Thank you Emily, that reply really helps me understand better.

I am also a fan of the TRIA system. I bought mine late September and have been using it on my chest, happy trail, and bikini line every 2 weeks. I'm seeing great results with my chest and happy trail, the hair has become much finer and less dense in these areas. My bikini line is taking a lot longer, but I'm definitely seeing a change. I'm still hesitant to use it on my face though.

Wow. How did I not know about this?

It takes time, effort and $$$. Yet it saves money in the long run. Also, it is your time and effort. Not a miracle, but it makes the professional job easier and cheaper.

I think I am sold, but at this time of the year, I wonder if an even newer model is on the horizon.

A few questions.

Is the volume adjustable or can I tape over the speaker? That will annoy at least one neighbor. I guarantee.

Can the 4x run while plugged in?

Is the 300 charge thing a guesstimate, or does it lock you out at that point?

Could Nair work, rather than shaving (way fewer ingrown hairs, so, if you do not get chemical burn...)?

Those who used/use it, is the Tria worth it?

Is it worth starting on male pattern hair, or should one focus on female pattern hair?

Sheesh! Lots of questions. Sorry. This isn't life or death. Just curious.

Quote from: Tori on November 09, 2013, 12:54:20 AMIs the volume adjustable or can I tape over the speaker?

I don't think the volume is adjustable. You might not want to tape over it as there is a cooling fan that uses those mesh type parts. when the fan kicks in, usually after 50-100 goes on 5, the beep sounds less loud. also, if you played some music at a reasonable volume, the beep shouldn't be too annoying to others. maybe you could play some beeby electronic music and it'd blend right in 

Quote from: Tori on November 09, 2013, 12:54:20 AMCan the 4x run while plugged in?

No it will not run while plugged in, the electrical specs of the battery seem to be printed on the the bottom so when my batter runs out, i might try and tinker with bypassing the battery, but this is Frankenstein possibly unsafe meddling that i couldn't recommend

Quote from: Tori on November 09, 2013, 12:54:20 AMIs the 300 charge thing a guesstimate, or does it lock you out at that point?

It does a special beep at 150 and at 300, but you can keep going. I've found that my battery, after doing level 5 only, starts to go down after about 300. I've read alot about lithium batteries and they don't like getting too low, so i baby my battery. I use it all over my face and it takes maybe 300-500 for that.

^speaking of my face: i had previously used a one touch One Touch Deluxe Electrolysis on my upper lip and chin, basically all the easy to get to spots. i'm not selling that product, just letting y'all know that i had already done some work. fyi i modified it to use pro needles and i also modified the trigger mechanism. it works, permanant removal.
^^sidetracked, back to laser. so i had already done some work on my upper lip and chin, but from what i'm seeing with the laser my neck is the first place ejecting hairs, and my upper lip seems to be pretty bare now. i never did much electro on the sides of my chin, and that area is currently at the point where the hair is becoming lighter and less vigorous... i'm maybe a month and a half in, using it every week, maybe 3 times every 2 weeks like emily

Quote from: Tori on November 09, 2013, 12:54:20 AMCould Nair work, rather than shaving (way fewer ingrown hairs, so, if you do not get chemical burn...)?

I haven't had problems with ingrown hair. i'm scared of nair. i've read you shouldn't pluck lasered hairs but let them fall out. you can continue to shave i believe

Quote from: Tori on November 09, 2013, 12:54:20 AMThose who used/use it, is the Tria worth it?

well, i got mine for $225 new off a local craigslist so for me, absolutely. i think it would still be worth it had i paid full price.

Quote from: Tori on November 09, 2013, 12:54:20 AMIs it worth starting on male pattern hair, or should one focus on female pattern hair?

I'm not too sure what you're asking here but my impression is the forehead hairline. For my head, what i need is an addition of hair in the corners of my forehead. i don't think the tria can help me with my hairline. i've heard of Latisse, a prescription drug you could ask your doctor about. the results from that are not permanant, they go away when you stop using it, but i've heard it can help around the corners of the forehead, although slightly, and probably not worth the $

Quote from: Tori on November 09, 2013, 12:54:20 AMSheesh! Lots of questions. Sorry. This isn't life or death. Just curious.

I hope my responses help answer your questions, if not, let me know and i'll clarify. hopefully some other people will share their experiences and thoughts too!

Have a great day!

Thank you Jojo for the info.

Only one question needs further clarification. By male pattern hair, I meant places like the beard where hair remains thick and tough, or body hair early in HRT before it thins and softens. Are those thicker hairs harder to remove?

Thank you again for your time and answers.

Quote from: Tori on November 09, 2013, 03:08:29 PM
Thank you Jojo for the info.

Only one question needs further clarification. By male pattern hair, I meant places like the beard where hair remains thick and tough, or body hair early in HRT before it thins and softens. Are those thicker hairs harder to remove?

