I have personal experience with the Tria 4X. I have used it for 5 months and I will share my results and thoughts on this product:
Everybody wants their hair removed yesterday. My advice is to take whatever time frame you have in your head of how long it's going to take and multiply that times 4. It's a long and slow process no matter how you do it.
I bought the Tria laser 4X in November 2014. First of all Tria is NOT a laser. It's an IPL Intense Pulsed light. It shares the same frequency in the near infrared range of 910nm as 910nm lasers, but the distinction between IPL and laser is important. NOT because it's not effective. IPL is every bit as effective as Laser. How could it not be? Same wavelength, same power: produces same results. It's a safety issue. Physics speak: Laser is in phase, IPL is not. Layman speak: You know when you point a laser pointer in the sky and you see a beam? That's because the light beam is in sync with each other. It's in phase or concentrated in one direction. It allows energy packets in lasers to be delivered over long distances without losing power. IPL scatters very quickly when leaving the optical end of the instrument. So, IPL is safer in some respects. A direct shot to the eye from 12 inches will not deliver the same power as a laser. OK, physics lesson is over. Now to the practical results.
Does the Tria 4X remove hair? Absolutely it does. pressing the Tria directly to your skin delivers a good amount of energy on setting 5. You will feel it like a snap of a rubber band. If you don't feel it, you are probably not doing anything to remove hair in that area. You either have the setting too low or have blonde or light hair. I noticed about a 25% reduction of arm hair after the first treatment. This was encouraging, but don't get too excited. 3 weeks later it hardly seemed like any impact at all! Why? because hair grows in cycles. 3 to 6 week cycles. So that first treatment removed 25% of 1 of 3 to 6 cycles of hairs. reducing the real percentage to somewhere between 25% of 16% to 33% of my hairs. Does that make sense? Each time you do it, you are killing cells that produce hairs, but since only 1/6 to 1/3 of your hairs are actually in a growth cycle, the others will come back. 25% of those actually in the growth cycle never come back. It does work, but it can be frustrating and you may think you are getting no where. But you are. I do once a week for the last 5 months and I have about a 60% total real reduction in my arm hair. I plan on continuing to blast it.
For the face: Tria says you are not to use it on your face, but everyone knows that it is OK in Japan, Europe and Canada. My opinion? It's a legal thing that they don't allow it in the US. And there is considerable more risk putting this instrument on your face which is close to your eyes. You may think it's just a home product, but it carries a punch. BE CAREFUL if you do use it on your face. Never around your eyes. Personally, I use it mainly just below my chin and all my neck. I have been doing electrolysis to augment this for my face in other areas. My opinion of why they don't recommend it: IT HURTS LIKE HELL! hairs are very concentrated on the beard. I noticed an extreme difference between beard areas and areas of the body. I have hit my upper lip with about 4 treatments and it helps to weaken the hairs for electrolysis. That said, I have never been burned by the laser using it on my face even on the highest setting, but I can tell you even with a close shave it WILL HURT. I just can't duplicate the regimen of weekly blasts that I do on the rest of my body.
