I’ve received the Tria v2 today, and after three uses (all today – as charging allowed), I am not optimistic.
I’m familiar with the sensation of laser electrolysis from a salon laser (I’m sorry I do not know the model, but it is the one that fires a relaxing puff of frozen moisture onto the skin after each pulse).
The sensation that I am familiar with from the professional laser is just hardly there on the Tria. With the Tria, I feel something akin to three hot needles growing warmer within my skin – but what is absent is the sizzle that I’d describe as feeling like the prelude to a pop, the near-pop that to me means a root got struck full-on. Plus, at the salon, the few molecules of hair at the top of the shaved follicle burst into smoke (or smells like it anyhow), whereas the tops of the shaved follicles with the Tria still look like normal, adequately moisturized hair.
I am simply not sure the Tria’s “warm needles” feeling will actually have any results on me.
My hair is pretty resistant (though ideal in terms of pale skin and dark hair) even to pro salon treatments. As an example of my salon experience, my shoulders (across the top of my back) took more than the expected 6 to 8 professional treatments – it took closer to 12. Fortunately I grew to like the experience – almost relaxing. I came to think of the feeling of the pulses as being like a lizard’s sharp tongue (or a cat’s) jutting out and contacting my skin. Imagining that animal motiff, rather than the technology that was actually happening, was effective at making the pain less.
I bought the Tria to catch some bits that were often missed at the salon, but which nag at me. And, I can’t afford to go to the salon currently. Also, I thought I’d do the back of my hands and my fingers, and toes – areas that would be nice to have less thick, but which I wouldn’t waste money on at a salon since they’re not as important as, say, one’s shoulders.
If the Tria does in fact even change the timbre of the hairs from strong to soft, with only that warm needle feeling, I will be pleasantly surprised.
Lastly, I noticed that the Tria manual declares not to use it on one’s genitals. Well, the bikini line of a man tends to blur the line between what is leg and what is, um, the boys… But I tried the Tria on that dividing line and found the pain was acceptable. Not much worse than other parts of one’s body. It just dredges up more fear.
Sales of the Tria are also, of course, partly driven by the question of whether the Tria can be used on the, shall we say “racing stripes” of hair that some men have on the lower part of their johnson. Racing stripes for some aren’t just an aesthetic nuisance – for some those hairs can be so sharp when shaved that they can be a pain for one’s partner. Like metal spikes! Entirely aware that the Tria manual states not to do this, I found that yes, in fact, the pain even there is manageable! Probably because there are only a very few hairs there that needed treatment. But I was expecting much worse. I was expecting that the same nerve endings that provide additional pleasure would be providing unimaginable pain. I guess the lower area isn’t as involved in sensation as one may expect. I will grant that I could not do more than one pulse without taking a few seconds to wait before the next, but, given enough rest it could be done. If those hairs manage to become less sharp, then the $600 price of the Tria will have been worth it!
But I believe for large areas like underarms, I’ll stick with the salon, because I am just terrible skeptical that the warmth of the Tria is anywhere as effective as the “popcorn kernal exploding” heat of the salon laser.
One other note, I managed to redden my skin on my bicep a little bit, by pulsing too close to where my arm hairs brushed over the bicep. I believe that I fired through overlaid hairs, and those hairs laying on the surface heated and made my skin red. In the future, I won’t get that close to the hairs that I am keeping (or I’ll shave them back a bit and not go up to them).
The rest of me, including the most important parts, are fine. No redness, even at the highest setting.
A general observation: I found the shape of the Tria’s head was difficult to use on the fingers and toes, since the head must be in full contact with the skin before it will fire.
