By now you’ve probably heard all the chatter through the salon and all over our socials, but we are beyond excited to be introducing Laser & IPL into the salon!
While this is super exciting, for a lot of people (including us) this can be confusing, and has been a massive process..
While the terms Laser & IPL are often used interchangeably, they are definitely NOT the same. Both are powerful light-based technologies, both can improve the skin, but there are some very big differences. So what are they and how do we decide what the best modality is for you?
Laser in Queensland looks a little different to most of the rest of the country. Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania are the only states in the country where we as technicians are required to hold a license, and do a certain amount of supervised hours to be able to use a laser. This makes this an astronomical endeavor to bring laser into a clinic that doesn’t already have a qualified laser tech.
This seemed outrageous, until we started diving deep and learning all there is to learn about laser technology, and now we are wondering why it isn’t required everywhere.
With so much to learn our brains very quickly started soaking in all the information we could get our hands on and wow is there a lot of information out there. From client experiences at other clinics to all the science behind the skin and how laser and IPL interact. There is so much to learn and if there’s one thing we enjoy most, its learning and improving our collective knowledge to bring you, the client, a better experience.
So with that said, lets break it down.
Both laser and IPL use light energy to target specific things within the skin called chromophores (the part of the molecule that is responsible for colour).
These chromophores are
- Melanin (pigment in hair and brown spots)
- Haemoglobin (redness, capilliaries, rosacea)
- Water (skin rejuvenation and collagen)
The key difference between Laser & IPL is HOW the light is delivered.
Laser produces a single, highly concentrated wavelength of light. Think of laser as a sniper rifle. Search and destroy. One precise beam of light, targeting one specific concern – small spots extremely precisely.
Because the wavelength is fixed, laser can penetrate deeper, target more precisely, deliver more consistent results and work on a wider range of skin types when the correct wavelength is used.
Laser is ideal for things such as
- Deep, stubborn pigmentation,
- Safe treatments on higher fitzpatricks (darker skin)
- Faster & more efficient results
- Fewer sessions
Now onto IPL. IPL stands for Intense Pulsed Light. It uses a broad spectrum of light, with interchangeable filers to target the different concerns, spreading over a range of wavelengths to treat multiple skin concerns at once.
Where Laser is a sniper rifle, think of IPL as a machine gun. Pulsing the light into the skin in a broader range. Less precise, but still very effective in its own lane.
IPL is ideal for
- Redness & Broken capilliaries
- Rosacea and redness/flushing
- Photodamage & pigmentation
- Skin Rejuvenation
- Collagen Stimulation
- Overall skin tone and clarity
So with the difference in the modalities, why will we be introducing both into our clinic?
Simple – because it will give you, the client, a much more tailored experience. Both options do their job well, but in different ways. Laser is perfect for deeper pigment, IPL gives the best results for vascular (capilliaries/redness), sun damage and skin rejuvenation.
So laser & IPL aren’t competing treatments and they definitely aren’t the same. They compliment each other like wine and cheese. Using the right light for the right concern in what delivers real, visible, consistent results, and we can’t wait to get started.
