The focused, broad-spectrum light is applied to the surface of the skin by way of a hand-held unit. The light travels through the skin until it strikes the hair shafts or the bulb (root) of the hair. The bulb is usually where the highest concentration of melanin is located, as opposed to the rest of the hair shaft. As the light is converted to heat energy, the bulb and most of the hair shaft are instantly vaporised.

 

The intense heat radiated by the hair also destroys the hair-producing papilla. It is also claimed that direct light-heat conversion occurs directly in the darker coloured capillaries that bring nourishing blood vessels to the follicle. 

 

Contrary to what is often claimed, photoepilation is not a permanent hair removal method but a permanent hair reduction method, which can possibly lead to permanent. This means that although IPL treatments with these devices will permanently reduce the total number of body hairs, they will not result in a permanent removal of all hair necessarily.