Ipl Laser For Sun Damage>Reversing sun damage to the skin with an ipl laser is an excellent option. Skin issues such as age spots, freckles, and melasma are all amenable to ipl laser treatments. With the ongoing development of laser technology over the past decade, a variety of aesthetic concerns have become amenable to treatment.
When used for sun damage, ipl lasers provide short bursts of intense light that trigger the body’s own repair mechanisms. Without harming the surrounding tissue, the treatment sends energy deep into the skin. When compared to other forms of treatment, this leads in quicker recoveries with minimal discomfort.
After being absorbed by the skin, the IPL light’s energy is converted to heat. In order to reduce the visibility of dark patches and sun spots and eventually get rid of them for good, this heat can kill very particular skin cells, such those that are sun damaged. Read on to learn more on sun exposure after ipl/ipl brown spots after treatment.
Ipl Laser For Sun Damage
Skin that has experienced damage from overexposure to sunlight can develop wrinkles, spots or texture irregularities. Since sun damage can manifest in the form of so many different skin issues, Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) treatments are ideal because they can address every type of sun damage. If you thought the only way to treat your sun damaged skin was with invasive lasers or plastic surgery, think again.
What is IPL and How Does it Work?
IPL is a tried-and-true skin perfecting treatment that works by heating collagen deep within the skin. This triggers new collagen production, creating smoother skin above. The light energy from IPL also constricts blood vessels, which can help reduce redness at the skin’s surface. When IPL is used to target darker skin cells (such as freckles or hyperpigmentation), the melanin causing the darkness is broken down. The tiny particles of pigment will then either flake away over the following week or are swept away by the lymphatic system. For these reasons, IPL is a smart choice for men or women who are experiencing a variety of skin problems from sun damage.
Best Time of Year for Treating Sun Damage
Any time of year is a great time to invest in the health of your skin. Since IPL treatments can make the skin sensitive to sunlight as the skin heals, some patients choose to undergo such treatments during winter months. However, as long as you remain committed to wearing a high-quality sunscreen, wearing sun-protective clothing—or both—it is perfectly safe to undergo IPL treatments in spring and summer.
What to Expect from IPL Treatments for Sun Damage
Depending on the extent of your sun damage, a series of IPL treatments will likely be recommended. Understand that any dark spots being treated by IPL will darken for three to seven days until they finally develop a crust and flake away. This crusting effect may last for up to 10 days. Once these dark spots flake away, they will not return unless your skin incurs further sun damage. This is why it is essential to protect your results by always wearing a high-quality sunscreen after receiving IPL treatments for sun damage.
IPL Treatments Offered by Harmony Healing
At Harmony Healing, we are strong believers in the power of IPL therapy for treating sun damaged skin. This is why we have invested in several different IPL delivery platforms to offer our patients an effective combination of treatments to help results appear faster. Depending on the extent of your sun damage, we may recommend a combination of the following types of IPL therapy:
BroadBand Light™ (BBL)
BBL™ is an advanced form of IPL technology that treats only pigment, rather than the surrounding healthy skin, allowing patients to experience a fast, effective treatment with minimal downtime. It uses a range of light wavelengths to focus energy on damaged skin cells while stimulating the growth of new collagen. For patients with more advanced forms of sun damage, BBL™ is an excellent choice.
Forever Young™
Forever Young™ is an innovative technology that uniquely delivers light therapy targeting the signs of aging and sun damage and effectively provides a more refreshed, rejuvenated appearance. It removes age spots, freckles, redness, broken capillaries and more. All areas of the body can be treated, leading to skin that will look clearer and smoother with reduced vascularity and redness.
Forever Bare™
IPL can even be used for hair removal. Forever Bare™ works by heating hair follicles while keeping skin cool and comfortable. By directing light energy in multiple bursts, instead of all at once like traditional laser hair removal devices, Forever Bare™ keeps the skin protected while progressively raising the temperature of the hair follicle to a therapeutic level. The result is hair removal that is more comfortable, safer, and faster than other traditional treatments.
