Indisputable TRIA SUCCESS 2.5 yrs later & counting

Hi everyone.

I’ve been a long time lurker on here and thought I should finally get around to sharing my personal experience with the Tria since I can claim a true success story. I haven’t been lurking around here for a while now (I used to come on here obsessivly to monitor other people’s Tria experiences to see if there was any real hope for me), but I just logged in again tonight and saw quite a bit of Tria bashing so I decided I was almost obligated to chime in.

A bit of a disclaimer first: like so many of you on here, I’ve been plagued by an um CONSIDERABLE excess of hair in less than common places( well, I used to be anyways) and when I say my hair is coarse and dark, I mean it is really VERY coarse and dark, especially for a female UGH. I am also very pale, the so-called “ideal” candidate for laser hair removal. I’m also 99.9% sure that my hairy situation is hereditary and not caused by an hormonal imbalance. I have no doubt in my mind that my stats played into my success with the Tria, so I’m gonna have to stress that my results are NOT typical. And yet, I’m sure there are people out there who can now experience a little bit of hope when it comes to this thingy.

Anywaysss…

I’ve just been trying to find my “Tria calendar diary” I made so I can give exact treatment dates, but it’s most likely buried under a great many layers right now so I’m just gonna use rough estimates. I bought and began my Tria treatments right around the time when the Tria first came on the market, so let’s say Spring 2008 (I distinctly remember marking dates in July in the midst of my treatments, so there’s that). I decided early on that I wasn’t going to do my bikini line because 1). even with lido/prilo the pain was just too intense and the positioning on certain areas ahem behind would prove to be impossible, but mostly because 2). there was no freaking way I was gonna invest that much time and agony on an area that wasn’t gonna be permanently fixed (since I had no guarantee at that time and everyone was saying less than stellar things). I decided to just have my bikini line professionally lasered and actually that’s what I’m doing now! (see, I’m a total procrastinator when it comes to this sort of thing which is why the home laser angle appealed to me) And so, I decided to focus on my legs which were a primary source of long-time personal torment due to abnormal hair growth ;_;…

The fact is, all of the hair growth on my legs frankly sucks–scarily thick, coarse as brillo, and so dark brown as to appear almost black–but the absolute worst and most traumatizing was the hair growth on my thighs. Think…a bikini line that just never ended and you’d have the best approximation. And since the skin of my thighs is so soft and delicate, shaving was an absolute nightmare–horrible razor burn, thousands of big black dots peppering my pale skin, and eventual folliculitis equalled a shaved leg that wasn’t fit to be seen. Yes, and of course there was associated depression. And desperation. I began the treatments there along with my lower belly/happy trail, which was equally, if not more, distressing because of crazy hair growth. I was very, very meticulous…I was careful to section off small areas that I could successfully cover spot width by spot width before the Tria’s battery ran out on me. I also used the Tria’s highest setting and let me tell you, before I caved and bought numbing cream, the pain was absolutely excruciating on the tender skin of my thighs and belly. I’d experience not just the hot, stinging bite where the tip touched down, but this deep, pounding, radiating pain that would travel up and down my thighs. Like, I’d have to take deep breaths and use all my willpower to keep on going…I think I sobbed/cried out in agony and frustration a few times too. Later, when I got professionally lasered, I was so scared about the upcoming pain…maybe it was the super numbing cream my doc used but the pain was NOTHING compared to the Tria (I was relieved and amazed).

At just over a week, I’d experience virtually complete and total shedding in the areas I’d treated every time, especially on the inner thighs. I didn’t follow the Tria maker’s guidelines of zapping myself every several weeks or whatever it is they tell you to do, instead I usually let my hair grow back completely dark and dense again before I’d go for another round. I did come to notice that my right inner thigh, which I once treated before the hair was fully dark and dense again, did not have as good of a result as my left thigh which I waited to treat. Hmmm it’s hard to say how many full treatments of my thighs I did because I totally slacked off on my treatment diary oops…I know there were two treatments in every area where my thighs were fully hairy and then a third treatment where there was slightly lighter hair growth but after that, I forget.

Now for the results :). For whatever reason, my inner thighs show the most spectacular results. It seemed wherever there was super soft skin, the extra thick hair formation unique to those areas just responded better than anywhere else. My left thigh is now silky smooth, with not a visible follicle in sight. I have maybe just 5 SUPER fine (some almost invisible) hairs that pop up every now and then on my inner thigh that I just treat whenever I feel like it. My right thigh (remember, the one I treated a little differently) looks just as amazing but it does have quite a bit more stray hair than the left leg (say, maybe 15 or 20 or so?), though they are all so light and fine that I don’t even bother with them unless I am wearing a skirt. And it’s not like I’m not letting the remaining hairs finish their growth cycle so that I’m not getting an accurate view of their thickness/darkness…sometimes I go for months without shaving or bothering with them at all, and they grow into these super fine, light, 1/2" to 1" long hairs. So, picture a wooly mammoth man-thigh being transformed into a baby butt smooth thigh. Aaaand it’s been this way for nearly three years now sob!!!

