At home laser hair removal

April 26, 2024 9:33 AM

Are the at-home laser hair removal devices any good?

After 30 years of a combo of shaving and waxing my relatively hirsute body, I have spent the last few years considering laser hair removal (IPL, not electrolysis). But considering how many parts of my body I want done (mostly waist-down areas if it's important), it's just not a cost I can really stomach nor afford.

The last couple years I keep getting served ads for at-home devices like Nood and Ulike, the cost of which would be the equivalent of one session I would pay for laser at a studio/salon (I have never done any laser for this reason). Does anyone have a) experience with the effectiveness at-home laser and b) if a positive experience, recommendations for which device to use?

I have very pale skin and very dark hair, so I'm a good candidate for laser in general, just really would love a cheaper solution than hundreds of dollars a month. I'm not particularly worried about pain either bc I have a decent pain threshold, but if you found it excruciatingly intolerable, I guess that would be useful information.

For the purposes of this question, not looking for answers pertaining to any other hair-removal alternatives at this moment or 'love your body hair and let it be' responses.

Thanks!

posted by greta simone to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (11 answers total)

I have one of these, a Tria Beauty that I got used on eBay. Like you, I have light skin and dark hair and I have found that it really does work BUT it is extremely tedious to use.

I have living proof of both the "it works" and the "it's tedious" in that I currently have patchy hair on my left calf and lots of hair on my right, because I tend to start with my left leg and then get bored (or run out of battery and need to recharge and then I don't want to go back to it) before I finish my right. It does sting in sensitive areas but it's not the pain that keeps me from using the darn thing, it's the tedium. I think that the lasers they use in salons cover more area and are more powerful, so you get more laser power per minute/hour. It's also hard to do places you can't see, like the backs of your thighs.

But yes, if you are more patient than me or you have a backlog of great podcasts to listen to and a high tolerance for beeping noises, it's quite effective and much cheaper than getting it done professionally.
posted by mskyle at 10:08 AM on April 26 [2 favorites]

I have a Tria and it's been great. Works just as well as the sessions I had done at a professional laser hair removal salon.
posted by Mallenroh at 10:10 AM on April 26

The difference to keep in mind is that proper laser treatment (which can only be done in-clinic) will kill the hair follicles permanently, while IPL (which all the at-home devices are, and some of the shittier clinics) will only stun them temporarily. So with IPL you're committing to doing this repeatedly to keep hair growth down.

While it can be expensive, proper in-clinic laser is something you do once (over the course of ten or so sessions) and never have to deal with again.
posted by june_dodecahedron at 10:17 AM on April 26 [1 favorite]

Coming back to say, because I see they now have different models: I have the Tria Laser4x. I previously had an IPL thingy that didn't work as well.
posted by mskyle at 10:29 AM on April 26

I have “Braun Silk Expert Pro 5 IPL Hair Removal System Model 6031 F2” which I bought for around $150 on Ebay (open box) a few years ago, and I’m very happy with it. I have light skin and dark hair, and don’t find it particularly tedious to use. It does take a little time (maybe 10 - 15 min to very thoroughly do both legs up to the knee, I don’t have visible hair on my thighs anyway) but I can just listen to a podcast or something. After my first summer of using it approx every 10 days, I have significantly less hair and I mostly just touch up with it a few times a year now. I do still shave sometimes but it’s much faster and easier bc I have so much less hair.
posted by maleficent at 11:01 AM on April 26

I also have the Braun Silk Expert Pro 5 and I can’t sing its praises high enough. It’s been a couple of years since I bought it and I have almost no hair where I don’t want it, just a few stubborn strays that I can easily pluck or shave when needed. I do still use this occasionally (once a month) to stamp out these last few stragglers, but that’s it.
posted by Fuego at 1:47 PM on April 26

I have a Nood and it has not worked for me even though I have dark hair and light skin. I need to see about a return....
posted by aetg at 3:29 PM on April 26

I have a Nood and it has worked for me! At first I thought it wasn't doing anything, but after sticking with it twice a week for ~6 weeks I can see a huge difference. At this point I'm using it about once a month trying to get rid of the last stragglers. I totally agree that it's tedious and takes a long time to do large areas (like your legs). I recommend listening to a podcast or watching TV or something while you do it.
posted by peperomia at 5:48 PM on April 26

As someone who's done a lot in this arena, no. It's one of those things where anything strong enough would risk burning you, and not be approved OTC.

It's best to save your money, and look around for a local medical aesthetics clinic that's been open for a long time, we're talking a decade+, and call and see what their package deals are. The best places will not be on groupon, because they don't need to be.

You really get what you pay for, and it's worth just doing it the right way from the start.
posted by emptythought at 7:51 PM on April 26 [4 favorites]

Best answer: Another Braun Silk Expert Pro 5 owner with pale skin and dark hair here, and I love mine too! It's true that it's not strictly permanent, but I just use it once a week for a month or two right about this time of year and then maaaayyybe touch up once or twice all summer. Even when hair does start growing back, it's initially so much lighter and finer that I barely notice it for awhile. I'm kind of ashamed to admit how kinda...life-changing? home IPL has been for me!

Every friend I've told about the Braun who gets one tells me how much they love it -- so I feel solid about recommending it to you too, internet friend. Braun has occasional sales and they also have a decent return policy if you find it just doesn't work well for your hair/skin combo. At least for me, the cost-benefit ratio works out very strongly in favor of home IPL. I I really don't need it to be permanent to be a vast, vast improvement over the previous decades of pointless shame and annoyance and frustration.
posted by adiabat at 10:32 PM on April 26 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Ordered the Braun. Wish me luck!
posted by greta simone at 2:23 PM on April 27