IPL Contraindications ★ Man Thing

A suntan is any darkening of the skin caused by sun exposure. Tanning impacts the melanin in your skin, placing it in an unnatural 'excited' state.

Since IPL targets melanin, suntans can affect your treatment outcome, leading to pigment marks, minor burns, or generally ineffective treatments.

Also, continuity is important to compare the results from one treatment to the next. Tanning ruins that continuity by creating an unnecessary variable, requiring the therapist to swap filters and settings, and hope for the best.

Skin showing signs of redness from recent sun or solarium exposure can't be treated.

If you have a naturally dark brown skin colour, e.g. Mediterranean, Persian, Arab, or Indian complexion, you will generally fall into a Fitzpatrick skin-type category of 4 or 5.

For hair removal, skin-type 5 is the darkest skin-type that can be treated with IPL, and then only top-end machines with advanced filters. For photo rejuvenation and IPL Acne treatments, skin-type 4 is the darkest.

Unline suntan, fake tan targets keratin, usually the outermost dead layer of skin, which sheds about a week after application. Fake tans include spray tans and self-tanning lotions etc.

While stained keratin won't typically cause a safety issue for IPL, it can block the light which can lead to a less effective treatment.

If you do use fake tan, do your best to exfoliate any lingering colour from the area of your skin you want treated.

Light attracts to darkness. Particularly in the case of nylon or polyester underwear, IPL can melt the fabric onto your skin if accidental contact occurs. As a precaution, please don't wear dark synthetics to your treatment, or you will be asked to remove them.

Testosterone enhancers, including testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) can impact the efficacy of your treatments. With your hormones peaking, or at least fluctuating, your hair growth rate will be enhanced. This creates a variable which we have no way to measure.

It's still perfectly safe to receive IPL treatments while on your course of meds, but understand that we have no way of knowing what's going on inside your body or how the TRT is impacting your hair growth rate. You will almost certainly need more treatments than the norm.

Depilatory creams and sprays dissolve keratin. These chemicals are non-discriminatory and kill the keratin in skin as well as hair.

Minimal use of depilatory creams is enough to make the skin unstable. To avoid pigment damage, clients who have used these products should wait six weeks before receiving an IPL treatment.

If you have visible skin trauma, including lesions, severe bruising, open wounds, pustules, or weeping sores, affected areas can't be treated. Minor grazes, scratches, paper cuts, and acne are not an issue.

Contagious skin diseases such as STIs, tinea, and fungal infections, pose a threat to your IPL technician as well as to other clients.

For this reason, if you have any infectious skin conditions, you cannot receive an IPL treatment on that area. Exempted conditions are toenail fungus and acne.

Please don't be tempted to lie. In Queensland, it's illegal to withhold information about infectious conditions to people providing body treatments.

IPL doesn't operate in the UV part of the light spectrum, and there's no evidence to suggest it might cause skin cancer, however it can fade existing skin marks such as moles and freckles.

A common side effect of IPL Hair Removal is that any freckles in the treated area generally fade during the course of treatments.

Often on the first treatment, some freckles will turn very dark for a week then flake off, leaving clear skin beneath them, effectively giving the client a free Photo Rejuvenation treatment as well.

In the rare event of a razor cut or blister during an IPL treatment, clients who are prone to keloid or hypertrophic scarring run at least a small degree of risk of further scarring in the treated area.

IPL has a softening effect on post-surgical scarring, however scars must be fully healed and closed. If any weeping or moisture is present, that area can't be treated.

Exempted conditions are post-operative scars following pilonidal cyst excision.

Epilepsy and other types of seizures caused by flashing light are a contraindication for IPL, unless the client's GP provides a letter of authorisation.

IPL can't be performed over any skin areas where there are tattoos, permanent makeup, or scalp micropigmentation. The light is attracted to tattoo ink. Hitting ink with IPL will cause a severe burn and also ruin the tattoo.

IPL hair removal requires a hair root to target. During waxing, plucking, or sugaring, the hair root is pulled out of the shaft.

If a client has recently used one of these hair removal methods on the area to be treated, they need to wait a minimum of two weeks for the hair root to regrow.

If you take any of the following medications of topicals, you need to cease using them completely for one month before treatment. Topical lotions only affect the area where they are applied.

• Citrus Essential Oils: Orange, Lemon, Mandarin, Lime, and Bergamot are highly photo-sensitising.
• St John's Wort, Roaccutane, Retinol.
• Doxycycline, Minomycin, and other tetracyclines. These are powerful antibiotics that cause skin to burn easily with light exposure.

While a small amount of mild discomfort is typical during an IPL treatment, pain is not. Don't suck it up, as pain indicates that the setting is too high for your skin type. Let your therapist know if the treatment is uncomfortable.