I would have thought that Tria and Silk’n would have had your address on their “do not ship to” list Lagirl!
I received my Tria v2 on November 10, so I’ve been using it for two months now. I’ve been doing it more than advised by the manual. Rather than every 2 weeks, it’s been more like every 9 or 10 days.
I am pleased by the results. I’ve found that different areas of my body react differently. As a hair-covered guy, I’ve had many areas to experiment on, so I’ll share my experience:
A random solitary hair on the side of my neck was eliminated after one zap. Perhaps because it was the only hair there to absorb all the energy. It had the distinctive “pop” sound/feeling that I normally hear at the salon.
Some beard hairs that existed above my beard-line on my cheek are more stubborn. The Tria makes them take a couple weeks to regrow rather than the 3 or 4 days it took when plucking them. They appear finer, less wirey. By the way, if you’re in the United States, the Tria manual says not to use it on one’s face or neck. But if you’re in the UK, you may. And if you simply pretend you’re in the UK, you may, too.
On my bikini line – which was initially done at a salon, twice, before I continued with the Tria – the Tria seems to keep things in order. When some dark hairs regrew after the salon treatments, I zapped them with the Tria, and now the area hasn’t been regrowing, aside from some light hairs too pale to see. I credit this area mostly to the salon treatment, but the Tria has served to fix what survived. Again, I believe the Tria is used best as a follow-up to a professional salon treatment.
On my private male parts, that is, lower shaft where I’d usually shaved off stray hairs every few days (leaving rather sharp ends), those hairs only come back after a couple weeks, and seem to be softer. I am really pleased with this, as this was an irritant in every sense of the word. As previously stated, it isn’t as painful as you’d imagine, and well worth it imo.
On my upper chest, attacking the line where my collar bone changes to my shoulder, I found the Tria didn’t work at all. I got a bunch of ingrown hairs and gave up on that area after a few weeks because ingrowns really annoy me, and the ingrowns were as dark as before I’d zapped them. I can’t speak for how it would have worked if I’d kept it up for six months as advised.
On my shoulder, the line where my arm hairs reach my bare deltoid, some problematic black hairs (darker than my usual brown hair) were totally fried after one session (recall I wrote about how I was alarmed by redness there), and haven’t come back yet, but I’ll keep an eye on the area. Had these hairs been lighter I doubt they would have been taken out. Every week I expect to have to rezap the area, but so far, not.
On the back of my hands and my fingers: the back of my hands are stubborn. Regrowth after shaving & zapping is nearly instantaneous, and I am skeptical that the Tria is having any effect on this area at all. Possibly the hairs are simply too thin to absorb any significant energy. My fingers: first let me say it is really difficult to get the Tria to fire on the curved surfaces of fingers. Lots of squishing of flesh is required for full contact to be made (necessary for the Tria’s safety mechanisms to allow the laser to fire). I’ve now got some blank spots, but most of my finger hairs remain. I’ll keep trying, but like the back of my hands, I don’t think the Tria is having any effect here. I know with certainty that a salon treatment would reach every one, and to greater effect. But I figure since I have the Tria here, may as well keep at it and see if the hand/finger hairs one day just give up fighting.
On my underarms – where I am only doing the sides (I am not eliminating all my underarm hair, I am only reducing the surface area) – the process is painful, but it seems to be holding. I haven’t done them in a few weeks but the areas I wanted blank are still blank. I’m aware I should still zap the areas when hairs appear.
On my toes and the ridge on the feet: Very slow regrowth here. The Tria may be failing on my hands, but on my feet it is working. Maybe because my feet are so much paler than my hands? Or because the hairs on my toes were black rather than brown?
On the crack of my butt, I burned myself when I failed to note that my pigment at the point where some people have tails was more red than beige. Given the difficulty of doing this area, and the burn, I gave up on that area. (The burn faded to white, so don’t worry about me!).
In summary, I’m finding the Tria is useful in some areas, and ineffective in others – though proponents would point out that the Tria says you have to keep up efforts for six months sometimes before you’ll see any reduction. In fact, the temperament of some hairs in some areas has changed already, far earlier than six months, providing an initial benefit.
That’s interesting how it didn’t work on your hands, when I had the SIlk’n my hands was the only place it actually did work. It’s all back now but yeah 
Keep in mind that you’ve only been testing for 2 months and haven’t allowed any time for the hair to grow in. 2 months is barely one hair cycle. You can’t tell permanent results until after you’ve been doing this for at least 9-12 months AND then stopped for 4-6 months. At this point, you can’t tell much as far as permanency goes. You could have been waxing and seen the same results. No way to tell just yet.
Interesting Tria website information laser hair stimulation.
[b]Can Laser Hair Removal Cause More Hair Growth?
