Susan's Place Transgender Resources

I have been thinking about getting an IPL hair removal system and am wondering about how well it has worked for others. I was thinking of buying the one from Tria. If anyone has any positive or negative experiences with these devices, I would greatly appreciate their input.

Well, to start with, as far as I know, Tria is not IPL set - it is laser (but if You want to learn about Tria, I can tell a lot - been using it myself, as well as we have several other threads about it). As regards IPL, Silk'n' Smooth has one of the best products, but they have their own side-effects. IPL kits work with flash lamps, which are not rechargeable and cost some money, so it is not like a one complete purchase - rather You just spread Your money in the long run as You buy replacement lamps. IPL is also a bit weaker than laser and thus works slower - but it is rumoured to be less painful (I dunno if You can get burns from IPL...). Also, I dont know how IPL works with transgender people, as it is designed for cis-females. For sure, Tria laser does work, although they warn on their product not to use it no male face/neck, but with careful application and planning (thinning and plucking out beforehands) it is doable. And once hairs have thinned out, the whole process becomes very easy. I went from lowest power setting to maximum power on my face within course of two months – but I still need the numbing creme (I recommend EMLA) – and it still hurts. But it has been reported that the battery in Tria products is designed in a way that it will die after 3-4 years of usage, so eventually we might need to replace the whole kit as well (unless some tech savvy MTF figures out how to use alternative source of power....). But 400-450 USD for several years of treatment (and You do not need to treat the same area more frequent than once per week) is very reasonable amount.

Quote from: kilkan on September 15, 2013, 07:45:01 PM
I have been thinking about getting an IPL hair removal system and am wondering about how well it has worked for others. I was thinking of buying the one from Tria. If anyone has any positive or negative experiences with these devices, I would greatly appreciate their input.

Hi,

If you are genetically male, then the hair on your face and body is buried deeper than that of a genetic female. That and some other variables make the machines that you can buy for home use useless for male hair removal. I use a practitioner who is an expert on hair removal on transgendered clients. The costs of the machines (plural intended) that she uses stretches into the hundreds of thousands. These machines, based  on years of experience, are what she believes are necessary to produce the results for male clients. I guess if you ask yourself, if the professionals use such expensive machines, would a machine costing a few hundred dollars/pounds or whatever produce the same results on female hair let alone male hair which would need more power to target the hair effectively?

My personal opinion would be to save your money and spend it with a professional with the right equipment AND knowledge/expertise of male hair removal.

Hope that helps,

Nikki

Tria is amazing!  I have it, and it has worked well.  I have been using professional laser hair removal on my face, but I use the Tria on other areas, and it has been extremely effective.  (You can use tria on the face too).

FYI:  Tria is laser, not IPL (that's a good thing), and it's a similar type of laser that you would experience at a professional clinic except at a lower maximum fluence setting. 

The only thing with the tria is that it's very painful (on the higher settings), and the small size of the laser means it takes a long time to complete an area. 

I recently purchased a Silk'n Bellalite from Costco, which was $250. I went with it because of Coscto's great return policy. I saw a mix of positive and negative reviews, so I'm giving it a shot and if I'm unsatisfied, I can return it within 90 days. Not a long time to see results, but if I see no change at all, I'll feel fine bringing it back. I'll let you know how it works.