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.
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 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!
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.
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
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
Gotcha, thanks! It’s hard to tell what their pricing is from their website. Do you know what they might charge for just the chest and face? And do they offer payment plans?
I had some success with laser, I found deals from Groupon. I did also try and at home device, it could work in theory, but the professional machines are much more powerful and effective.
My red hairs couldn’t be done with laser, I had a bunch of electrolysis, which was expensive and painful, and didn’t work out for me. I think laser depends more of the machine, and electrolysis depends on skill.
Blah. Lots of red and blond hair mixed in for me (on rare occasions, a single stark white hair out of nowhere, without graying), and some multi-colored single follicles .
Hair removal is going to be such a pain but its gotta beat spending nearly two hours a week with an electric trimmer only to be covered with stubble within a day…
Fortunately, there is a cheapish laser salon in my area that works well for my face, but some women have told me that they get their laser done by the students at a cosmetologist school that’s even cheaper. It might be worth looking into whether that’s available in your area.
An epilator works great for the rest of my body, and my skin feels much better to me after the hair has been pulled all the way out. It only really hurt the first few times. After that the pain turned into pleasure. Seriously, it feels so nice that I have to remind myself to not just bliss out. My sense of general happiness even stays improved for days after as well! Try the epilator. But don’t use it on your face!
Don’t dare use this one on your face, but some folks make their own electrolysis setups. It will cause scaring if you don’t know what you are doing.
Just got an epilator! And owwwwww lol
But it works SO well. I love how smooth my skin is, I just hope the pain goes down over time, I can only do so much at a time before I need a break
Yay! Glad you like it! It took me several sessions to do everything below the neck at first. That was before starting hrt so it was terrible. I remember slowly eating dark chocolate in between short breaks to counter the pain. Hopefully you’re still happy with the epilator and get to unlock the euphoria soon! There’s always some pain for me but the bliss kicks in so hard and fast it doesn’t even matter.
I just learned that cacao contains anandamide, one of the endocannabinoids, so maybe eating the chocolate helped train my body to deal with the pain? Who knows!