There are a lot of questions relating to laser hair removal. Some people say that it doesn’t work, while others say that it does more harm than good. Both of these are false. Another common question is whether or not laser hair removal causes more hair to grow. To answer this, it is first important to understand how laser hair removal works and how hair cycles work.
Laser hair removal uses pulsed light or a laser to target a hair follicle. It destroys the follicle, which then causes the hair to eventually fall out. If the follicle is destroyed, the hair will not grow anymore because there is nothing to grow from. Now, hair also grows in cycles. All our hair does not grow at once, but instead grows in phases. Some hair grows out and when it is shaved, other hair follicles begin to grow out. This is why you have to go for several sessions of laser hair removal. Each time you have hair removed by laser; the hair cycle grows new hair. This is one reason why some people believe that you have more hair growth following laser hair removal.
Another reason that people believe that laser hair removal causes more hair growth is because when you have laser hair removal done, you usually get a cream on your skin that opens your pores. When your pores open, hair grows better. So more hair comes up out of the skin and the pores. This does not mean that you have new hair, but you are just having hair you already had growing more. Again, this is why there are several sessions of laser hair removal.
Now, in some very rare cases, mostly in women, laser hair removal does cause increased hair growth but this is very rare and it has not even been medically proven. Typically, it only happens when there is laser hair removal done on a woman’s face. For men, it is usually caused when there is laser hair removal done on their back, shoulders and underarms.
It is also more common to happen on darker skin types with fine hair on low settings from the laser. Again, this is incredibly rare and only happens to a fraction of those who have laser hair removal. The vast majority of people see absolutely no increase in hair growth.
Typically, people only think they have experienced more hair growth because they have gone for laser hair removal and found new hairs growing. Well, they are not new hairs; they are old hairs who are getting their chance to grow now that you have removed the other hairs. Think of it like a forest. When trees fall down, other trees get more light and therefore get more growth. Well, the same seems to happen with the hair on your body. Does laser hair removal cause an increase in hair growth? No. It may happen, to a fraction of people, but you can be assured it will most likely not happen to you.[/b]
It looks like someone read this forum Except, they missed the parts about FINE hair. I’m sure they don’t want to limit their customer base to only those with coarse hair.
Just checking in. It’s been 20 months since I started using a Tria (the original version). For a year now I’ve only been using it to do touchups on single hairs.
I can safely stand by my last conclusions (when using Tria’s highest setting and properly overlapping):
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When treating patches of hair, the Tria produced finer, lighter, straighter hairs, over the course of 5 sessions spaced 8 weeks apart. These hairs would not grow back in any form for at least 4 - 6 weeks.
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Gradually some hairs did stop growing back altogether. But, it’s my impression that the Tria is not powerful enough to kill most finer hair. This means I stopped seeing much progress after about a year of use.
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The battery charge is not enough to properly treat patches larger than the size of a hand print. This makes it useless for large areas unless you leave wide gaps between pulses or use a low setting.
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The pain for me, probably because of the long pulses, was greater than any professional laser I’ve used and completely unbearable without anesthetic. This lead to a high usage cost in lidocaine.
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When treating individual hairs, and pulsing continuously 3 - 5 times in quick succession, I have been able to completely eliminate hairs that still have pigment left.
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The Tria’s results are as permanent as any other diode laser (GentleLASE, LightSheer) I’ve used. The lighter, finer hairs (and less common completely absent hairs) have remained unchanged for over a year.
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The battery in both the Tria, and the unlocking device, have a very good lifespan. I have put the Tria through over 230 complete discharges and it still retains the same charge and treatment duration that it had when new.
I only recommend the Tria for those wanting to get rid a few sparse hairs, to lighten and thin out small areas of hair, or to treat spots missed by professional laser.
As an example this is one area I was treating (chest):
http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/9218/finaltriacomparison.jpg
I’m glad you’re happy with it, but just to correct one thing for anyone reading: The GentleLASE isn’t a diode. It’s an alex.
You also need to stop using the Tria for at least 6 months before you can judge how permanent it is. It sounds like you’re continuing to use it. Even with a professional laser at low settings you’ll get shedding but the hair comes back in a couple months. It sounds like that’s what’s happening with the Tria as well. The only way to judge permanency is by stopping use of it for 6+ months and see how many hairs come back.
Thanks for the update and photo.
It sounds like he did stop using it for 1 year, but is still doing touchups. I would say touchups still qualify as treatments. I would be curious to see a photo at least 6 months of no treatments and no touchups.
Sorry I didn’t notice that part about only touchups on single hairs for a year after stopping. I have to be the BIGGEST sucker for infomercials and miracle products. When I first found Tria I was all excited by it same with Silk’n thinking wow I can do private areas in my own home for cheap! Then obviously I realize they don’t work, I get over it, someone starts talking about it I get excited etc etc. Now here you are saying you just do touchups for a year on single hairs and it gets me all intrigued again haha.
