I was at first looking at TRIA but then looking at the skin tone charts and reviews, determined it wouldn't work upon my dark Latina skin.

Upon further research I stumbled upon Illuminage Touch $445, and it's sequel Illuminage Touch Precise $295.  It's supposedly the only FDA approved home laser that works on all skin tones, this seems to be true according to reviews, and youtube videos from random costumers.

Me being the poor gal I am, just ordered the Touch Precise. FYI it's 7 treatments 1 a week and 2 follow-up treatments once a month for punctuation.

It's apparently is effective virtually everywhere. Though on the FAQ's makes a note about female face, and female body, but nothing really about male face, even though there is a note about male body.

I can only assume that for a transgender girl like me, that it is probably somehow problematic to use for my face. Though I can't really imagine what could go wrong, and sorta want to try it out anyway when it arrives in 2 weeks. I mean what's the difference between mustache hair and armpit hair?

In all honesty, I'm probably going to get facial hair taken care of with electrolysis sessions. But what do y'all think happens if a transgender girl uses the TOUCH PRECISE on her face? Does the PRECISE explode? Does her face explode? *Shrug* hard to say, no reviews thus far give any indication. I think I'll call them when in a few days.

Just my personal opinion, but I don't trust at-home systems to be safe or effective.

Come the apocalypse I'd trust my recurve bow over a laser any day.........
Oh sorry you're talking about something else

In my humble opinion electro is the only way to go if you want your facial hair dead.  Yes it hurts and it takes time, but once it's done that hair is not coming back ever!

@ Lady Smith.

I have heard this issue with "hurt" that some women have. What exactly is this about? I simply cannot fathom why anyone would consider pain to be a viable obstruction when considering any action. It only becomes an issue if it results in unwanted permanent damage.

As far as the actual topic goes: I am sceptical about home laser products off the bat just like anyone else. However I've seen a few youtube videos from costumers who were not paid to talk about this product who have shown very pleasing results.

P.S. Pain is a non-issue, and as far as I am concerned should always be considered a non-issue. Finances on the other hand is a legitimate obstruction.

Pain wasn't a barrier for me Sayuri,  I would do it all again in a heartbeat because the final result was everything I hoped for.  Finances are a barrier I must agree with that, however I was lucky because I found a skilled electrolysis technician who was working from her home at a fraction of what it would have cost me if I'd gone to a clinic.

I did have a cis-woman friend some years ago who tried one of the home laser kits and had some success with it, but male type facial hair follicles might be a different story.

Have you any ideas as to what happens when attempting to use such tools for staches?

Will there be explosions?

Will the physics police come out?

I think the main concerns are the potential for scarring or burning your skin.

Well all at your own risk.

It is a juggle between your pain tolerance, the settings from min to max and the reaction of your hairs and skin.
Some people try a small area first.

I'd say its an individual reaction... skin reaction, rate of regrowth and rate of affected hair.

Some studios use some special gels for cooling and better effects. But all at your own risk.. and you should inquire with the manufacturer.

As said in another thread, it would take someone like S pock to make a more precise statement.
Or an educated guess like it was called...

For what it's worth almost all of the at-home systems are IPL, not laser (as far as I know!)  I recently won an auction on eBay for a Veet Infini'Silk Pro for practically nothing (yay!), so that's shipping right now and I should have it by next week.

I'm the type who would be happiest without a single hair below the eyebrows, so I'm excited to give it a shot.  I've heard good things about these products if you don't compare them to electrolysis - it's not a perfect removal by any means, but depending on the skintone and hair color they can (supposedly) work quite well.

And I'm the perfect candidate (pale, dark hair) so we'll have to see how it works!

@ Laura, why does anyone care about pain? I legitimately have no idea why anyone would consider that an obstruction.

I have never been physically powerful or had high endurance. So in the past I had complained about things being too tiring. But I don't think I have ever though to myself "it hurts too much, so I won't do it."

@ Purpleshiney, It's pretty nice to know that I am not alone in this adventure to use these kinds of home treatments. I too would like to be hairless just as much (though also even more since I want to shape my eyebrows, what with having a bit of a unibrow).

I emailed illuminage about what they had to say about trying to target beards and mustaches. They said "We advise not to use on a man's face, jaw or neck because using the iluminageTOUCH in these areas may result in skin injury."

