ELOS is the compination of either a stron professional grade IPL or a Laser device with a setup which claims to emit an electrical RF field into the skin - in am manner that should affect the hairs stronger than the surrounding tissue.
There has been some theory published on the physics. The problem in that paper is that they did not take into account of the finite wavelength of the field and did their calculation as if the wavelength was infinitesimally short. Actually RF wavelengths of several meters appear to be used. Therefore You simply cannot resolve structures as fine as hairs (btw fully in analogy to geophysical prospection with RF fields emitted into the earths surface, just on a different scale - the wavelength used determines the spatial resolution toward structural details…).
Another problem of the ELOS RF implemetation is that the currents are emitted through a watery gel. The latter has a very low electrical resistivity, henceforce most of the RF current will not enter the skin - also not treated in the theory papers presented by the manufacturer some years ago.
What remains: ELOS can be safely regarded as either a powerful professional IPL device which can actually remove hairs if applied in a professional manner or it is a powerful laser hair removal device.
Correction: short time ago i read about an IPL based Elos device for home use. What will remain in the light of my explanations? Yes, right, just another flash light device for DIY hair removel. And the flash light devices for home use are limited in power - which is really good considering the large and deep skin damages a professional grade hair removal machine is able to achieve.
