Will IPL Laser Make Hair Grow Finer?

Question

Basically, I have coarse dark hair on several parts of my body that I would like not to remove permanently but make grow finer. One part is the back of my neck. I did some research and found that IPL is less "intense" in a way than lasers; if I use IPL in a low or medium setting and with only 1 or 2 sessions, will I achieve finer hair without completely removing the hair?

Cynthia Golomb, MD · Answer

Certainly IPL can be used for hair removal. Of course it will depend on the filter or wavelength used. In my judgement, if decrease hair thickness or decrease hair volume is your goal I recommend a laser made specificalyy for hair removal over the IPL system.

F. Victor Rueckl, MD (in memoriam) · Answer

The answer is "sort of". IPL is an older, slower technology and for true hair removal purposes, it is long, tedious, and rather painful. Affected hairs will either be permanently removed or will grow back thinner and finer. But this really isn't controllable in the sense that there's no setting to "lessen hair growth", so you could end up with patchiness and unevenness, as regardless of the settings used, some hairs simply will be affected permanently. There isn't a way, currently, to remove an even number of hairs throughout an area, or make certain hairs just respond by growing finer and thinner.

Will IPL Laser Make Hair Grow Finer?

Answers (2)