Clair Beaulieu

IPL Treatment for Hyperpigmentation

Getting an IPL treatment for hyper pigmentation

Going to a spa can be a relaxing and enjoyable experience – a celebration package for Mother’s Day or a birthday. If you get such a gift from someone you like, your bestie or your sister perhaps, then you should have a gentle facial so you’ll still like them afterward.

Don’t do what I did and get what amounts to aversion therapy from whoever gave you the gift by trying an IPL treatment for a sensitive part of your body. By the way, keep in mind that with IPL, all parts of our bodies are sensitive.

IPL is Intense Pulsed Light therapy used by doctors and aestheticians for hair removal, acne, skin pigmentation, and sun damage. They call it photo rejuvenation, so innocent people, women mostly, will fall for their torture. Don’t believe me? Check your closet for high heels.

So, there I was, ready to get treatment for some hyperpigmentation on the back of my hands. The treatments aren’t cheap. My spa charges $150 for a single treatment, $650 for a package of six, which they tried to sell me on right away. I was strong, wanting to try the actual procedure before signing up for more.

The aesthetician was great. Very sweet and complimentary. She did a double cleanse of the back of my hands to clean and degrease the skin using alcohol. It was cooling and nice. She was chatting away, and it was like we were friends when she put a huge glob of applicator gel on my left hand.

The gel is used as a conduit for the IPL machine, which is a high-powered, hand-help light thing that’s computer-controlled. It looks like a little white gun and it delivers an intense (really!) pulse of light that in my case, was targeting hyperpigmentation.

The light is so bright you can’t look at it, even with special glasses worn by everyone in the room. To make sure we weren’t blinded, the therapist counted down, three – two – one, and we all closed our eyes. She pulled the trigger on the gun, and that’s what it felt like, a gunshot. They say it’s just a snap on your skin. On my skin, it hurt like hell. Ever get snapped very hard across the back of your hand with a thick, hot rubber band?

No, me neither, but this was worse, I’m sure. The flashgun has a row of nine lights that explode across the gel and is wonderfully conducted into your skin. There’s a cooling plate that gets smeared with gel since it touches your skin.

You can see from the picture that the gun only covers a small portion of the back of my skin, so the whole treatment took about ten minutes. Then, in a dazed state of mind, I let the aesthetician do my other hand. It wasn’t quite as bad since I knew what was coming.

I left the spa, but not before tipping my therapist for the beating (told you women were silly), and my hands felt fat and hot. I was told no gym, sauna, hot tub, or anything that causes heat. Oh, and no sun. I live in Arizona, so I stayed inside.

The light promotes collagen growth, so a week later, my skin was softer, and the dark spots were much darker as the hyperpigmentation (the melanin) rose to the top layer of my skin, where it sat like coffee grounds. It eventually disappeared, lost around my house and the bedsheets.

It will take at least three more treatments for them to disappear completely. Yes, I’m thinking about it.

A little sugaring

My experience with sugaring as a spa treatment.

I’m old enough now to admit that I have a love affair with sugar. So, when I heard my aesthetician talking about sugaring, I thought it was a sugar rush treat, and I might get something yummy. No such luck. But, I did hear about something that’s been around since ancient Grecian times and it does involve sugar. That, and lemon and water to make a gooey, sticky mess that molds easily to your skin.

The good part of the story is that I got a treatment like waxing without the pain because sugaring doesn’t stick to the skin as wax does. And, it’s biodegradable, faster to finish treatment, and easier to clean because it’s water-soluble.

In a nutshell or your beautiful folds of skin, the sugaring removes hair by the root without damaging, so less irritation. Yes, I liked it partly because I hadn’t shaved recently.

Honestly, sugaring works best when you’ve got a little peach-fuzz, an eighth to a quart-inch of it for the sticky paste to grab ahold. And the warmed sugar-solution feels nice and comforting as it’s rolled in the opposite direction of hair growth. Then the aesthetician flicks the paste away in the direction of hair grown.

My sugaring lasted about two weeks before the hairs started coming back, but there’s a nice discount for a series of sessions, and I can stretch them out to about a month apart. The hairs also came back lighter and thinner after just my first treatment, so that was a nice bonus.

Where oh Where May I be Sugared?

Everywhere there’s hair, sugaring is fair. I started with my legs and moved on to a Brazilian, which my aesthetician said was the most popular service. That’s not what I was thinking of as sugar, but the results were fabulous.

My aesthetician was quick, so the sessions were fast, less than a half-hour. I haven’t needed other areas done, but eyebrows and upper lip look like quick fixes and don’t break the bank at about $10.

The only downside or restrictions will be if you are taking steroids or using retinol or vitamin C on your skin. If so, stick with the razor or waxing. As with that waxing, you’ll want to avoid sugaring if you have a sunburn, bruising, or any open sores.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Starting Fresh

At Arizona Beauty World we want to bring readers everything under the sun, but we are starting with beauty Industry news, trends, and information you might like to have about schools that teach cosmetology and aesthetics.

We’ll also be talking about home beauty ideas and how you can have the very look that makes you happy, healthy, and ready for each day, even if you aren’t going any further than your living room or porch today!

If you’ve got questions or ideas about what could be featured in our pages, drop me a line by clicking on our contact page and we’ll see what we can do about getting the information you need to our site and your email!

Just call me Clair and we’ll do fine.