Tria (home diode laser)
Silk'n (home IPL)
Anyone used either of these?
Over at hairtell (the forum for hairfacts) they say that neither is strong enough to actually "kill" the hair for most people. In effect they claim it is just an alternative to a rotary epilator/waxing. Even though they both will hurt, I'm guessing they won't hurt as much as a rotary epilator or waxing.
They are both spendy ($800 for silk'n / $1000 for tria) and while both offer a trial period, it is no where near long enough to test permanency. If you did have to use them long term then they do both have a ongoing costs (new bulbs for silk'n and the tria has a hardwired battery so it has to be replaced entirely eventually) so it gets even most expensive.
I have light skin and black/dark dark brown body hair. Unfortunately I have tons of body hair (my sister does too so I'm not hopeful that HRT will help much). Epilating is painful and is breaking out my skin something awful (only been able to complete it twice because it takes so long). It also grows back almost immediately (much faster than my legs) [under a week its almost ALL back]. If I didn't see root balls on most hair I'd think it just broke them off. It makes me wonder if the trauma isn't triggering the hair to enter the growing phase early. It takes 5+ passes on my chest to get all the hair. I also tried sugaring and waxing on my chest. Both the sugar and the wax looked disgusting from all the hair embedded (almost black), but they didn't get it all (and it grew back quickly too). It does seem to be fairly deep rooted and on my chest it always has a clear/pale coating. I've been shaving and while it helps me feel less ape like, it doesn't even last 12 hours before it looks terrible (shadow).
Given that shaving is not long lasting enough, and epilating/waxing/sugaring take FOREVER and don't last anytime, I'm actually considering one of these devices. If it did happen to be permanent then AWESOME, but if not then at least it would be faster than epilating/waxing/sugaring. Right now I actually can't afford the time to keep my chest clear with any method other than shaving and it bothers me enough that I may be able to justify the cost.
So anyone have any personal experience or want to weight in on the science (low power levels and so forth)?
