I’m pretty over shaving constantly, but I don’t think I can afford to go somewhere to get laser or electrolysis done professionally right now. How effective are at-home options? Which models of devices are recommended, if any?
having looked into this in the past, basically it’s not effective enough to be worth the money; at home laser and IPL are not comparable to electrolysis or proper laser hair reduction / removal
I can come back with receipts sometime, but that’s the conclusion
At home IPL absolutely works, it’s definitely better for dark hair on light skin, I’ve had pretty good results. Still struggling with facial hair, but so did professional laser. I’ve gotten rid of almost all my body hair with my little IPL machine. It’s slower, but you can also do it more frequently so it isn’t too bad. It’s also an option for maintenance once you’ve done laser rather than going back every 6 months or whatever they recommend. (Also IPL doesn’t hurt)
At home electrolysis is apparently a scam according to a friend of mine :/
does the IPL actually permanently remove hair as claimed, though? My understanding is that it basically doesn’t … It just becomes an expensive alternative to waxing or shaving at that point.
It does the same thing as laser, it kills the follicle using a burst of heat. Even laser is in some sense temporary and you’ll have regrowth, but in either case that process takes months and it’s very gradual, it’s why laser clinics say you need to perform maintenance.
I stopped doing IPL for nearly year and I can count the numbers of chest hairs that came back on my hands. I had a similar experience when COVID lockdowns interrupted my facial laser sessions for a couple of months, except that grew back faster. I think a large part of it is related to growth phases though, as in you’ve gotta kill the follicle at the right time for it to stay dead or something, I’m no expert.
i have done about half a year with a Braun IPL and it’s slowed but not stopped my facial hair growth. Used to be about 10-12 hours to see growth but that has been extended to 24-30 hours. That’s with near translucent pale skin and dark hair. Unfortunately even if i can’t see it I can still feel it so i’m saving up for electrolysis!
Note: not MTF
If you’re light skinned, oh yeah does it work. I used on my legs for 6 weeks, once a year for 2 years in a row, and now the hair that did regrow is so much thinner and lighter that I didn’t even shave this summer. Whoever is saying it can’t be used on face - not true, get one with a facial attachment. Whoever is saying it takes a long time or isn’t effective - I was shaving weekly anyway (which you have to do before each treatment) and lasering my legs I got down to 20 minutes; it’s not much extra time but it had a drastic effect on my comfort level going more than 2 days without shaving. Doesn’t work on my darker private bits but for legs, body, pits, and face, it was a complete game changer for me. I got the Braun silk expert pro 5 back in 2023. I would look for one with a better continuous-pulse now, but am otherwise quite satisfied.
Just, ah, be careful with DIY laser cosmetic devices, and don’t trust safety goggles that come in the box with them.
Thank you, I’ll definitely be careful!
I’ve tried at-home IPL and professional electrolysis.
- IPL is like weak laser treatment. 6 months of it will reduce some of the dark hairs but not all.
- Pro electrolysis works but it gets expensive because of the large number of hairs.
I too am curious about hair removal options as I’m still shaving my face once or twice daily.
I’d like to subscribe to this post, but Lemmy doesn’t have the feature
YSK then that Piefed has a subscription feature
You can save posts by clicking the heart button on the default interface. At minimum you can come back easily from the saved tab on your profile page.
MTF here. White with brownish hair. Works incredibly, takes lots of treatments. I went with Milan laser, and have done it for about 1.5 years. My hair is all but gone, I did entire body, and none of it comes back, save for a few areas that are still being zapped and should be gone soon. It’s wonderful! But expensive…
That’s good to hear! I’ve heard a lot of good things about Milan. If you don’t mind my asking, how expensive are we talking?
It depends on the areas, like you don’t have to do full body. But for me full body was about 14,000
Note: Not MTF.
For IPL (home laser) to be effective, you need bright skin with dark hair. Essentially it works by burning the hair roots. You have to use it very regularly, at least once a week during the early stages, and maybe going down to once every two weeks after you see it working very well. You will not see any much effect immediately or for first month, but eventually you’ll see reduced hair growth, and the hair being thinner in general. Eventually they will disappear. I have used it for over a year and for me, it has been very effective after a couple of months, with no visible hair. I do sometimes get a couple of barely visible strands which I do shave off every now and then, and I still do lasers to maintain it.
It takes a very long time to do a single session. It takes around two hours to do all the showering, shaving and zapping. The warning booklet says that I shouldn’t use it for my face and groin, but it works to a certain degree. Not as clean as my legs turned out to be, but it is reduced. Arm is just straight up tedious and I just shave there.
From asking around it seems to vary.
For me it did get my intimate shaving down from every other day to about every 4-5 days, which was too little to justify the pain and hassle.
Some report more difference, others less.
Epilator: used it. Painful, and not as effective as laser imo. I shaved instead. But if you’re going to epilate, then I’d recommend to
smear a gentle cream afterward to reduce the pain and eventual red dots.(edit: see comment below)You can wax, gel wax would be ideal from what I heard.
you’re not supposed to put on cream or lotion or even get in water for 24h after epilating because you have ripped the root out and the protection that’s supposed to be present is missing!
til, thanks! will change comment accordingly
Only laser is more permanent. Also epilator is not advisable for the face (personally wouldn’t recommend it at all).
the FDA classifies laser as only temporary hair reduction, AFAIK electrolysis is the only method of permanent hair removal 🤔
Laser is classified as temporary because about 10% of hair will come back while electrolysis is 100% effective if done right.
As for at home solutions, I’ve heard that at home laser isn’t strong enough/isn’t the right type of laser to be permanent, and shouldn’t be used on facial hair anyway because it’s thicker and stiffer, which makes laser less effective on it.
What hair are you wanting to remove specifically? I don’t know much about hair removal options, and I’m interested to learn. And I think which hairs you’re trying to remove makes a difference. I reckon beard hair would be different from leg or chest hair.
Chest, probably, at least to start. My chest and beard hair give me the most dysphoria, but I’m wary of starting with my beard, since if I screw it up it would be more visible.
