Intense Pulsed Light (IPL)

I found this treatment to be great for hyper-pigmentation -performed in a Dermatologist Clinic NOT A SALON!! TAKE CARE HERE PEOPLE 2 days after the treatment, whilst gently washing my face I noticed that the sun damaged and darker spots literally flaked off. It also helped with some hyper-pigmentation from some old acne scars, looking forward to round 2. If you are going to invest in IPL then do your research as to the qualifications of the person and the machine used. Not all are the same. In the wrong hands these devices can literally ruin your skin.

I'm pretty sure this started my acne. It's that simple. I never had acne as a teenager - just the odd spot. But being dark-haired, I have had hirsutism since my teens (male-pattern hair growth in a woman). I don't look like a man, and most people probably don't notice, but I have tried (and continue to try) many things to manage it over the years, and IPL was one of them. I'm 34 now, and started IPL treatment when I was 28, in the spring of 2006. By the autumn, I had moderate acne - big, sore, swollen bumps along my jawline and on my cheeks (areas I hadn't had spots before). I did say to the woman who did my treatment that I seemed to have developed acne while having the treatment, and asked if the two could be related. She insisted not, and that the acne would most likely be hormonal; at the time, I went along with it. But now, when I look back, I can't think of anything else that could have caused it. I had hormone tests at the time, which came back normal, and although some people said it was having my son that started it, he was two before my acne appeared and I'd long finished breast-feeding. So however good IPL might be for treating some people's acne, I can honestly say that I think it actually started mine. I continued with the treatment for my hirsutism even after the acne appeared, and the spots didn't get any better. I wouldn't recommend this product to anyone wanting to treat their acne. I wonder if the intense heat drastically dries out the skin, leading to the compensatory over-production of oils to re-moisturise it; this certainly seems to be where my skin has defaulted to for the last six years.

Waste of money. Didn't help my acne or scars at all. I got only two treatments of this and the doctor decided to try something else because he wasn't seeing the results he wanted.