I’m intrigued though now for another reason. If the Tria causes the same 100% shedding that a professional laser does, but isn’t permanent, I’m just thinking that may not be so bad. Like, I’m still going to do professional treatments but for more private areas and pubic region and so on I’d never ever do it professionally. If using the Tria in those areas caused the hair to actually shed in 2 weeks like a professional laser does, the hair with a professional one stays gone at least for a month to 2 months, so even if you did have to do it again it’s not really that big of a deal.
On eBay they have them new for $489 with free shipping, that’s really reasonable, now I’m considering it gahhh. I actually am contemplating giving it a go. I mean even if I use it for a year then find it’s not working that great, I’m sure you’d still be able to sell it for a bit.
I’m so close to hitting buy it now haha. I had the Silk’n before but it was junk, not laser at all but I think the worst with it was the fact that it needed stupid lamp cartridges all the time. At least with the Tria even if the battery only treats a small area, it’s not a big deal, plug it in and recharge it.
One thing I’ve always wondered with the Tria though is what would happen if you fired two or 3 times in the same spot? Like with Soprano XL how it fires low pulses over an area gradually heating the hair. I assume it would burn but I wonder if you had the settings lower or something and did it 3 times in a row if the hair might heat enough to actually die…
I only meant touchups in other areas (that I’ve had professional laser done before). The Tria does cause permanent changes to hair.
The Tria caused the same shedding and inhibited growth as any other laser I’ve used, but it’s more painful and time consuming. It’s far too painful for genitals. Just bite the bullet and see a discreet professional.
For anything more than small patches or individual hairs it’s not a good substitute for professional treatments even if you’re looking to be hair free only temporarily (4 - 6 weeks).
On the other hand, if you do have small patches or individual hairs, pulsing 3 - 5 times in a row seems to have a much greater effect. This is how I’ve been able to kill darkly pigmented hairs entirely over the course of several treatments.
I’ve just read through all of this thread. Thanks for the info. It’s been really useful.
I’m a 30 year old guy with serious neck hair problems. I’ve been doing a lot of reading about the tria and I think I’m going to give it ok.
The problem I’ve found is that a lot of the reviews are pretty unhelpful. I did come across a really comprehensive review over at http://www.hairremoverreivews.com/tria-laser-hair-removal-system which was very detailed and helpful.
I’ll report back once I’ve started using the tria with my results.
Cheers,
Henry Mason
Hi:
One of the recent posters “edokid” mentioned that the Tria does not need bulb replacement, but from what I remember from reading about it on the board they do need to be replaced?
Can someone please clarify that issue?
Thanks, Alicia
Hey Alicia,
The Tria doesn’t have a replaceable bulb. The Silk’n though does, that’s the unit I had first. With it, it’s not a laser but a flash bulb, so it lasts about 750 shots then you have to buy another $60 or so bulb. The Tria actually is a diode laser so doesn’t need to be replaced. I’ve read somewhere that because it has a battery, it can be recharged up to 250 times before the battery will fail but I know other posters have said that’s untrue, and it doesn’t seem to be something that Tria posts on their website. I actually just bought the Tria, was $460 on eBay new so figured good deal, and it’s the latest model. I mostly bought it to test it out for everyone here and give an unbiased review on how it works in the areas I’m trying it on (all areas have never been touched with laser before). Hopefully I have enough posts and credibility on this site now to post a respectful review Just waiting for it to arrive.
Henry, you should consider professional treatments instead. If you read through this entire thread, then that would be the conclusion you should make. About 3 professional treatments would make a huge different and would be permanent. It would take a lot more effort with the Tria to get a similar permanent result, if at all.
Exactly. My reasoning for the tria is not to be cheap or get permanency. I’m just hoping if I do say my legs, I get good shedding and stays that way for a few weeks, even if it takes a couple days to treat them, that would be good for me. I have no intention of stopping professional treatments anywhere else, this is for small areas but will still post my experiences here!
Help!
You’ll have to forgive me for not reading through this entire thread. I hope this hasn’t been addressed,
I bought a new tria 2 months ago. I have given myself several treatments, but have never noticed any shedding or any less hair growth. I follow the directions. I have very light skin and black hairs. I usually use the tria on the highest level, but in the underarm or bikini area I use the 3rd level.
What is happening? Why isn’t it working?
It’s too weak to work well. You should get professional treatments.
Can you get a refund? How much did you pay for the Tria?
Thanks for your answer. I’m a college student and I really can’t afford laser treatments professionally. I paid $595 at Nordstrom. I probably could return it, but I really wish it would work for me. Why doesn’t it work for an ideal candidate like me when it seems to work for other people? Will it eventually work if I keep trying?