It will usually take 7-14 days

The “peppering” or darkening of the hyperpigmented areas can take 7-14 days to resolve. This is normal.

Depending on the amount of hyperpigmentation you have, you may need to repeat your IPL in a month. If you have a lot of sun damage, it can take 3-5 treatments. We recommend that our patients see our aestheticians for skin care in between their IPL’s.

The facial with or without microdermabrasion will help remove some of the crusted pigment and prepare the skin for the next IPL.

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The reason it takes some time for spots (or hyperpigmentation as you put it) take some time to flake off is that the lesions that were being targeted in the treatment are not always right at the surface of the skin.  The pigment is normally located somewhere in the epidermis (the upper layer of skin), but cell reproduction in the epidermis can take up to a couple months.  Cell turnover is the time it takes new cells at the bottom of the epidermis to come to the surface, die and flake off.   The pigmented cells that were targeted in the treatment rise slowly to the surface and flake off as they normally would and this can take a couple weeks.

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