Hello everyone!
Today I will like to share with you my journey of using IPL to treat my pigmentation. If you have been here for a while you know that one of my main concerns is my hyperpigmentation. And this has been the consequence of not being careful (aka. not using enough SPF) with the sun when living in tropical places (Venezuela, Panama and long summers in Spain) and also I’m quite fair.
And I have done any peel under the sun to diminish and really has helped a lot. But I wanted something to drastically reduced it. I researched and found that IPL treatment can really help you to reduce and treat sunspots. I went for a consultation at Claus Holtz aesthetics with Laser specialist Julia Ahmed and we decided to go for a 3 session IPL and see how my skin responded.
What is IPL?
IPL stands for Intense Pulsed Light Therapy and has been developed to treat used by cosmetic and medical practitioners to perform various skin treatments for aesthetic and therapeutic purposes, including hair removal, pigmentation, etc. It is a Laser and can have side effects so if you are thinking of doing it research and only do it with a licensed professional. This is a MUST.
Before the treatment: this is me before the first treatment
You can see that I had a LOT of sunspots, especially on my left side and this is a result of me driving, so it is important to put sunscreen even if you are only driving.
Session 1
The first treatment didn’t hurt, and it lasted around 20 minutes. You will feel like a small light heating you skin. The intensity you can decided with you specialist.
After the treatment your skin become very red, specially the areas where you have more spots
Here is how looked after the first session (the redness is a normal reaction to the treatment)
After 2 weeks the healing has finished and this how my skin looked, I could already see an improvement
Session 2
I waited 5 weeks for my skin to heal and feel comfortable to go for the second session. My specialist evaluated my skin and adjust the time between sessions and intensity of the laser. In this session we maintained the same intensity and give more attention to the darker spots. These are the results 2 weeks after my second session, I was impressed as my skin have cleared up a lot!.
Session 3
After seeing this results, my specialist recommend to wait 6 weeks to the last and third session, and let my skin healed and see how it reacted over a year with my normal life.
I was very happy with the results. I knew that not all my spot will be gone and that is normal, but my skin was much clearer than ever before.
After investing time and money (it is not a cheap procedure) I was pleased with the results and became even more careful with the sun, as spot can reappeared.
I’m planning to do an maintenance session after summer and start the same treatment on my chest.
I highly recommend this treatment if you are concerned about hyperpigmentation, but please consider the following:
- Research for licensed specialist in your area. THIS IS A MUST as you will be treating your skin with lasers.
- Do an intake meeting before started any treatment and discuss with your specialist what will be the best way to go YOUR skin and concerns. Every skin is different.
- After treatment be very gentle with your skin and let it heal. Stop any acids or strong products from your skin routine
- Be VERY careful with sun even on a cloudy day. You skin will be even more sensitive to it
I hope my journey was helpful and feel free to ask me any questions or comments
Have a great and safe day!
Note: This post is not sponsored and there are not affiliate links. I paid the treatments myself
The pecas 