IPL hair removal. Can anyone enlighten me.

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Few questions

I know it works best on dark hair with fair skin

Is it best to have it done at a salon or are the home use ones as good. Are they worth the investment

From what I’ve read it’s used on shaved skin.
My DD isn’t keen on wax as she would need to let the hairs grow to the length to work.

Roughly how many sessions for underarms and how long does it take to have effect

Thank you in advance for any help

I have a Philips Lumea - they have a few different models and I went for the cheapest.

There's an app you can use with it - definitely helped me keep on track. A treatment cycle is zapping once a fortnight, four times, so 8 weeks in total if that makes sense.

I've done 1 treatment cycle. Bought it because my leg hair was getting thicker and growing faster and it was really hard to keep on top of and I was getting loads of ingrown hairs.
It has definitely made a difference. I used it on legs, underarms and bikini line and hair in all those areas is very noticeably finer and slower growing. It does seem to be recovering it's strength in some areas (finished the treatment a couple of months ago and didn't bother with the maintenance zaps the app tells me to do) so when we're back at school and I have routine again I will get back to it for sure.

I think it's important to have realistic expectations of any hair removal. I've had laser in the past and that didn't last forever either. I'm happy with the Lumea in terms of results, pain level (minimal), and value for money. I also like that I can do it when it's convenient for me and, like you say, that I don't have to grow hair before treatments.

Sorry, I sound like a sales person now. I get why people might not like it but I do.

Thank you . I will have a good ole search on the Phillips site.
Theres a salon ( chain ) in town that offers it but I don’t know if my daughter would fancy going there.

If I had my life over again I would definitely have had something like IPL if it had been about . I went through years of wet shaving and regrowth before finally discovering wax. But in the early days it was a painful bloodbath.
Now I’m post menopausal it’s not a huge deal and IPL won’t work for me as I’m grey.

I have a lumea and it didn't work on me. Fair skin dark hair. The hair is finer and slower growing but it's according to their own instructions the hairs are supposed to have shrunk and fallen out by the 3rd session not still be there and growing at all. Did it 2 weekly for around 6 months (way longer than the 8 weeks instructed) then gave up. On setting 3 of 5, can't turn it up higher or it hurts, makes sense since my skin is fair, I expect the higher settings are for those with darker skin.

If the hair does grow fine can you wax it or does it need to be shaved in order for it to work. As in does the hair follicle need to be present to be effective.

I'm trying to weigh up the good and bad . I just remember in my teens / 20s what an utter pain it was and I’d like hopefully to make life easier for DD if I can

It needs to be shaved not waxed, for the reason you said - the machine needs the dark root to 'target'.

I never had much success with an at home IPL, some reduction in armpits but legs take too long to treat and bikini just didn't seem to do much.

Salon IPL will be stronger, but salon laser will be better still. This comes at a price though (and you have to be wary of salons claiming laser when their machines are actually IPL)

I had a course of 7 laser treatments maybe 3 years ago which has left me with totally bare armpits, nearly bare legs that don't need shaving and a clear bikini line (unfortunately was less effective in the Brazilian areas!). I'm blonder than is ideal so pretty good results considering.

If it's results that's most important, professional job will always be better/quicker/longer-lasting. But the home ones can be quite decent price these days so could always try one of those out, some people get really good results. Salon IPL you can often find really good deals (is Groupon still a thing?) so again, might get good results for a lot cheaper, perhaps worth a gamble

As in does the hair follicle need to be present to be effective

Yes

needs to be shaved not waxed

This is a screenshot from the Lumea app. Lumea is IPL not laser and they work slightly differently.

That's contradictory - "Most of the light energy needs to go into the hair root for best results." Waxing/threading etc removes the hair root. Everything I've seen about both laser and IPL says waxing is a no go. Lumea's site also says 'For the Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) treatment to be successful, the light from your Philips Lumea should reach the hair root. There it heats up the pigment (melanin) and stimulates the hair follicle to go into a resting phase.'

No hair no melanin surely?

I got a Lumea in 2019 and it's been a game changer for me, but I'm not hair-free by any stretch of the imagination. Previously I would have stubbly legs by the end of the day if I shaved in the morning. Now I can easily go more than a week without shaving with no noticeable regrowth. Underarms are similar, they'd have been stubbly within hours, now it takes days/up to a week. I've had less success with my bikini line. It took a good while to see results though, probably 6 months, and years later I'm still using it fairly regularly.

I don't really see any downsides though, other than the time investment. For that reason I'd say it's important to let your daughter make her own decisions around hair removal. It's a pretty personal thing, everyone has very different preferences, and there's no point spending £300 on a Lumea if she won't use it.

Thank you. I think she will use it if I buy one for home use. I cannot see her trekking off to a salon for repeated visits .

Shes not keen on waxing partly because she’s worried it is painful and partly because she doesn’t want to go through the growth period to get the length needed.

IPL sounds like it ticks the boxes .
She definitely doesn’t want armpit hair