Home Laser Hair Removal

Unwanted hair is a big inconvenience for many, and for some people it can be terribly severe. Individuals all over the world are troubled with unsightly back hair, leg hairs, bikini lines, and even medical problems like ingrown hairs that can be a huge source of discomfort. There are many conventional methods to deal with this issue, like shaving or waxing, but these are such temporary solutions that they eventually become tiring and offensive chores. What people really want is a way to remove the hair permanently, or at least semi-permanently.

Laser Hair Removal Basics

A new medical technology called Laser hair removal has become a very popular way to deliver long lasting results. It works by sending a powerful laser beam into the skin to target the melanin, which is a pigment associated with hair growth. The idea is to attack the hair follicle and send it into a resting state, known as the telegen phase. Once it’s in this state, the hair follicle will stop growing new hairs for a period of time, sometimes up to several years. When the hair eventually grows back, another round of laser treatments can easily put it back into submission again, which means you can effectively take shaving and other methods out of the equation completely. The end result is something equivalent to permanent hair removal.

There are a few issues with this technology. For starters, it works much better with people who have light skin, and dark hair, and the powerful lasers used can cause pain and general discomfort. The biggest problem with laser hair removal is that it’s very expensive. Depending on where you live, a full round of treatment can cost 10,000 dollars or more. As a general rule, the more treatments you take, the longer the results last, so people end up spending a lot of money on these procedures.

Home Based Devices

Recently, a few products have been released that bring this technology into the home at a greatly reduced price. Most of these devices work on the same basic principle as the big lasers in the doctor’s office, but the product that’s closest to the real thing comes from a company called TRIA. This is the same company that invented the LightSheer, which is one of the most popular lasers used by physicians for hair removal procedures. They’ve taken the same basic idea behind their larger medical devices, and downsized it for home use. The resulting creation, which has been approved by the FDA, is approximately the same size as a hair dryer, and it’s quite easy to use.

The biggest difference between the TRIA and other devices that purport to do the same thing is that most of them rely on pulsed light at low power, while the TRIA uses a genuine laser to do the work. The pulsed light devices can create more impressive short term results, but the hair will grow back much faster, and the overall effectiveness is lessened. Because the TRIA uses a real laser, it can generate a much closer approximation to an expensive surgery. It also causes less discomfort than the pulsed light, which has a greater tendency to burn the skin.

When we reviewed this home laser, there were some obvious sacrifices with the TRIA compared to having the procedure done professionally. It’s lower powered than the lasers at the doctor’s office, so it can take more treatments to get effective results. A normal round of treatments with the TRIA will include several sessions, spaced every other week for 3 months, and then once a month for approximately 5 more months.

Another issue with the TRIA, and all home based hair removal devices, is that you can’t use them on your face. The FDA review has only given approval for use of these products from the neck down, so if you have unsightly chin hairs or other issues in that area, you’ll still need to see a trained professional.

How the TRIA works

For starters, there is a light on the device that turns from red to green, signaling that your skin is within the tonal range that can work. If you’re uncertain about your skin tone there is a handy chart on the company website. The TRIA, and all other laser hair removal procedures, including the surgical methods, are for people with light to medium skin and darker hair shades.

After that, the first thing you’ll want to do is choose which of the 5 settings you’re most comfortable with. Some people have more sensitive skin than others, and they will choose one of the lower settings. The higher settings can achieve faster results, but all settings will eventually remove your hair, so it’s great to have choices for those with lower tolerance levels.

Once you’re comfortable with the machines setting, you hold the tip of the laser against your skin until you hear a beep, then you move over a little bit, making sure to overlap slightly to insure an even distribution, and repeat. You continue this process until you cover the area of undesired hair.

That’s really all there is to it. Using the TRIA is a surprisingly easy process, especially when you consider how expensive the medical hair removal procedures can be. It’s pretty astounding that an expensive surgical process can be replaced by something that’s so easy to do for yourself.

How effective is the TRIA?

After one month, the results are almost unnoticeable, but after two months, you’ll notice that the hairs that come back are much finer. After 3 months, you’ll have much less hair than you started with, and once you finish the entire treatment process, you’ll have nice smooth skin with disabled hair in the area of undesirable growth.

The Bottom Line

The TRIA is basically a $595 device that replaces a medical procedure that can cost $10,000 or more. It’s rare that technologies offering these kinds of savings reach the average consumer in such a short time without strings attached. You hear about batteries that run for 10 years, and other scientific marvels, but they never actually reach the market. When they finally show up, they’re priced so high that the savings are greatly mitigated.

The TRIA is not without some limitations, but they’re the same issues that all laser approaches have to deal with (skin tone, hair color and etc…). Nearly any candidate for medical laser hair removal would also be able to effectively utilize the TRIA, and save money.

When you compare it to the other competitors in the home hair removal arena, the TRIA wins out quite easily. The other devices have some level of effectiveness, but they’re a fairly poor replacement for laser surgery, while the TRIA is a real viable alternative.

When viewed in that context, this is the way to go if you want laser hair removal. It works extremely well, and there is no real justifiable reason to accept the much greater expense of surgical methods. The most important difference between the two approaches is speed, and even with laser surgery, it’s a long drawn out process. Another plus for the TRIA is that the high powered lasers that the doctors use are painful, and cause a lot of discomfort between treatments. The TRIA is a gentler, less expensive method of hair removal. Overall, it’s a worthwhile product, and it comes highly recommended.

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