Thank you again for your time and answers.

Well, it is more painful there, but I did pluck some hair out to reduce density and hence reducing the pain either .

For me, hormones reduced alot of my body hair in less than a year. I wasn't that hairy to begin with though.  I hardly had any chest hair, and I have none now, with just hormones.

I've only been using the tria on my face. i figure it is the most important thing for me to fix up, armpits, legs, etc can be shaved just like any other woman, and the hairs are fine and light after the hormones. If my battery dies, i'd rather have the beard checked off than anything else.

One thing i forgot to mention. the EMLA cream is super expensive! what i've done is just used benzocaine, stuff for toothaches they sell in grocery stores for like $2-4 a tube. I put a small amount on, give it a minute or few, then wash it off. If you don't wash it off the stuff prevents the tria from working, you'll only get the bad beeps. It works, tho i've never tried the EMLA cream so i can't compare.

Just yesterday i did level 5 all over face without the benzocaine and i could tell it was more painful than with the cream.

I just got thinking... anyone else love the noises it makes? i'm only familiar with the 4x but the sound it makes after it approves your skin tone sounds like i just won at super mario, it makes me feel awesome, lol.

I got my Tria 4X about a month ago, and after a bit of trial and error I've settled down into a routine with and I'm beginning to see some results.

I am pretty hairy, and the hair is pretty thick, especially on my thighs, and my beard is pretty dense after a few decades of testosterone abuse.

I've used it the most times on my calves and face. After 4 hits on calves I've had a lot of hair rejection and you don't really notice what's left that much.  I can see this working out well.

After 5 times round on my face, starting at level 1 then progressing slowly up to now level 4, I'm getting some thinning of the beard, a few emptying patches, but with this I was resigned from the start to the long haul.

I don't use any cream, but an ice pack on the are to be treated reduces the pain for 5 or 6 hits. Reapply the ice pack and god again.

I get some redness when I do my face, but it's usually gone within an hour.

I just got a tria 4x this past week.  I was playing with it and didnt realize that it was on 5 and zapped one time on my chin.  It hurt like hell and I now have one spot with no hair!  Guess I can do the rest a little at a time on a much lower setting

Yep, these things are amazing- they really do work.

I am down to shaving my armpits at only week intervals. I've treated the area a total of 5 times on setting 4. There are only a few small patches left.

Wonderful that it's working for all of you, too!

Yeah I gave up and ended up joining the "Laser Hair Removal Club" locally.  I guess when that's over with I'll probably get a tria to battle my gorilla fur.  Everyone keeps saying "its like a rubber band snap".  Hmmm for me it was more like getting slapped in the face with a leather belt. 

For facial hair, the fastest option is clearly professional laser hair removal. For everything else, the Tria does just as good of a job. I think it would work completely for facial hair, too. But, it would just take much longer and that means more pain, too.

I am going in for my 9th pro laser session on my face tomorrow. I hope it doesn't hurt too badly, I had a bunch of hairs grow back on my upper lip over the past couple of weeks.

Quote from: Joules on November 21, 2013, 01:30:51 AM
I have a home Tria, I'm not in a hurry just yet and I can only kill about half of my beard with laser, the other half is gray.  Sooo, I just zap a few now and then.  My upper lip is almost clear of color, and the gray hairs have taken on an almost vellus look, they hardly show at all, even with just a bit of growth.  It's working well for me, but as said earlier by others, it's sloooow going for someone in a hurry.  If I get that far in transition, I'll have to do electrolysis on the gray hairs someday.

I would suggest You first looking into this option - scroll down till You see the post by Pippa.
https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,153061.new.html#new
I am definitely looking into this - I have about 20 white hairs popping out on my chin from time to time and was considering doing some rounds of electro to deal with them and some annoying buggers which keep coming out on my upper lip, but now I wanna try this Pigmentine first. At least that would allow me to avoid interactions with electrologist and explaining on the phone why she should be taking me - she has very good repute but her site is very much female oriented (she was also selling discount vouchers and they clearly stated that this is a procedure for women only ). I am sure, as soon as she would see me, she would realise that there is not a lot of work to be done, but I need to get there first. And 30 USD for a half an hour does not seem that bad...

