Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have a "Tria" (Pulsed Diode Laser) and now both, a "Veet Infini'silk PRO" and a "Veet Infini'silk" made by "Silk'n" (Intense Pulsed Light = IPL) for at-home hair removal. I have also experienced both of these Hair Removal technologies (Pulsed Diode Laser/"PDL" and Intense Pulsed Light/"IPL") at Medical Spas with professional grade machines. I have fair skin and thick black hair which makes me an ideal user for all forms of Laser Hair Removal (LHR). It is worth mentioning that I have a condition called PCOS that causes excessive hair on women(more on this later). I have battled this since I was a teenager and I am 39 now. I started LHR in my early 20s and have experienced all forms of Laser Hair Removal (LHR) in medical settings. In medical spas, I have had superior results with Pulsed Diode Lasers. By this, I mean that more hair follicles died and has not regrown significantly (about 5% regrowth). With Intense Pulsed Light, the areas I had professionally treated have regrown by about 50% over the years. Having said that, I have found that the Tria and the Silk'n products are suited to different uses for me. I will explain... The Tria is a great product that I have extensively used. It works well, but it's main drawbacks are the tiny treatment area (about 1/4 inch round), the need to repeatedly lift the device off the skin between pulses (strains wrist/hand after a few minutes), and the need to "overlap" the pulses (impossible to do on backside areas that you can not directly see and tedious to do on large areas like legs). It is also very painful to use on coarse black hair like mine. These issues create a slow and laborious treatment experience for some areas and make it nearly impossible to treat other areas. I like to use the Tria for quick spot treatments on new hairs on easy-to-see/ easy-to-reach areas. The Tria is also my go-to device for precision work and small bony areas like face, feet, ankles, fingers, etc. Unlike the Veet Infini'Silk Pro (Silk'n), the Tria has an onboard battery so you can do your treatments on your bed or sofa or where ever you like. The disadvantage to this is that the battery is not replaceable and will eventually wear out (however, mine is still working after 6 years). The Silk'n devices have to be plugged in so you are tethered to a 6 ft cord, but there is no battery to wear out. Only the bulb cartridge wears out. There are some advantages to the Veet Silk'n products. The PRO version boasts a much larger treatment surface of approx. 1/2in x 1 1/4in (1.3cm x 3cm) while the smaller Infini'silk has a treatment area of .9cm x 3cm. These are MUCH larger treatment areas than the Tria (which has a treatment area about 1/3 the size of the smaller Infini'silk). Unlike the Tria, the Veet devices do not need to be lifted from the skin between pulses and the pulses do not need to be overlapped. You can just hold down the button as you "flash, glide, flash, glide" and the devices predictably and consistently flash every 3.5 seconds as you work along. The Silk'n devices have a "raised rectangle" on the heads that leaves a temporary impression on your skin that makes it very easy to see where you just treated so you neither overlap or leave gaps between pulses. With the large treatment areas and no need to overlap pulses, the Silk'n Pro allows me to treat larger and hard to see areas MUCH more quickly than the Tria. The upfront costs for the Silk'n devices are a couple hundred less than a Tria. I use both the Tria and the Silk'n devices on their highest settings (5). The pain from the Tria can only be described as intense. I use both ice packs and numbing cream with it. The pain from the Silk'n devices(IPL) is negligible by comparison and I have not needed any cooling or numbing for them even on sensitive areas. This was not my experience with IPL in Medical Spas. With both IPL and Laser (Ruby and Diode) Hair removal, I needed numbing before treatment and ice packs during treatment. I do not know why the Silk'n devices are so much less painful, even on the highest setting. It may be related to the particular light wavelengths, the light filter(s) on the cartridge, the wattage, etc. Back to my past experience with IPL hair removal in Med spas. With only a couple of exceptions, I dreaded going to a facility to have my treatments done. For those of you that have never been for laser hair removal in a derm or med spa, it can be a harrowing experience. The powerful equipment they use is not as fool-proof as the at-home devices are. The possibility of burns is very real (I have been burned... by a doctor who was trying out his new laser without training). If you want to see what what it looks like to get burns, do a google search of "laser hair removal burns" to see what untrained technicians have done to people. Ensuring that your laser technician has been properly trained can be difficult (there is no training required in any state. Some states (not most) require that the spa simply must have a "doctor" that has agreed to put his name behind it, or that a nurse actually operate the laser... but doctors and nurses do not get laser training in med school). This is why ALL of these facilities require you to sign a broad medical and liability release that includes burns, disfiguring injuries and poor/ no results. Getting a laser technician that is trained, competent, experienced, hygienic (and makes you feel comfortable during treatment) can be very challenging. I have been told by more than one facility, that not too many people ask the questions I ask, such as "How do you sterilize the laser tip in between patients?". I walked out of more than one facility because they did not have a satisfactory answer or looked at me with puzzlement when I asked this question. With all