IPL stands for intense pulsed light. The salon version and the at-home version work the same way: pulses of light are absorbed by the pigment in the hair, the follicle warms and over repeated sessions regrowth slows, then thins, then largely stops showing up. The difference is price and patience. A salon course runs hundreds of dollars. An at-home handset is one purchase and a few weeks of consistency.
Here is the honest timeline.
Week one
You will not see much, and that is normal. The first session mostly tells you the sensation: a warm snap, like a small rubber band, gentler on the lower intensity settings. Start low, patch test first and work up. Hair sheds on its usual cycle for now.
Weeks two to four
This is where the first real change shows for most people: regrowth starts coming in finer and slower. Shaving gaps stretch from days to a week. Keep the weekly session rhythm. Consistency is doing the work here, not intensity.
Weeks eight to twelve
By now most users are down to touch-up territory: sparse, fine regrowth handled with a session every few weeks. Legs and underarms tend to respond fastest. Facial hair is slower and wants more patience.
Who it works best for
IPL relies on pigment contrast, so it works best on lighter skin with darker hair. Very light, red or grey hair holds too little pigment for the light to target, and the deepest skin tones absorb too much light at the surface for the current generation of home devices to be a good fit. If that is you, save the money honestly: this is not your tool.
The aftercare
Moisturize, use SPF on treated areas that see sun and skip exfoliating acids on treatment days. Your peeling serum can come back the day after.
The handset lives in the Treat collection with everything else you would rather handle at home than at a clinic.