IPL Photofacials
An IPL™ photofacial is an extremely useful treatment that can be used to address a wide variety of issues. Discoloration, uneven skin texture, and fine lines can all be dramatically improved by this full-face treatment. In addition, photofacials can help tighten skin and improve facial contouring. This treatment, as the name suggests, is focused on targeting problem areas on the face.
IPL Photorejuvenation
Photorejuvenation harnesses the power of light therapy to stimulate the production of collagen and elastin. This type of skin-enhancing therapy can be used all over the face to help achieve a smoother, more supple appearance or it can target specific areas of damage such as sunspots or broken vessels anywhere on the body. Photorejuvenation is a popular treatment for sunspots appearing on the neck, chest, shoulders, hands, or other areas of the body besides the face.
Ipl Brown Spots After Treatment
What are the common side effects of IPL? The most common (and expected) side effect is a darkening of the more superficial brown spots of the areas being treating. This darkening of superficial brown spots will flake off after about 7-14 days.
IPL stands for Intense Pulsed Light, also known as photorejuvenation. The procedure for using IPL is commonly called a photofacial. Treatments are performed at your dermatologist’s office by a highly trained professional, usually a licensed aesthetician or a dermatologist.
IPL can be a fantastic therapy for erasing mild sun damage, freckles, and getting rid of – or greatly reducing – irregular pigmentation and light brown spots on the face, neck and chest.
Brown spots, also referred to as “lentigines” in medical terminology, will fade over several treatments. Most patients will require 4 to 6, but everyone is different. After that, some people may need occasional maintenance treatments to keep their skin looking young and healthy.
When treating brown spots (also known as hyperpigmentation) or melasma (larger areas of brown discoloration) you may see an immediate darkening of some skin around the treatment area. This is common and nothing to worry about. The temporary darkening occurs if there is brown pigment in the upper layers of your skin. The darkened area typically begins to fade in 7 to 14 days. This is when you’ll also begin to notice that many superficial brown spots around the treated area are becoming lighter, and less noticeable. They won’t vanish with one IPL treatment, but in almost all cases patients will see progress.
Fading of hyperpigmentation depends on the skin area and the type of spots being treated (sun spots, brown spots, dark spots, and age spots).
If the pigment is located deeper in the skin, which is common with melasma, you might not see any initial darkening of excess pigment after your first photofacial. To improve deeper pigment issues and brown spots, a series of treatments spaced apart by about one month each will be needed to produce healthy skin with fewer brown spots and less discoloration. It may not be possible to erase all spots and discoloration, but significantly lighter skin and improvement in overall skin health is common.
Treating melasma is more complex and time consuming because the pigmentation exists in the deeper layers of the skin. Successful treatment depends largely on the skill and experience of the individual performing IPL therapy. This is why you should go to a licensed aesthetician or dermatologist for IPL treatments. The therapy works, but it is only as good as the individual who’s operating the equipment.
With your first and subsequent IPL treatments, improvement is most noticeable starting about a week after each session. You’ll see the greatest results after 3 to 6 months if you do a series of IPL treatments spaced out about a month apart for each session. Results can vary from session to session, but the goal is steady progress. We schedule your therapy appointments about a month apart because skin cells turn over every 30 days or so. This gives your skin time to recover and produce naturally skin-smoothing collagen, which is one of the great advantages of IPL therapy.
The reason you should plan for at least five treatments is because each IPL session builds on the progress of the previous session. Over time, this non-invasive cosmetic procedure builds upon each session to produce clearer, more evenly toned skin. There’s no downtime and discomfort is minimal. These benefits are possible by spreading treatments across a period of months. This gives your skin time to heal between each therapy sessions and helps your dermatologist assess the progress being made with your therapy. Also, IPL therapy is designed to treat one skin layer at a time. Pigment discoloration can exist at different depths in your skin. Follow-up sessions enable us to treat these deeper layers of your skin to produce the best results.
You will play a vital role in your own treatment. By following your aesthetician’s or dermatologist’s advice and taking sensible precautions, you can maximize the success of IPL therapy.