But what's that supposed to mean? This was my response I just sent:

"May I ask for an elaboration please?
What does "skin injury" entail? How would the skin get injured, and why?
Why would it injure a male face but not a female face? That much I am not sure how to make sense out of.
Another question: in-spite of damage to the face, will it still have an effect on hair reduction?"

Quote from: Sayuri on September 08, 2015, 10:08:04 PM
"May I ask for an elaboration please?
What does "skin injury" entail? How would the skin get injured, and why?
Why would it injure a male face but not a female face? That much I am not sure how to make sense out of.
Another question: in-spite of damage to the face, will it still have an effect on hair reduction?"

Well again all at your own risk.

The devices can be regulated.
The beards of men are solid hair which cis women usually do not have.
The higher the setting the higher the affected rate of hair.
But also the possibility to affect delicate skin.
Possible side effects are i.e. burns and changes in pigmentation (should be listed in the manual).


hugs

So I called them about it for confirmation on stuff. The important part though is that they told me what "injury" means in that context. They were talking about burns, I then asked, "is any of this injury permanent markings?" and they said "no".

And that's really all I needed to know.

So it's the kind of injury for how Mario Party might give your hands blisters, but you will heal from them.

For what it's worth, my Veet Infini'Silk Pro arrived in the mail yesterday and I gave it a shot on my arms, legs, and chest.

Obviously the first treatment isn't going to give noticeable results, but as far as side effects are concerned I've experienced none this morning.   After a test I found I could take it on the highest energy setting (there's a range of 1 to 5), so I spent about 30 minutes zapping myself.  You can definitely feel it when you pull the trigger, and the longer your hair is, the more of a zap you get.  You're supposed to shave first obviously.

I'll be curious to see how this thing works!  If anything, it's kind of fun and it makes me feel like I have a blaster from Star Wars.

I love the blaster from Star Wars, pew pew pew!
I haven't gotten my device yet, so I'll report about that when mine arrives. I intend to put it on the highest setting as well.

Here's some simple ipl 101.  I wanted my hair gone, so a couple years back instead of paying 10k for the total body hair removal for my mostly baby blonde hair, I bought a professional unit from china that has 3 different tools from ipl, laser, and 2 pole rf.. I bought it from some of my overseas connections, so I got it around 4k instead, may sound expensive,  but you get what you pay for(in other words, keep reading).. my mistake was thinking a manual would come with it:(  it took over a year to find the correct ipl manuals and textbooks on the net..

This next part explains how an ipl works..  sadly after this, it's your choice if you still only want to pay up to 450 for an ipl machine.  Basically that could in theory help dark haired people with very light skin.  But with the head that is 1 inch square, good luck doing your body:(

Ok, so you got your ipl, now do you have filters in it that filter out the light below 640nm.  What is the power output of the unit.  For my blonde hair it takes 18 joules of energy per shot..  then there is the duration, with this being said, it's not just a flash, but how long is that flash?  Again for a blonde I set my unit for 15ms, then off for 5ms skin cooling, then another 12ms heat, so basically in that shot, I get 27ms of heat.  This is designed with the head of my unit since it uses a cooling head that's always 35f to keep the skin cool and prevent burns, the time is so the light penetrates far into the hair folic to heat the hair up to cauterize the blood flow to the hair.  Lost ya yet:)  Ok within that same shot, now it sends a pulse of rf, just like electrolosis that causes the hair folicles in between the ipl head to cause a galvanic action that produces sodium hydroxide in the hair folicle.  This helps ensure the hair doesn't heal and come back..  the setting for this action is 450ms at an rf rating of 20w, I should go higher and longer on this setting, but I'm not too fond of electric shocks!   now if all this worked, the hairs in this section should fall out in a couple days by themselves..  and if all your settings were at max if you could stand the pain, you may kill up to 90% of the hair in the active growth cycle at that time in that location..

Last piece, there are different growth cycles, usually 3 main cycles that go from 4 to 8 weeks.  You will notice no hair for a couple weeks, then a cluster of hair start growing, so time to start over again.. 

