Autumn is always the time to start your course of IPL, as it’s the safest time to implement treatment. With potentially less time outside because of the cooler months, the skin is less likely to experience excessive UV, which can affect the results of the IPL treatment.
By the nature of the energy used in IPL, it only absorbs into dark structures, melanin (the pigment or dark spots), and haemoglobin found in the capillaries (redness and veins). It heats these structures, cauterizing them, and they are either inwardly absorbed by the body as waste product, or slough off at the surface. It can be a fantastically efficient way of removing these structures and creating a more even skin colour.
To appreciate how to treat the skin holistically and maintain these results long term, it is necessary to look at why these structures or discolorations have appeared in the first place.
The skin’s natural protection mechanism is to inject melanin or pigment like an umbrella over the cell nucleus, to try to prevent DNA damage. Unfortunately too much UV oxidises the melanin, creating the freckles or dark spots, and will still damage skin cell DNA. Once the DNA has mutated, it will keep repeating this cell mutation. Issues with redness and veins are also heavily influenced by UV damage – UV breaks down collagen and elastin fibres, thinning the skin and making the deeper lying vascular network more obvious, compromising the capillary walls, creating dilated capillaries. Excessive exposure to UV also creates water loss from the skin, dehydration then leads to diminished skin cell function, which leads to less natural protection, further oxidation and more damage.
As you can see IPL is not the only answer to actually ‘treating’ the skin: IPL just removes some of those structures, it does not change the way the skin cell is behaving or its health. At The Face Place we require you to prepare your skin with topical nutrients, A, C and other antioxidants prior to treatment. These nutrients have the ability to help protect the skin against further UV damage, lessening the chance of oxidising the skin and creating freckles and age spots. The same nutrients also inhibit the breakdown effects of UV on collagen and elastin fibres as well as being responsible for maintaining production of collagen and elastin.
In essence quality topical nutrition (home care) is the key to healthy, beautiful skin and IPL will further these results while the ‘skin care’ will maintain them long after your course of IPL.
Your IPL Treatment Plan Timeline
1. Initial Skin Consultation and assessment. Skincare prep including Vitamin A and C for at least one month prior to IPL treatment (in this time you will also be observing some fantastic changes in the skin)
2. One month later, IPL consult & Test Patch appointment (this is not only crucial for safety but also to treat you at an optimal level for the best results)
3. From 2 days later (subject to the results of the test patch), 1st IPL treatment
4. One month later 2nd IPL treatment
5. One month later 3rd IPL treatment
If you are new to our skin services and interested in IPL, book an Initial Skin Consultation.
From your Skin Team Leader,
Lauren
