I’m researching hair removal and the sheer amount of options as well as the range in price just seems daunting. Why are there $30 devices and also $300 devices? And why would people chose to pay more for a single session than the device costs on its own?

  • tactical_trans_karen [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.netMEnglish
    5·
    5 months ago

    I picked up a $35 one a while back. It’s okay to slow down some hair growth, especially on the body. Beard is a bit too thick to make a serious dent in it, but over all it just slows. I think the price difference has to do with how quickly it can charge the next flash, a more powerful emitter, and better tuning of the wavelengths.

    Edit: also read over this. https://hexbear.net/post/2679948

      • tactical_trans_karen [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.netMEnglish
        2·
        5 months ago

        Yeah, mine seems to be having diminishing returns. But I notice that it has more of an effect if I feel it burn the root, like how it feels when I get it done professionally. To do this, it seems that I need to flash it more than once. My thinking on this is that the first flash or so burns the shaft, which is usually darker than the base, once that’s out of the way the photonic energy has no other place to go but the root.

        Unfortunately, this can give you some superficial burns… Ask me how I know. Essentially, it seems that they’re just not powerful enough to burn the shaft and root in one flash like pro grade equipment can.

  • Jenniferrr [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    2·
    5 months ago

    So, yes I have lots of experience. I have the Braun silk 5 or whatever - the 300 dollar one. For me it was a bit life-changing. Took me from having ridiculouslynhairy legs that I would have to shave every other day to basically not feeling bothered to shave for literal weeks. Yes it’s patchy. I got lazy and stopped doing it because basically if I shave once a week you can’t see hair on my legs. It also stopped me from getting ingrown hairs after a while.

    I noticed hair growth started to slow after like. 3 sessions. Did it once a week for about 10 weeks

  • ReadFanon [any, any]@hexbear.net
    2·
    5 months ago

    I haven’t looked into it closely but here’s what I’d suggest:

    Get yourself some proper protective glasses to ensure that you don’t damage your vision.

    Note that IPL works better the darker the hair and the fairer the skin. Set your expectations accordingly.

    There’s probably plenty of junk brand IPL devices that don’t actually emit enough light in the right spectrum to do much/anything at all. Avoid those generic brands.

    My guess is that domestic IPL devices aren’t as powerful as what a professional as access to. There’s also a degree of skill that they bring to the equation. They’re almost certainly going to be more efficient and probably more effective than a home IPL job. Just like how you can style your hair at home (and you can even do a really good job of it too) most people go to hairdressers because they are more skilled, it’s much less effort, the hairdresser has access to all the right tools for the job, and the results are consistent.

    But honestly, if you want semi-permanent hair removal then I don’t see a good reason not to do it at home.