Perhaps the single most important thing you can do is stay out of the sun for at least 2 weeks before and after each treatment. This avoids any adverse reaction related to therapy. Here are other guidelines your dermatologist will recommend that you follow to get the best possible results from your IPL treatments.
Speed up healing after IPL therapy:
- Use mild cleansers and moisturizers daily on your skin.
- Apply a sunscreen with a minimum of 30 SPF. This protects your skin from UVB and UVA rays.
- Cleanse your skin twice a day with warm water.
- Perform a microdermabrasion facial 2 to 3 weeks after treatment with IPL. This protects and hydrates your skin while removing dead skin cells.
- Add stem cell serum to your skin regimen to boost collagen repair, and give your skin a smooth and healthy appearance.
What to avoid after IPL therapy:
- No hot showers for 48 hours.
- Avoid taking aspirin, Ibuprofen, consuming alcohol, heavy exertion and activities which may cause flushing for 2 days after treatment.
- Avoid harsh topical products such as retinols and glycolic acid products for one week after.
- Avoid direct sunlight on the treated area and use a sunscreen with SPF 30 or greater for 4 to 6 weeks after treatment.
- No swimming, especially in pools with chemicals such as chlorine.
- No hot tubbing.
- Avoid activities that cause excessive perspiration.
- Do not pick at or remove any loosening or peeling skin.
- No electrolysis, facial waxing or depilatories (hair removal products) for 14 days after treatment.
For those of you who saw my skincare routine video, you’ll know I struggle with rosacea. Rosacea is a skin condition that is characterized by frequent flushing or blushing and a generally bright red appearance to the skin on the face. My rosacea is only on my cheeks and chin, and I have had it for as long as I can remember. I struggled with acne as a teenager and it definitely left some scarring, but I have also always had big red patches on my face from the rosacea that get worse with spicy food, sun exposure, exercise and drinking alcohol.
While I have tried different products and creams to calm the redness on my face, it is very persistent. Through my research on rosacea treatments I eventually found IPL which is Intense Pulsed Light photorejuvination- a type of laser therapy. IPL photo rejuvenation can be used to treat sun spots, redness, rosacea, broken capillaries, acne, acne scaring, fine lines and wrinkles.
I found a local clinic here in Halifax called Cresthaven Laser (check out their site here) that does IPL and decided to give it a try. Since I have been open about my struggle with rosacea, I thought I would document my IPL treatment so you can see my experience and see how my skin progresses/if it works for me. So far I have had 2 treatments and have 4 more to go. The treatments are typically 1 to 2 weeks apart so in total mine will run about 6 to 8 weeks total.
Each session only lasts about 15 minutes (with the actual laser part only taking about 5 minutes). Jennalee at Cresthaven Laser does my IPL treatments and she is amazing. I’ll give you an idea of what the procedure is like, and then show you before and after photos of my first two treatments.
First, she removes my makeup and puts a towel-headband around my hair to keep it off my face. Then, she applies a gel (that is similar to the gel used in ultrasounds) to the places where the laser will be used. Then, you get to wear some cotton pads and special eye glasses to protect your eyes from the intense light. After that, she uses the laser on the rosacea-affected areas. I know a lot of people will wonder if it hurts, so I’ll do my best to explain what it feels like. I have a very low pain tolerance generally. I’m terrible with needles and avoid anything that might cause me physical pain. The feeling of the laser is definitely uncomfortable, but it is tolerable. It is described as “snapping elastic against your skin”. The sensation is very quick and localized and only lasts about a second with each pulse.
My face (which gets red even just by putting water on it) always gets really red after the laser. The first time was the worst, with the redness being the brightest and lasting the longest. However, after my second treatment I noticed the redness from the heat and light was significantly reduced and went away faster too. Typically I notice a difference in my skin a few hours after the treatment, after the initial redness from the treatment has subsided.
Here is a before photo of my bare skin before starting IPL photorejuvination. I look a bit funny because I only have makeup around my eyes, but try to ignore that haha.
Here are some photos of during the procedure and then the redness directly afterwards. Spot my cool glasses ;).
