A Botox shot may have become as normal as a haircut in certain circles
BY THE DAILY MAIL | MAR 22, 2010
Plenty of women are still wary of injecting toxins into their faces and desperate to avoid the tell-tale tight, shiny skin look.
So the idea of an alternative with the same effects, using nothing more than light, could be a godsend.
Intense Pulsed Light treatment (IPL) promises to rebuild sun-damaged skin, fade wrinkles and work wonders on pigmented skin and even acne.
Botox-free actress Anna Friel is a huge fan, recently enthusing: 'It's the best thing around.'
IPL is similar to laser treatment, but uses different wavelengths of light, rather than just one beam. It penetrates several millimetres into the skin to target hidden damage, via short flashes of bright light from a computer-controlled flash-lamp.
It all sounds a bit Deep Space Nine, but anything that can reverse sun damage and soften wrinkles without freezing the face gets my vote.
At Loved beauty salon in Bramhall, Cheshire, owner Helen Lewis says that their IPL Ellipse machine is increasingly popular for rejuvenating skin.
'After the age of 28, there's hardly any new collagen production,' she says. 'So your skin gets thinner. IPL encourages it to produce collagen.'
The treatment may, she adds, encourage hidden sun-damage to the surface, but after around seven days any pigmentation should vanish. At £178 a session, it's cheaper and longer-lasting than Botox.