I use to work for a medical laser company and got to see very well how the hair removing works (being on the engineering team),
the trick is to heat the area fast enough so that the low thermal mass hair follicle is overheated, but not long enough to overheat the skin,
so having your skin cold to start with helps as it gives you a much larger window to work with,
the lightshear laser does this by running chilled liquid through a clear window directly on the skin that the laser goes through,
so your skin is cold when the laser hits.
one plan was to use liquid nitrogen sprayed on the skin just before the laser fired, but we figured it was to hard for people to have liquid nitrogen on hand,

but you can run an ice cube on your skin right before you zap it with the laser and it should let you use higher power without hurting your skin or feeling as much pain.

this is the laser I have
http://www.lasersurgerycost.org/sdl60c-cool-tip-diode-laser-system-for-tattoo-removal-general-dermatology-permanent-hair-reduction-and-more.html
and it does remove hair, but is a pretty tiny area at a time, and kind of hard to use on myself,
I mostly use it to cauterize cuts now, and it works great for that, it takes a bit longer to heal, but things don't get infected that way either, 
and the Tria should work for that as well,

I keep track of where I have been by the red skin from where I have just been.
or I just get lost and give up for a few weeks.

Quote from: Sybil on December 14, 2013, 12:22:18 AM
I finally got mine today. I tried to zap at setting 5 on a few body parts and thought to myself, this doesn't hurt very much, I don't know what the big deal is. Then I tried my face. GOOD LORD that is painful. It hurts so much it makes my teeth tingle. I feel like I have to get a friend to do it to my face, I don't know if I can sit there for 30 minutes and do it to myself. It feels the same from levels 2 to 5 for me.

The manual advises against using the laser on "male" facial hair, but a lot of you have done it with success so I'm not too concerned. I am bit a worried about keeping track of where I've zapped, though. How do the rest of you who own a Tria keep track as you zap along?

I did not keep track. For legs, just shave one or a few hairs and zap the area where the hair was cut. For armpits,  shave the entire area, and zap randomly.

Barbie

Quote from: Sybil on December 14, 2013, 12:22:18 AM
How do the rest of you who own a Tria keep track as you zap along?

I don't know if I press harder than I should but once I remove the Tria there is white outline of where I placed the Tria. It is only there for a few seconds so I have to be quick and move the Tria so it covers half of that circle.

Do be careful if you are starting off with heavy male pattern facial hair. You could definitely burn yourself or create post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation which is no fun.

I highly recommend icing the area first and/or using a numbing cream as well.

Also don't forget to wear a strong SPF (30+) every day! Especially the week following treatment!

Good luck ladies!!!

Quote from: Sybil on December 14, 2013, 10:49:41 PM
Are these two statements related? Is the icing supposed to help? My facial hair isn't the worst ever, but it's definitely prominent. I was under the impression it was still okay to treat it with a Tria. Could you please elaborate?

I'm not certain if you're saying you could burn yourself because of improper technique or because of just having dense hair. Ugh, I just want to get this over with! I feel like I've waited forever already.

My experience is that facial skin is more sensitive, and the hairs there are deeply rooted, requiring far more Tria treatments than other areas. It will take several days or weeks for the facial skin to recover from the heat damage caused by Tria. This means that you should not hurry in treating your facial hairs by Tria. I would recommend slow, gradual, and careful treatment. Please check carefully whether your facial skin is fine in 2-3 days after Tria treatment. If you see some burning, then stop for a while until your skin looks recovered and healthy again.

barbie~~

i dont mean to dig up an old post but i was just wondering if you girls could give us an update on your TRIA treatments, for those of you who are using TRIA for the majority of your facial hair removal and not seeing a professional laserer.

how long has it taken to see 'complete' results (or at least an 80/90% reduction) and how regularly (eg once/week etc)

ive been looking into professional laser and living in rural Australia it is quite *expletive* expensive (basically i have the choice of 2 professional sessions or the TRIA for the same price). so i am doing my research on the best thing to do to get this darn transition ball rolling already!!

i was using the Silkn Flash n Go for the whole body and while its been brilliant for the body hair from the neck down, its not touched a single facial hair (was a gift so i can just sell it and use that money for the TRIA)

Quote from: Laurenza on February 21, 2014, 09:37:05 PM
i dont mean to dig up an old post but i was just wondering if you girls could give us an update on your TRIA treatments, for those of you who are using TRIA for the majority of your facial hair removal and not seeing a professional laserer.

how long has it taken to see 'complete' results (or at least an 80/90% reduction) and how regularly (eg once/week etc)

ive been looking into professional laser and living in rural Australia it is quite *expletive* expensive (basically i have the choice of 2 professional sessions or the TRIA for the same price). so i am doing my research on the best thing to do to get this darn transition ball rolling already!!

i was using the Silkn Flash n Go for the whole body and while its been brilliant for the body hair from the neck down, its not touched a single facial hair (was a gift so i can just sell it and use that money for the TRIA)

As it takes 1 month for hairs to grown again, you may divide your target area into 4 parts, and apply Tria at a part once per week. It may take from 6 months to 1 year to significantly reduce your facial hair. But, Tria is not recommended for facial hair, meaning that you need to carefully check the status of your facial skin after each treatment. If anything is wrong, stop for a while and continue after checking again.

Barbie~~