My lower belly achieved the second best results: it is lovely and blemishless and smooth and there are only a dozen or so fine hairs that I treat every couple of months or so as needed. The under parts of my thighs are also pretty much smooth…I usually let the hair grow out (you can’t even feel if when you run your hand across it) and treat it as needed. Along with the super fine hair, there are about a dozen hairs on each under-thigh that grow out with noticable pigment (but not even a quarter of what they were before) that I treat, but I notice as time goes by, that they (along with all the remaining hair on all of my treatment areas really) are becoming fainter and fainter and sometimes never reappearing at all.

The tops of my thighs, which I equate in hair growth/texture and skin quality to that of my lower legs, did not achieve quite as impressive results. Granted, I also did not devote anywhere near as much time to them as elsewhere. Still, I’d say I achieved about a 75% to 80% reduction and the hair IS a lot finer though still more coarse than that of the other areas of my thighs. I do plan on working on them more eventually. Also of note: I did treat parts of my lower legs but ended up giving up pretty quickly. I decided that it was too much to keep up with both them and my thighs at the same time and that I’d just eventually get them professionally treated (again, not knowing at the time whether this was permanent or not). I did notice that when I treated portions of my lower legs that the shedding was not as dramatic as my upper legs…the hair did mostly shed but it just wasn’t complete clearance like my thighs (stray hairs here and there).

So, there you go. Sorry for this ridiculously long post but I wanted to be thorough. As I mentioned before, I am now in the process of getting professional laser treatments, brazilian bikini, underarms, and lower legs to be precise (just finished my second round of treatments and everything seems to be going great). The amount of time saved and pain avoided are astronomical but of course, it is also very expensive. So would I turn back the clock and just opt for professional treatments instead of torturing myslef with the Tria? I’m not so sure. For one thing, using the low powered Tria helped me determine that yeah, laser treatments are almost sure to be hugely successful for me and that I’m not going to be throwing away thousands of dollars for naught. Also, it took a lot to finally goad myself to laying out half naked in front of a stranger to have my intimates zapped…so before, the shame that came along with being so hairy was a little too much to overcome for me personally and being able to treat myself in secret meant a lot. And I saved quite a bit of money to boot. Still, considering the pain, the time, and the fact that there is no guarantee that the Tria’s results will be permanent for any one person means that in most cases, I’d say the average person should just opt for professional treatments if they can afford it. But for all those hopelessly hairy, financially strapped, and super determined folks out there…here’s a little hope for you…

1 Like

When was your last treatment? You state that you started in 2008, which is about 2.5 years ago. So you can’t be counting the lack of hair since then since due to hair cycles it should have taken you at least 12-18 months to go through the number of treatments needed to get all the hair in any one area. I just want to make sure you’re judging this properly. You need to stop treatments of any kind, including touchups, for 6-12 months, to judge true reduction.

Also, I’m not sure whether Tria was publicly available that early in 2008. I believe it was sold to the public late 2008/early 2009.

http://www.triabeauty.com/info/press-releases.htm

Glad you said it LA

Yeah, I did end up finding my treatment calendar and my dates were just a little off…my first treatment was August 8th, 2008. I treated my stomach on the 8th and the top of my left upper leg from the 9th to the 12th. My Tria then pooped out on me for some reason and I ended up having to exchange it for a new one so I didn’t get around to treating anything else until September (the lack of numbing cream at that time and memory of the pain made me put it off). To use my inner thighs as an example, I have not had a full treatment since March 2009. When I say spot treat, I do mean “spot”…the only places I have put the Tria to my skin on my inner thighs are to the same half a dozen little hairs that just won’t die. I pretty much have them committed to memory at this point…nothing else grows in the area except them. And I only do this when I’m wearing a really short skirt or something for a special occasion…in fact, before last week, the last time I even used the Tria was in October 2010 for a wedding. Everything has pretty much stayed the same for the last two years. Once I’m finished with my professional laser treatments, I’m toying with the idea of going to an electrologist and getting all the straggler hairs killed for good…we’ll see though. If I get around to it, I might just post a pic of the few looong fine hairs left growing in the smooth expanse of my thigh so you can get an idea of what things look like now.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I really want this machine so bad

Liberty-

I have had great results with Tria too. Did my bikini lin it has been about two years since my last treatment. I still have about 85% clearence. I’m guessing at the %. But at least now it is beyond manageable. Hurt like hell though.

Liberty…can you give me a new update?

Sure, liz123.

Btw…what was your treatment schedule like? Roughly how many times did you give yourself full treatments and how far apart were they?