LHR, there is a part of the device that touches the skin (genitals, butts, arm pits, faces, lips, hands, feet, wounds, rashes, skin afflictions, etc.) and can transmit disease if not sterilized between each patient. Hello! this should be a very basic protocol, but many facilities don't even bother with sanitizing the devices, much less sterilizing them between patients. I went through a couple of years worth of monthly treatments on several areas of my body with IPL exclusively (same technology as the Infini'silk devices). I had a wonderful, highly trained technician with multiple training certifications and significant experience with a state of the art machine. The areas I had treated with IPL lost about 70-90% of the existing hair and kept it that way for about 2 years. Slowly the hair grew back in to about 50% over the course of the next 3-4 years and then stayed that way. Alternatively, the areas that I had professionally treated with true lasers (same technology as Tria device) have remained nearly hair free for the duration of my post treatment years (7-15 years depending on when the treatments were performed). So I had "superior" results with true Laser hair removal and "good" results with IPL. If I was going back to a Med Spa for treatment, I would not do IPL again, but for home use, Yes. The advantages of the Infini'silk for large and hard to see areas are acceptable trade offs for me. One important point about LHR (of any kind). The only hairs that are actually killed are the ones that are zapped in the growth phase. Just because a hair falls out doesn't mean the follicle is dead. Getting hairs to fall out and actually killing them are two different things. This is the biggest reason why repeated treatments are necessary. Not all the hairs you zap are in the "growth phase". You will have to go over the same areas several times over the course of months to eventually catch all of the hairs in their growth phase. And of course, as you are zapping away, it is possible that your hormones are working against you and sprouting brand new follicles (not new hairs in the dead follicles that you have killed with the laser). IPL or laser will eventually kill all of your current hair follicles, but your body will form new ones over time. Future treatments will be needed to maintain the results. Hair growth is controlled by hormones (and genetics). In my case, because of PCOS, I will likely be doing hair removal to some degree for the rest of my life. There are some significant differences between the two Infini'silk devices. The biggest difference is the size of the treatment area. The Infini'silk PRO has a treatment area about 1/3 LARGER than the Infini'silk model. This may not seem like much, but if you are treating large areas of your body, this extra size makes a big difference in treatment times, i.e. The Infini'silk PRO will take you only 20 minutes to do a lower leg, while the Infini'silk will take 30 minutes to do the same area. The second big difference is that the PRO model has a replaceable bulb that lasts 5,000 pulses and the smaller Infini'silk bulb can not be replaced, but lasts 50,000 pulses. Keep in mind that the smaller unit has a smaller treatment area so it will need 3 pulses to cover the same area as 2 pulses from the PRO model. Otherwise, the units function the same way. They look different and are sized differently, but the wavelength, power and pulse duration are the same. I prefer the larger PRO model because the larger treatment area saves me time, but if you are only treating small areas like face, underarms, bikini line, etc. the Infini'silk is more than adequate. If you don't follow the protocols, you won't get satisfactory results. There is no cheating or shortcuts that will cause these devices to magically work. Make sure that your skin and hair colors will work with them, follow the protocol, and you will get results. This is a genuine review based on my first hand experience with the Tria and Veet products and my accumulated knowledge of LHR. I have a condition called PCOS that has caused excessive body hair since puberty. After some really bad bleeding, scarring and results from "sugaring", epilating, waxing and electrolysis, my parents purchased my first LHR series for me in my early 20s. I am 37 now. Over the course of my life, I have researched and tried every method of hair removal out there including every type of LHR. LHR is the only method that really made a difference and it has has changed my life for the better. I am happy to share my hard earned knowledge with others and I do this freely. I hope this review is helpful for folks looking for at-home laser hair removal. The other common question/objection I have received is, "if you have been getting laser hair removal done for years, why do you still need a Tria or Veet?". I think the main part of the answer to that question is already thoroughly explained in the above review and can be summed up with "because hormones and genetics cause brand new follicles to naturally keep forming", but the other part of the answer is that when I first started getting laser hair removal, the cost was $2,800 for a 8 treatments of a small area like "lower face" (which did not include cheeks or anything under the jawline). At such prices, I could only budget to do one such area per year and I had a whole body that needed treatments! As you can imagine, such a costly process takes "years". As the technology eventually became more common, prices began to come down and LHR is much more affordable now, but sadly, there is still no training or license required to operate or own one of these powerful lasers. In fact, anyone with 50k can legally buy a used pro-quality laser on the secondary market. Thanks for reading! I hope this review is helpful. Let me know, please vote!