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An experimental and computational study was conducted in temporally accelerated pipe flows under initially turbulent conditions. Relaminarization was identified when the imposed pressure gradient was of the same order as that required for relaminarization under steady conditions. Unlike the steady case, integral development of the mean flow does not characterize relaminarization. Rather, mean-flow effects were confined to the near-wall region, with significant departures from fully turbulent flow only evident at Y+⩽50. Streamwise turbulence fluctuations in the near-wall region initially decreased and then increased, and in the pipe core region the turbulence fluctuations were effectively frozen.