I am still as hairless as ever on the areas I treated with the Tria. I’ve been thinking about posting pics of the teated areas, where you can see all the smooth skin with the few random wispy fine hairs still growing, but I spot treated them back in March and they still haven’t grown back, so there’s really nothing to take a pic of yet. Ideally, I should take a pic in a few months when the tiny hairs have shown up again, post it, and then post another pic 6 months later so everyone can see that nothing has changed. If my laziness doesn’t stop me, I think I will. REALLY, I should have taken pictures before treatment to have documentation of the extreme difference, and of course that idea went through my mind at the time but…the shame and emotional strain of my hairiness stopped me from taking any pics whatsoever. As in, I didn’t want ANY proof of the hair that had become this huge, dark secret in my life…the disgusting hairiness that only I had ever seen. I think only someone who has experienced this burden understands the pain and inner turmoil it can cause…just thinking back to my hairy days still causes me anxiety and is very sobering…that melancholy is immediately followed by me giving thanks over and over again. One day, I should write my experience down in the “Share Your Feelings” forum because there is so much more to my story…so much drama and so many life-changing events started happening right around the time I finally began to get rid of the hair…it was like fate was working on my side and intervened at just the right moment. Ha but even if I had taken pics I would NEVER post them on the internet anyways…I’d rather have nude pics floating around out there! But anyways…yeah, I still have a lovely, smooth belly and thighs with barely a follicle visible to the naked eye.

I’ve been getting professional treatments on my bikini area and lower legs (3 on my bikini area and 2 on my lower legs thus far) but I recently discovered that my doctor hasn’t been using the most aggressive settings on me and I’ve started to get anxious about whether or not the treatments will prove to be permanent (hopefully this is just me being obsessive and anxiety-prone). I’ve started debating whether I should start treating my lower legs with the Tria since I know it works on me and since money is so tight these days. I’ve decided that if I don’t see very noticeable long-term results on my bikini area after this 3rd treatment, I’ll start shopping around for a new laser center to continue getting treatments on my bikini line but that I’ll just use the Tria on my legs. Agh but I’m still going back and forth on whether to get a 3rd professional treatment on my legs now or whether I should just start the long, arduous process of using the Tria on them. I know from experience that it will literally take me weeks to fully treat both legs even one time and I dread the whole process…HATE it actually. If I do start using the Tria seriously again, I’ll be sure to take “before” pics this time (my lower legs don’t bother me like my abnormally hairy areas did obviously). I dunno though, it is SO nice to have a complete treatment in a matter of minutes without all that extreme pain and effort (ahem LAZY ahem) so maybe I should just keep the faith I have in my doctor alive and hold out a little longer…

Liberty-I did the Tria once a month for about 11 months. Some had grown back but not a lot. I am very happy. I went throught he same feelings as you. I have a daughter and I don’t want her to ever feel lik eI did so at least I know there is hope. Back in my day (the 80’s–I’m 40 now…)there wasn’t. I am hoping for modern medicaine to come up with more ways to get rid of it!!

I am playing with the Viss right now…to early to tell though. It has been three months and I see a slight difference…

Sorry for the terrible typing. Anyone else use Tria??

Please note, Mario Tandeen is the marketer for PARDOMUANSHOP Co.,Ltd. This is not a sales organization. They offer high priced beauty products from suppliers who have never heard of them at unbelievably good prices and impossibly low shipping rates. It is a very professional scam. They (Andi Makmur Hutajulu, and Mario Tandean) post on numerous sites funneling individuals to their company webpage. Worse, Andi posts to Islamic Terrorist blogs. There is reason to believe it is not only a fraud but a money scheme to fund terrorist.

Hi there–

Liz I’d love for you to elaborate about your Tria experience, it sounds like it was good… but you are trying Viss? What made you want to switch if you had some results?

In general, do you think it works better in some areas than in others? Do you think there are tips to make it work better? I’m intrigued at Liberty’s suggestion to wait until everything has grown back.

I’d be interested to hear what LA girl thinks, just because know what she does about growth cycles, if this makes sense to wait until you have mature hair to zap or if you should try to catch it right at the beginning of the cycle when the hair is weaker?

Thanks guys! It’s my first post!

Doctor Oz actually did a comparison of Tria Vs. Real commercial laser on his show. They grabbed a random woman from the audience with really light skin, and super hairy legs, and the laser technician tried both devices on her leg, with equal results. She elaborated on it a bit, and came to conclusion that both work equally, only difference was time invested by a consumer, considering that area you can treat is so tiny.
I included Tria on my Christmas wish list, only after joining Facebook community ow women who had have great success with Tria.

How did they judge that it was just as effective? What is considered equal results? I ask because on the doctors they showed GentleLASE before as well and did ONE session then 10 days later when all the hair had shed they were like WOW look how smooth she is it really works! Which anyone on here knows is a total joke since that’s just 1 treatment. So did they do the same thing or did they actually do 6-8 treatments with both machines and then stop for 6+ months after to judge?

Liberty,

When you said you had hair on your stomach…do you mean like a trail or was it more? Just curiuos. Thanks.