Is IPL Effective for Male Thick Beard?

The facial hair around the lip and chin on a man can have thicker, deeper roots than other hair on the body. Depending on the wavelength used in your IPL treatments, the IPL device itself may not be reaching the roots of those more difficult hairs. Diode or Nd:YAG hair removal lasers may have a chance of working better for you.

if the hair is darker. If a higher energy is used the treatment will be more effective but the risk for side effects increases as well.  

IPL will work for facial hair and normally takes multiple treatments.  It is best used to shape the beard in men, not to remove the beard entirely.  I could not agree more with Dr Altman.  Men who have all of their beard removed with IPL just look strange.  I would highly advise against it.

The question to ask first is whether a man wants to have laser hair removal on the beard area. 

When the male beard is removed, it is not cosmetically pleasing as it interferes with a man being perceived as a man.  Even cleanly shaven, a man has some hint of facial hair.  When there is no hair, the brain perceives the face as that of a prepubescent boy or a woman.  That is not a good outcome.

If a man has pseudofolliculitis, that is ingrown hairs that create nodules and pustules, that result in hyperpigmentation, that's a good reason for laser hair removal in the chin/neck area.

Please consider what the cosmetic outcome of laser hair removal for a male beard is before proceeding to other options.

That being said, IPL used at correct settings should work for the beard.  The success of a laser or IPL hair removal depends on several things:

- how many hair follicles are in active growth phase at the time of treatment

- how big the difference between skin color and hair color is.  Laser or IPL is not effective for grey, blond or red hair.

- how regular the hair removal sessions are.  There needs to be regularity with a span of 6-8 weeks between treatments initially as it resets the hair growth cycles to the same phase, enabling treatment of a large number of hair follicles at the same time.