This photo directly above is how red my face gets right after the procedure. After this she puts on some soothing balms and also does a little massage that gets the blood flowing. Then she applies a serum and sunscreen. Avoiding sun exposure for the duration of the treatments is essential, so if you go outdoors, make sure to wear sunscreen, a hat and stay in the shade as much as possible.
Here is a photo of 1 hour after the treatment. The redness goes down quite a bit even in that first hour.
And here is a photo of a few hours after the treatment. As you can see, the redness subsided A LOT, especially on my chin and the sides of my cheeks.
It’s been a few months since I finished all my treatments so I wanted to do an update! I made a video all about my experience (and included a before and after photo) so I will link that here for your viewing pleasure.
Recently I did a campaign for Rosacea Awareness Month where I shared a no makeup selfie and encouraged other to do the same. It was only a little bit scary, because I still typically don’t go bare faced on Instagram. But it was also empowering.
My skin is far from blotchy and dark red like it used to be. It’s more of an overall pink flush, with my cheeks sometimes getting red/hot if I have alcohol or spicy food. overall the feeling of my skin is MUCH more even in temperature (instead of my cheeks always feeling SUPER hot). I also notice that when I work out my skin doesn’t feel so hot and irritated, which is amazing. Overall I recommend IPL treatments to anyone who is a candidate for it! It made me much more comfortable in my skin (literally) because the hot and flushed feeling is mostly gone, and it also made wearing makeup MUCH more enjoyable. I even switched to a tinted moisturizer instead of foundation and have been loving it. It allows my natural skin to show through a bit, but still provides a bit of coverage and protection, which makes me more confident in public (see next photo).
Sun Exposure After Ipl
One of the worst things for your skin after IPL is sun exposure. Your skin is extremely sensitive after a treatment, which means time out in the sun could result in significant and painful sunburn. We recommend covering up and wearing a large-brimmed hat for at least a week after your treatments.
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Do you have skin concerns, such as sun damage, age spots, or hyperpigmentation? An IPL treatment may be an excellent solution to boost the appearance and overall health of your skin. It utilizes light-based technology to prompt natural skin rejuvenation with little downtime. The IPL system at Evolve Med Spa in Dallas, TX can be used on a wide range of skin tones and types, making it one of our most popular therapies. During your initial consultation, board-certified physician Dr. Tricia Shimer will assess your skin and determine if an IPL is right for you. To learn about how an IPL works and things to avoid after treatment, we invite you to continue reading.
What is IPL?
An intense pulsed light (IPL) therapy is a nonsurgical skin treatment that uses specific wavelengths of light to target damaged skin cells. The controlled energy encourages the natural regeneration of collagen, which is the protein responsible for keeping the skin youthful and healthy.
What can IPL treat?
An IPL can be used on the face, neck, and hands to treat the following concerns:
- Sun-damaged skin
- Dark patches or brown spots
- Hyperpigmentation
- Freckles
- Acne scars
- Wrinkles
How is IPL performed?
An IPL is an outpatient treatment that is performed on-site at Evolve Med Spa in Dallas, TX. To start, the skin will be cleansed and dried thoroughly. Next, you’ll be given special goggles to protect your eyes. Then, the IPL handpiece will be applied to the treatment area, targeting the deep layers of tissue. Most patients experience little to no discomfort during treatment.
After IPL treatment
Once your session is complete, you’ll be free to go home. Your skin may appear mildly pink and swollen, but this is normal, subsiding in about a day. Over the next 2 – 5 days, the skin will begin to crust and flake. This is the body responding to the treatment as it sheds the irregularities under the skin. Optimal results generally occur after about 2 – 4 weeks.
What things you should avoid after an IPL
It’s crucial to avoid the sun after an IPL treatment as the skin will be very sensitive and vulnerable to sun damage. Dr. Shimer recommends you wear a sunscreen of SPF 30 and a hat to guard the skin against direct sun exposure. You should adhere to these practices for about one week.
Other ways to protect the skin after IPL
To provide the best results possible, Dr. Shimer also recommends that you:
- Apply a nourishing moisturizer to the treated skin twice a day
- Use gentle face cleansers with warm water twice a day to aid in healing
- Avoid hot showers and baths for at least 24 – 48 hours
- Wait 1 – 2 days before wearing makeup
- Do not scratch or pick off flaky skin.