There is soo much I didn't talk about on this, such as gels, numbing creams, other setting, the sun, post treatment.. I just wanted to show you how a pro unit works so you can see that an even $450 unit lacking half the stuff to accomplish the job in just that one flash.  It may work for dark hair, but it's a long shot, plus it can cause damage and scars if your skin is not right due to tan, skin color, or even stuff you may put on your skin..

And yes, with my ipl, I've removed almost all my body hair, hair down there:) and some facial hair..  now the facial hair is a different animal, most of those cheaper units say not to use on the face for that factor that they are not truly controlled and the head is not thermally cooled and some people could acquire permanent scars:(

I still use the unit every 5 weeks on my face at lower settings to remove hair do I don't have to spend the next few years at the electrolosis..  now those hurt and it gets expensive,  so I'm trying to shorten that time..  Basically if you notice scaring or pain while doing your skin elsewhere,  do not touch your face!  Just removing 10% of the hair at lower settings is better than a perm scar!

Ok, hope I have helped cover some questions?   Pm me or email if you have more questions:)  i may see if i can upload some documents to the site on ipl tech and use..  my suggestion is to make a group and go in for a pro unit, then take turns on each other.  It's soo much easier when you have a buddy helping todo it..  a pro unit lasts 100k to 500k flashes before you spend over another grand to buy a new head, but that is 20 to 30 people or more over its life..  oh, and use plenty of lube;)

Last, again the smaller unit may work for you, but best results if you have dark, thin hair, with light skin, and can tolerate the pain so it can be on high to no scars!  Good luck!

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

Quote from: purpleshiny on September 11, 2015, 12:38:44 PM
For what it's worth, my Veet Infini'Silk Pro arrived in the mail yesterday and I gave it a shot on my arms, legs, and chest.

Obviously the first treatment isn't going to give noticeable results, but as far as side effects are concerned I've experienced none this morning.   After a test I found I could take it on the highest energy setting (there's a range of 1 to 5), so I spent about 30 minutes zapping myself.  You can definitely feel it when you pull the trigger, and the longer your hair is, the more of a zap you get.  You're supposed to shave first obviously.

I'll be curious to see how this thing works!  If anything, it's kind of fun and it makes me feel like I have a blaster from Star Wars.

Just got my Illuminage, I used it on legs, arms, armpits, chest and face. Didn't really hurt, although on occasion it sometimes felt like static shock.

For what it is worth.

My hair was cleared by laser but in a studio looking after women with POCS. Very high power lasers, RN's running them. It took about two years.

You need to wait about 6 weeks before each laser therapy to allow the hair cycle to go through. Blasting your skin regularly will just burn you and have little effect on hair growth.

Removal of hair is a skill. If you are hirsute you really need a professional.

The team who looked after me just laughed at home lasers. 'You want to pay $500 and expect the same result as from a $500,000 machine?'

If your hair is sparse, home lasers may have an effect, if dark hair light skin 'industrial' lasers will work. Otherwise you will need electrolysis.

Pain? The upper lip was agony enough to make me cry and fill the goggles with tears.

Did I stop? No way; I just kept crying.

Quote from: Cindy on September 16, 2015, 03:37:07 AM

Pain? The upper lip was agony enough to make me cry and fill the goggles with tears.

Did I stop? No way; I just kept crying.

Some studios use pain med... or ointment...
or lower settings and rather more treatments...

I'd rather avoid too much pain... it gives bad memories imo... kind of like a shock...

its like lifting... rather asking someone to help than doing it all alone imo 


hugs

Well some of us don't have the spending power to have access to aforementioned machine, it's simply not a realistic option.

As for the TOUCH I am using, I am not sure, but in the instructions is suggests people with lighter hairs epilate the sections first and then every else just shave. I am really not sure what to make of this since it seems to suggest that the presence of the hair follicle is unnecessary for the process. It would seem to me that running the IPL after shaving, if it doesn't grow anymore would just mean that now you have a millimeter long piece of hair stuck in your skin that won't grow long enough for you to get it out.

Am I missing something here?

I'm using the tria since I have dark hair and light skin tone it works for me, but not on me face the hair density and the pain are too much I'm in tears every time and now I'm gong to let a pro do that area. 

Cynobyte really covered IPL very well and that's a lot of great info I learned a lot I never realized.

Getting facial scarring would really be a bummer so be cautious...