. After (now 3rd day) I am red, blue and had some swelling. Is this normal? Will this reside? I do not see this as a normal response as all this websites for laser clinics say "no downtime"-back to work same day.. If I go in public now, people think I have some skin disease..HELP

free skin care · Thu Oct 26, 2006 12:32 pm

I think it is depending on your skin colour.

I just thought it was not worth it since it last until the point you stop getting it done on regular basis.

free skin care · Thu Oct 26, 2006 6:18 pm

I have had several IPL treatments, both for dark acne scars/hyperpigmentation and for hair removal.

The first IPL I had was maybe 5,6 years ago, on my face. It was the best one as far as results go, but it did hurt like crazy. As others have said, it feels like someone is snapping a rubber band on your face over and over, really hard. I did not have any lidocaine cream or anything, did not know you could. I just used icepacks afterwards.

What happens with the hyperpigmentation is that any dark skin that the light 'sees' turns darker. You want this to happen because it will turn darker and fall off within a week or so. If the spot doesn't turn dark in a few hours the light did not 'see' it and probably nothing is going to happen. My face looked great after all the spots flaked off, but it did not 'see' them all, hence the follow up visits. As someone else said, it does not affect wrinkles or pore size. It evens out your skin tone.

You need to stay out of the sun and not self tan before you go in. You want as much contrast between your real skin tone and the sun damage/spots as possible. That makes it easier for the light to 'see' the damage.

I learned in subsequent IPLs that you can come in early and have lidocaine cream applied, you sit there for about 1/2 hr with cream on your face and cling film over it. Then you scrape the cream off and go in for the IPL. It makes a lot of difference with the pain. Also the doctor here keeps her jelly that they put on your face first in a bowl of ice water, so the heat from the light is not so bad.

I had one IPL with Levulan, that is supposed to make it easier for the light to 'see' the damage as well. I did not notice that it made that much difference in results. I looked much worse (worse than a non-Levulan IPL) immediately afterwards. Instead of the dark brown spots that I wanted to see it was big dark flakes of skin. Underneath these big dark flakes, I also got a (gross warning) staph infection on my face. The infection cleared up with antibiotics and cream but I looked TERRIBLE for about 3 weeks. This is just my story though, I am sure Levulan would not still be on the market if this happened to everyone.

I had it done on my chest and shoulders as well, the results were pretty good but not as dramatic as my face. My chest and shoulders are darker than my face though, not as much contrast.

Stay out of the sun afterwards because a) your damage will come back, you just paid a big pile of money to get rid of sun damage, don't put it right back on there and b) you'll burn more easily. Sunblock sunblock sunblock.

Changing subjects to the hair removal, I have had results as far as the hair thinning out but as far as permanent lovely smooth hair-free skin... no. It's great right after you get it done though, about a week after you get it done all the hair just falls out and you do have lovely smooth skin. Until the next hair growth cycle starts that is. If I had the $$ I would do IPL every 6 weeks for hair removal, like you do waxing!

Anyway, hope that helps answer some of your questions.

Fri Oct 27, 2006 4:20 pm

I had IPL on my face last Monday for some spider veins and the derm zapped me like 10 times and looked like I had a fight or car accident after. I was all bruised and purple/blue. I had to even take a few days off from work. I even noticed a new vein emerge between two areas she zapped and wondering if it is just the cooagulation color and well fade away after all gets absorbed from the body..We see. I am just wondering if it is normal to get this way. I read all over the net that there is no downtime or anything bad..Hmmm?
All I know is it is the 4th day and I look less purple, but now red, but still pretty bad..
Sad

(

free skin care · Sat Dec 16, 2006 6:58 am

jellytot wrote:

i have sensitive acne prone skin, find that sometimes after a week of the ipl i break out even worse.

I had IPL on an area where I am not prone to breakoust anymore (my cheeks) to reduce pore size and eliminate a few old acne scars. The first week immediately after the IPL my skin looks flawless. Small pores, great texture.

I have noticed, however, that exactly 1.5 weeks after my treatments my skin breaks out in the places where I got the IPL done. Places where I normally don't break out ever.

Has this happened to anyone else??

Does anyone have a possible reason for this??

free skin care · Sat Dec 16, 2006 8:46 am

I have noticed some of the breakouts also, don't know why that happens. I haven't had an IPL since i bought my Baby Q, don't feel I need them anymore as the baby keeps my redness in check.
My swelling and bruising was so bad both eyes swelled shut and the purple bruises were there for about 3-4 weeks. The swelling lasted about 5-7 days. The brown spots fall off after about 1-2 weeks. They assured me if I had Fraxel it would be worse.

free skin care · Sat Dec 16, 2006 11:20 am

I have mild rosacea. I did a series of IPL treatments and saw improvement.

Then I went about year and tried another place. I've had two now, about 4 months apart and I have better results with this one. Also, I've found that using a good vitamin C serum prolongs the results.

free skin care · Sat Dec 16, 2006 11:21 am

I have mild rosacea. I did a series of IPL treatments and saw improvement.

Then I went about year and tried another place. I've had two now, about 4 months apart and I have better results with this one. Also, I've found that using a good vitamin C serum prolongs the results.

free skin care · Sat Dec 16, 2006 4:11 pm

I purchased an IPL machine for hair removal, I've had laser hair removal on several parts of my body but it was very expensive, inorder to reduce the costs I purchased an IPL machine. I did a test patch on the 24th of october and I'm still hairfree on that area, that means that the machine is working.

I used very high setting without feeling any pain, which is the same problem that I faced when I had my laser done and that’s very strange because my first laser was VERY painful.

free skin care · Sat Dec 16, 2006 8:18 pm

I have IPL treatment for hair removal with fairly good results considering it is hormonal hair.

Sat Dec 16, 2006 10:39 pm

I've been getting IPL treatments (3 so far) and haven't seen results. It's over $200.00 each session and I'm thinking of not continuing and getting an Obagi Blue Peel. I have had some broken capillaries on my face and cheeks along with melasma from my pregnancy I was trying to treat with IPL.

Hope this helped Smile

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