And to sweeten the deal, high school brought an onset of hormonal acne (which still lingers) causing hyperpigmentation, scarring, and dark spots.
I eventually came to terms with my redness, masking it with concealer and foundation for years. Then when we started working from home thanks to COVID-19, I opted to forego my everyday foundation — no need for a full face of makeup to sit in my bedroom all day. But after nearly two years of catching glimpses of my bright red face in the Zoom camera, I decided to address it — I couldn’t just wear makeup 24/7 to fix the problem.
But let me start by noting that everyone’s skin varies and reacts differently to treatments. What works for me may not work for you and vice versa. I’ve found after much trial and error, a lot of the hottest products on the market right now don’t do squat for me and my crimson coloring. So I opted to go the deeper route by nixing the topicals and cutting to the chase with professional in-office treatments.
What Causes Red Undertones?
According to Saime Demirovic, esthetician and co-founder of Glo Spa in New York City, there’s really a multitude of reasons as to why your skin could have perpetual redness. She cites sun damage, acne, and melasma, a hormonally caused condition of dark patches on the skin, for being the biggest culprits of hyperpigmentation. Redness, on the other hand, comes from lifestyle habits and genetics — go figure.
Considering I’ve had acne since high school, frequently work out, and enjoy social drinking on the weekend, it’s probably mostly to do with my lifestyle and DNA (thanks, mom and dad).
The One Product or Treatment Dermatologists Recommend for the Most Common Aging-Skin Concerns
My Course of Action
I’ve been using prescription-grade skincare since I was 14-years-old. Some things have helped for a bit and then stopped working, other products just made things worse. That’s why I wanted to go a little deeper than the surface level products I’d been messing around with for years.
Enter IPL and Genesis Laser, two professional-grade light machines designed to produce the glowy skin I’ve been so desperate for.
IPL
Given my skin’s deep redness and blotchy spots, Demirovic initially recommended IPL, which stands for Intense Pulsed Light or often referred to as a photo-facial. It uses light energy to target colors in the skin.
When treating redness, heat from the light expands blood-trapping veins at the surface of your skin, improving circulation and blood flow. If you’re treating brown spots, the laser heats the cells that later separate from the skin and slough off dead cells after a week or two.
“IPL is a great way to even out blotchy skin caused by sun damage rosacea and melasma,” says Demirovic. “It does a wonderful job at targeting excess pigment in our skin.
As for the process, it’s fairly quick and easy, only taking 20 to 30 minutes to complete. That said, it’s not your average, run-of-the-mill facial. While you can get great results from this treatment, don’t expect it to be relaxing. Not to be dramatic, but each “pulse” of light feels like a tiny jolt of electricity. It’s a very quick “zing” that was accompanied with breaks and cooling serums for me, so it’s certainly manageable, but it does come with a warning.
Genesis Laser
Factor in my ongoing struggle with acne and rosacea, I decided I needed a little extra strength to target leftover acne scarring, enlarged pores, and redness from current breakouts. So we supplemented the IPL treatments with Genesis Laser, which “works by heating up the skin which stimulates collagen production,” says Demirovic.
In a similar a manner to IPL, the heat allows your skin’s blood vessels to open up, releasing the redness. But IPL is more attracted to browns and dark reds, while Laser Genesis is focused on treating your skin.
“Laser Genesis is amazing at making pores appear smaller,” she tells me. “The heat also helps reduce the appearance of acne, as well as help speed up the healing of pigmentation or discoloration caused by acne.”
While you can get each treatment individually, Demirovic suggests a combination plan of the two techniques if you have stubborn skin (like me). “Pairing these treatments is something special because now you are working on fixing a problem while helping to create a smoother skin texture,” she tells me.
The Cost
So now it comes down to everyone’s least favorite part: the price tag.
According to Demirovic, IPL can cost anywhere from $200 to $500 per session, while Laser Genesis rings in at around $300 to $500.