Tria 2 Released

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

The “Tria 2” is now available for purchase. It’s the same as the first version that came out a year ago, which I’m using, except supposedly:

  • The pulse duration has been halved.
  • The battery life has been doubled.
  • The price has dropped from $995 to $795.
  • Activation is now done online, rather than by phone.

Their new website doesn’t list many details, but if true, this would mean a drop from a ~400 ms pulse duration to a ~200 ms pulse on its highest setting.

As far as the battery life, they list “60 minutes” versus the “30 minutes” of the original. However, treating continuously, I’ve only ever gotten 13-15 minutes on the original. I’d estimate you’ll have a solid 30 minutes on the new version, enough for about 24 square inches.

They’ve also changed their emphases from the Tria being a maintenance device to one that achieves permanent results after 6-8 months of treatment. This might be due to the changed design?

Hopefully we can get some actual fluence, pulse duration and battery life feedback if anyone here buys the new unit.

They’re offering $100 to anyone who bought a Tria after December 1st. Those who bought one after February 1st though would still be inside the 30 day return period.

#2

Will the 200ms pulse duration make the tria 2 stronger then the previous one at 400 ms?

#3

Vulpes,

Your arms look great.

How much of a % reduction do you think you got on your legs and are they patchy at all?

Can you post any before/after pics like the arms?

#4

Hi Gene, the pics you see on the front of my laser page are from a Lightsheer laser NOT a Tria. :slight_smile: My arms and legs became 99% hair free after the full series of professional treatments, so I’m seeing now if the Tria can achieve any kind of permanent results in other areas.

As far as half the pulse duration, the question is… did they double the power? If they kept the power the same, then it’s just half as effective… which would explain why the battery lasts twice as long. I’m hoping this isn’t the case considering how poorly the Tria 1 has performed so far.

#5

If they changed there description of there device to one that NOW acheieves permanit results, wouldnt it make sense that the device is now stronger? Where can we get the spec information rearding this new product (joules, spot size and pulse duration)? After all we are the consumers and should know what we are getting.

#6

Honestly, I’ve used the new device and if it were any stronger I’d be in trouble. This, of course, doesn’t mean too much about its effectiveness but the areas I treated have been swollen for days, with acne like reactions. If I had done my entire chest systematically, Oy! Do you think it’s a decent idea to start with the mid setting and then try the higher after (and if) the hair density decreases, or stick to the high from the start (though, this simply may not be an option for me)?

#7

Lasers work on the basis of the color of the target (your hair). The acne may not be acne. It may be that the heat generated was so intense as it worked its way down to the root it also destroyed some of the wall of the follicle. Melanin is in the skin and hair (same melanin). If it vaporized the hair it is possible it also damaged the wall of the follicle because the light beam is wider than a hair, therefore, if there is any colored material like skin with the same melanin, it could be affected. Any scabbing is lymph that coagulated on the surface as it leaked out.The action of a laser is to vaporize the target and anything else in the path of the light beam that is the right color for the laser beam. Acne would be more like pus and could be a large bump that can get sore and then heal.

You have to remember the laser points straight down but the hair grows on an angle. This means you can vaporize the upper part of the hair that is in the follicle and the laser may not even reach the bottom of the shaft of hair as the hair grows with a grain (slanted to lie down on the skin not stand straight up. This is the main reason for laser failure. The upper half of the shaft of hair in the follicle may be in the laser beam but the lower half with the attached root system is NOT touched. Electrolysis goes right down to the rot and hits the root where it lies. They are all not at the same depth either. You can see this if you look at a schematic of the hair and skin.

#8

I bet the package insert was left out. There is supposed to be a COMPLETE INSTRUCTION SHEET WITH ALL THE SIDE EFFECTS AND PROTECTIVE MEASURES YOU HAVE TO TAKE. Laser lights can reflect off of a mirror, chrome fixtures, enamel paint, glass in front of a picture, jewelry, shiny paint or polished surfaces on furniture, etc. That is supposed to accompany the device. Contact the company and remind them you did not get any insert with the device and ask for it. This is MANDATORY as per FDA. If you point the device out the window and fire it the beam will travel until it hits something or is reflected to a different direction until it strikes something a mile away. It is against the law to aim one at a plane flying nearby. It could blind the pilot instantly. What you have is not a toy. Keep it out of reach of a child. They see it as a RAY gun because it is.

#9

I received my new Tria2 a few days ago. It is too early to know just how effective it will be. I can speak to the battery life and a few other things though. On the highest setting I get about 20 minutes of continuous shooting. It seems like I can cover an area about 5" x 5" or 6"x6". Although I am not sure if I am overlapping enough. They claim it takes about 25 pulses per square inch.

The pain doesn’t seem to be as bad as I was expecting. I don’t know if that is a good or bad thing. It is good if it is strong enough to kill the hair. Also, I have shied away from the more sensitive areas until my Lidocane arrives.

