[Stevenator_]

I decided to break-out my Luma Rx IPL Pro today. I got it in January of 2019. At the time it was the most powerful system on the market with the largest head, but it’s since been discontinued.

I’m pretty much hair free, especially since starting HRT, but ever since I dropped P4 a few months ago, some problem areas around my knee and both sides of my shin have surfaced. They’re still light growth hairs, but they’re still there.

I’ve noticed that areas with no hair feel no pain at all when being zapped. You can definitely feel the areas that do have hair because they soak-up that electrical charge that’s being sent down to the root. When that root absorbs the zap, is when I feel the shock, so to speak.

One other unpleasant thing I remember about the IPL is repeated zaps in areas of several hairs growing, the absorption of electricity raises my heart rate and that’s no fun.

I’m probably going to have to have electrolysis one day in addition to laser and not looking fwd to the associated pain.

One thing I do like about IPL is how it burns off the top layer of dead skin cells, leaving your skin silky smooth.

[Jennifer]

Hello Steve

What maximum length for you must have the hair for IPL to be effective:
Shaved on edge
1 day
2 days
more

Jennifer

[Stevenator_]

I believe it’s best to be freshly shaved. The hair will absorb the electric flash/shock and the smaller the hair, the less distance it has to travel to zap the root.

In the past, I have waited a day after shaving once before and when I zapped an area, I’d notice the distinct smell of burning hair.

[Teddy]

I believe it’s best to be freshly shaved. The hair will absorb the electric flash/shock and the smaller the hair, the less distance it has to travel to zap the root.

In the past, I have waited a day after shaving once before and when I zapped an area, I’d notice the distinct smell of burning hair.

Hi Steve,
I have tried IPL some years ago. I guess the absorption of light depends very much color of the body hair. Mine isn't at least blond, but quite dark, si IPL should work. I have a Homedics MyElos device, and used up two cartridges without much success and have now given up it. I wonder of the problem is my device, or hair color or something else. What kind of hair you have? And do you know if there are some sites I can find any test results to compare "power" of different machines?
-Teddy

[Stevenator_]

Teddy

From my understanding, you have to be fairly religious so to speak about zapping yourself in a regular schedule for an IPL to be ‘somewhat’ effective.

My understanding of an IPL that I studied about four years ago is that hair grows in three distinct cycles. This is from memory, so please bear with me.

In order for (a hair) to be successfully removed, it has to be zapped during its growth phase. I think there is a growth, dormant & terminal phase for the lifecycle of a hair.

From what I remember, they recommend you zap yourself every two weeks. My manufacture said theirs permanently worked after three cycles, or a month and a half, with the prerequisite disclaimer that more time might be needed. Since you have millions of hairs, it’s a given that all of them are in a different phase of growth at any given time.

So that’s another reason why you have to be diligent about the every two week schedule for months at a time. And it is definitely an investment of your time, seeing how full body sessions for me were 3-4 hours at a time.

I zapped my whole body over a period of several months. My unit has to be held completely flat against the skin or else it will miss-fire. From the reaching, holding a certain angle for the recharge & power-up phase of the unit for several hours will wear you out and cramp your hand. After 3-4 full body sessions, this gets to be a royal pain in the butt.

I’m 60 y/o now and my body hair (was) fairly dark. Back then when I was using it, I was in PM and not taking enough AA to dampen DHT, so I pretty much had thick dark leg hairs. I’m a dark completed Caucasian male. Now that I’ve been on HRT for 2.5 years, my body hair has been diminished.

I was on micronized progesterone the last two years, but since dropping it two months ago, I’ve noticed body hair regrowing. It’s not bad and I’ve started taking Red Reishi Mushroom which has greatly helped. I’m mainly noticing it growing on both sides of my calves, to the left & right of my shins.

I zapped every square inch of my body below the ears. My chest, underarms and belly have been permanently removed. I’d say that 90%+ of my leg hairs are gone. My forearms still have some hair, but they’re almost invisible.

