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IPL Hair Removal

Intense pulsed light, commonly abbreviated as IPL, is a technology used by beauty studios and medical practitioners to perform various skin treatments including hair removal and photorejuvenation. The technology utilises a broad spectrum lightsource, with a general spectral range of 515 to 1200 nm. Various cutoff filters are commonly used to filter out lower frequencies and narrow this spectrum to target specific structures and chromophores. Because of the broad spectrum of the IPL light source they are unique, as opposed to lasers, in the ability to filter the light spectrum to target various chromophores in the skin.[1]

 

Defining Ethnic Skin

In addition to grouping people of ethnic descent into classic Fitzpatrick categories of IV to VI to describe their propensity for sun reactivity, it is useful to describe how ethnic features and groups relate to one another. People of ethnic skin comprise the majority of the world's population. These include Asians, who can be subdivided into East Asians (Chinese, Japanese, Koreans), Southeast Asians (Indonesians, Malaysians, Singaporeans, Thais, Cambodians, Vietnamese), and South Asians (Bangladeshis, Indians, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans). Those from East Asia tend to have lighter skin color, although Koreans are generally more brown-skinned than the Chinese or Japanese. Southeast Asians have brown skin color while East Asians and Southeast Asians have a Mongoloid ethnic background. South Asians are of Caucasian ethnic background but have brown to dark brown skin.

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