Assuming I am overlapping enough, the treatment size per battery charge is probably about as small of a size that a patient person could reasonably try to treat a large area (chest/abs/legs). I am not a big person (5’10", 32" inseam), but I estimate it will take me 6-9 battery charges to do a full leg. That could take 2-3 days because the Tria2 needs about 2-3 hours to recharge. It is difficult for me to do more than 3 treatments per day. At this point, I feel like it is do-able, but will take some patience.

The lady who answered the phone at Tria was very nice and helpful. She did tell me that people are seeing the best results by reshooting each area every 2-3 weeks for the first couple of months. My guess is that is because the Tria doesn’t have the same power as the commercial systems, it is better at killing small, young growing hair than larger more established hair still in the growth cycle. This would explain the more frequent treatments.

As I mentioned I have some question about whether or not I am overlapping enough. On my initial shoot I suspect I missed some spots. I have since started using a yellow highlighter to create a grid on the area to be treated. This allows me to keep better track of where I have shot. Does anyone have any other suggestions? Or know if the highlighted grid-stripes could reduce effectiveness?

#10

What are peoples thoughts on the new tria 2.0? Is it more powerful then the pervious one? I am seriously thinking of buying the new tria becuase i have moderate hair courseness on my neck that i would like to remove or if possible lighten up, and moderate widespread chest and abdomnial hair that i would like to removal or lighten up as well. Will this device help me achieve these results?

#11

I think your questions are very good, but cannot be answered honestly yet. Time has to pass and consumers have to report back. I would assume that the inventors and marketers of TRIA 2 think it will work well because they have a lot of money invested in getting this device to the consumer and they want a return on their money. People work very hard to get a product to market and should be awarded well if their invention works well and pleases consumers. It would be nice if people who were involved in their trials could come forth and share their experience.

#12

to bmm:
Tria wasn’t made for neck (or facial-which never turns out well for people) hair removal and, having used it a few times I can firmly say don’t. High chance it’ll lead to hyperpigmentation, week lasting swelling/‘fake acne’ and possibly scarring. The concentration of hair follicles is to high in these areas. The hairs trouble enough without adding new skin problems. I would definately go to an experienced removal place (i.e. real dermatology clinic) for neck treatments.

As to chest, had to switch to medium setting as the high power treatment has left me with mild hyperpigmentation (not to mention a week and a half of those acne like sores.) Medium setting doesn’t hurt though and it was much easier to cover a larger area. Also since this device has pretty much no chance of ‘permanent’ hair removal i’m pretty cool with this. If its able to stun the hair into dormancy and proves practical at epilation it’s still the best option I got. Have to wait another week to see if how much of the hair responded to the medium setting. Fingers crossed. Still, will the world be ready for this sexy awesomeness?

#13

Ovenman, I’ve also got a Tria2 and am curious why you say “this device has pretty much no chance of ‘permanent’ hair removal”? The makers of Tria do claim permanent results. I have only had the Tria for 1 week, so I haven’t treated any area more than once. So, I really can’t speak to it’s effectiveness.

However, I have done my chest on high without experiencing any hyperpigmentation or negative effects.

Do you get shedding after your treatments? How many treatments have you done to an area?

#14

bmm, if you’re looking for just a reduction on relatively small amount of hair (compared to others here), you really should consider getting 3-4 professional POWERFUL treatments. They will probably not cost you much more than this device, but will save you time and potential side effects.

#15

The evidence behind Tria doesn’t even come close to proving permanent results-they didn’t do long enough or large enough studies. The word “permanent” as allowed by the FDA is not the dictionary definition. Even professional services unless done with very careful specifications usually only stuns hair growth. Most people after a year or two get most of the hair back. The FDA accepted it as safe and as effective as the least effective of commercial models. It’s at best an epilation device that will stun/slowdown growth and for me, if it works, is better than waxing which was a disaster. ‘Permanent’ is a marketing tool they just barely get away with. It’s a sad business but most hair removal is a sham to make money off people.

As to my results with this, pretty patchy results after two treatments, but slowly small sections of hair are falling out. Hopefully in two or three months most of my chest will be cleared and i’ll just be maintaining it. I zap my full chest every two weeks (always miss spots and some areas don’t respond despite zapping, but again only done it twice). Also started doing arms. I’m gonna have to come up with a schedule cause its time consuming.

#16

FDA only tests for safety, not effectiveness.

