Diode Laser or IPL for Underarms?

It's been years since I've been toying with the idea of doing laser procedures to get rid of unwanted hair. But since they are so expensive, I haven't had the chance to try them. Nowadays though, I see a lot of salons offering really cheap IPL procedures through groupons. Should I buy or not?

A friend of mine who's been doing IPL treatments say that IPL does it's job although she's still left with few unwanted hairs. The catch is, she's done, I think, more than 12 sessions of IPL to get this result. She still goes to salons for treatment every now and then.

I've read mixed reviews on both procedures online. It seems like IPL is okay although it takes more sessions for it to get the results most people wanted, which is exactly what my friend is experiencing. With Laser, depending on one's hair type, some say they are satisfied with the results after only 2 sessions.

As for the disadvantages, I've read in www.hairremovalforum.com that IPL can put patients at higher risk for burns, especially those with darker skin. This is because IPLs, unlike Lasers, produce a wide bandwidth of light, which means that it also affects the tissues that were not targeted for hair removal. Laser hair removal, on the other hand, produces selective bandwidth of light that will only affect the area targeted.

The disadvantages I found for Lasers don't seem to be bad enough (I'm talking medically or physically here) to make one want to say, "No way!" Mainly, it's just that people experience some degree of pain (depending on how one tolerates pain) or the machine being too hot during the procedure. Although I did read that there are also very rare occurrences of burning with Laser. Aside from that, one would probably also consider the cost a disadvantage as Laser is about 10 times more expensive than IPL, at least in my part of the world.

When I asked my derm about the differences between the two, she only said that there's risk for burning with IPL. I haven't really asked her for more information other than that. I should, in my next visit.

Would anyone have any say on this?

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My unwanted hair remedy as of the moment is waxing. I used to shave until I discovered that waxing is better for my skin. Once I tried underarm waxing, I never went back to shaving. What I don't like about waxing, though, is that I need to wear clothes that can cover my underarms, at least partially, by the 2nd week and something with a fuller coverage by the 3rd week and until I go for my next session. I do this procedure once a month and it gets tiresome to wait for the hair to grow enough.