#17

That’s a complicated one. Often effectiveness and safety are interconnected, as in a medication whose ineffectiveness (placedo) could lead to serious medical problems. The FDA even labels its approvals ‘510(k) Summary of Safety and Effectiveness’. And, if I remember right, the laser hair removal info on FDA.gov does address effectiveness, citing what studies have been done. I remember the FDA providing the conditions of the research (or at least a way to look it up) allowing one to evaluate the study(ies), and then addressing whether claims of efficacy have any founding. Tria, and like devices, were found to remove hair for greater than the regrowth cycle (which is what ‘permanent’ means), but no long term research was done, despite the common occurrence with laser removal in general of regrowth after several months to a year without treatment. So it wasn’t proven that this stunning of hair growth lasts. This, at least, is how I understood it. Lord knows I might be mistaken. As to whether the research was done by the FDA or independently doesn’t matter so much as whether the conditions of the experiment were scientifically legitimate.

Oy, anyway, it hardly matters, the real point is, go to the fda.gov and you can compare it to the hyperbole of laser hair removal marketing. Web pages like the Journal of Laser Hair Removal are pretty shameless in their willingness to mislead, leave out information, and give false impressions about the efficacy and process of hair removal. Don’t trust the place selling you the gadget, get third party info.

Alright, I’m off the soap box. Beg your pardon y’all.

#18

I welcomed your soap box moment there “Ovenman” and would only add my own tubthumping to what you said to say:

One of the problems we have with the FDA LASER situation is that the definition they used for Permanent Hair Removal and Long Term Hair Reduction don’t equal what most people on the street would believe those terms to mean.

I recently bumped into a former client of mine who has not had any work done in about a year and a half. Since I can’t help scrutinizing my own work, as we talked, I was studying every inch of this person’s face and neck and what was visible of the chest. After about 45 minutes to an hour of our being together, I found the ONE hair on this person’s face that I noticed needed to be removed. I commented about it, and my client checked in a mirror and said, “I hadn’t noticed that, and I don’t think anyone else but you would either.” We laughed and that was the last of that.

So what I am saying is, this person went from 500 thick hairs per square inch, to one offending hair on the face and neck more than a year after final treatment. We expect that checking in 2 years from now would produce the same result or better, depending on what month we looked. My client doesn’t even think it is worth the time and fuel cost to stop by for me to remove ONE HAIR, so the client is well pleased with what we have done.

Those seeking hair reduction from LASER are the ones who seem to be most pleased with their outcome. The FDA says “Long Term Permanent Hair REDUCTION” is all one should expect from the method.

#19

FDA doesn’t have the resources to look into any studies to determine effectiveness, especially for something as complicated as LHR with so many outside factors that could affect the results of any “findings”. Safety is something they have to be concerned with because not doing so could result in big lawsuits. Ineffectiveness, especially when it comes to LHR, is easy to explain away given all these other outside factors.

#20

Hey thought I’d give my two cents about the Tria 2. First background info on myself:

Skin: Type III - Score 21
Skin: Somewhat Oily
Hair Color: Black

I received the unit last week and it is my first time owning a Tria. The first part I lasered was my chest. I have somewhat sparse growth on my chest, and light growth on my abdomen. It took about 3 charges to do my full chest and abdomen with setting II be the highest (pretty painful). I had to slow down a few times because the pain was beginning to build on me. I’m guessing due to the dense growth in some parts along with having very black hair. However, I experienced NO PAIN on areas where there were no hair follicles, even at the highest setting. Of course, since it’s supposed to target dark pigment.

Also…I know the unit says not for use on the face but I figured I’d do my cheeks since the unit is not as powerful as the lightsheer. I also say this because I’ve had test spots done with a lightsheer under my neck and partial sideburn and from the test patches had 100% hair loss in those regions. Both were done at 14J @ 100ms. However, as I read in the beginning of this post, people experience acne flare ups in the face region when having it lasered. I was no exception, both areas (under neck 3 shots, side burn 9 shots) I broke out in the worst type of cystic acne. I had reddening, bumps, and of course cysts forming at the follicle site. Took over two weeks after draining, applying cleansers and treating with bandaged neosporin for it to heal over. BUT, I have had no hyper pigmentation as result and only have bare skin to show for it. Price to pay for hair free skin I guess.

My cheeks, like my previous professional laser test spots, also broke out same deal as before. Having been a week my skin has relaxed some and the hairs have started falling out close to 100%. My chest and abdomen haven’t shed much but I do notice the hairs have barely pushed out, so at least growth seems shunted. I also have a few acne flare ups close to my belly button and very few on my chest. Nowhere near as bad as cheeks. So I’m hoping by next week they should be shed and will wait for new hairs to treat.

In terms of lasting results, still too early to tell how well this works. The battery life on the unit seems good too, I got about 45 minutes to an hour on a single charge with settings I to II.

Only questions I have are about lasers in general. How can I avoid breaking out in the areas I’m treating? Why does that even occur? The Lightsheer technicians I had the test spots with also didn’t know why I was breaking out. Lastly, is it okay to pull the hair out after two weeks if it doesn’t seem to be growing?

I try and get pictures to update people on my progress.

P.S. Anybody know why the warranty from the first Tria was 90 days and this is 30 days?