IPL’s are not recommended for the male face. Did I listen? Of course not lol. Let my experience be a warning. The warnings I read said you’d end up with splotchy results. While the IPL had practically no effect on my beard, about half my mustache is gone. If I don’t shave for a few days at a time, the regrowth looks terrible. It’s definitely splotchy. I mean it just looks weird.

Another thing about using it on your face ... while I could take the top level five anywhere on my body, I could barely tolerate level two on myface. It hurt like a mother_____.

I will say that when I did use it on myface, that the regrowth period was several days. It seemed more than anything that it stunned the hairs, haha, and my face was baby smooth for about three days. When mybeard started growing again, it seemed like it grew back at triple speed, which was weird.

I will say that mybeard is my biggest area of concern. It gives me more dysphoria than anything else. I can’t stand it. Every day I detest it more and more. While I still hope for bigger boobs, I’m hoping to get laser on myface one day soon.

Back when I was using the IPL regularly, I spent a majority of the time zapping my pubic area. Sometimes I’d hit it 4-5 times a session, with sessions every single week for about 3-4 months. I wanted to make damn sure that I killed every hair. As it turned out, they pretty much all grew back.

As far as a ratings system goes, there seems to be numerous “best of” pages online. It seems their real purpose is the accompanying advertising that populates their page. This could be true for anything you buy online. So many of these ratings pages just pull from the best rated units off Amazon. I don’t think there is an actual consumer reports rating system for IPL inits. All the ones I saw were just a listing of the top products available.

The way I did it on all these review pages was just to dive into each product sold and compare them myself. Most of these review pages would list the same units over and over. While they might all list ten different units, you can pretty much narrow them down yourself to the top 3-4 units.

At the time when I bought mine, the Luma Rx IPL Pro was rated at 100,000 flash power rating. That was far and above any other unit sold. The flash head is 4mm, meaning it covers more real estate so to speak, and no other product being sold at the time had a head as big as the Luma Rx. From a search I did last week, mine is no longer available.

I don’t know if anything compares to that today, but when I bought mine in December of 2018, this was the best on the market at 100K flash rating and a 4mm head.

I do not believe they ranked the actual power or the power source as is done with boutique salon lasers. I’m unsure if this is a rating that is compared now.

My unit purchased off of Amazon was made in China and cost me $495 at the time. Apparently the best in class was reflected in its price. For what it’s worth, when my purchased was delivered, it was defective. It didn’t work. I had to send it back and they sent me another one, and it’s still working today.

One thing I don’t like about mine is while they advertise a 100K flash capability, the counter on the unit only counts for that particular session and then it resets. I have no idea how many flashes I’ve used in its lifetime. I used 200 the other day and when I plug it in again it’ll be set to zero.

I apologize for the long post, but I wanted to give you the details of my experience. YMMV.

-S

[Teddy]

I was doing some epilation yesterday, with a "rotating tweezers" device. I took some pain killers one hour before the operation, but it as still quite painful to pluck my chest/budding breasts, belly, and even upper crotch area. It had likely been much more fun, if I had been a dedicated masochist. I now hope repeating this nearly-torture for some months the hair growth is permanently reduced, and pain level also would be less after a few 'sessions'.

I can't afford using multiple sessions on a laser clinic, or one doing electrolysis, while home IPL wasn't working well at all: Even doing it about every two weeks for 6 months didn't make much difference. This mechanical epilation seems to be for me the only viable "semi-permanent" path to try now. i hope the best. Anybody having good ideas how to a) Make it less painful, or b) to get best possible 'permanent' results?

[wInzIg316]

I was doing some epilation yesterday, with a "rotating tweezers" device. I took some pain killers one hour before the operation, but it as still quite painful to pluck my chest/budding breasts, belly, and even upper crotch area. It had likely been much more fun, if I had been a dedicated masochist. I now hope repeating this nearly-torture for some months the hair growth is permanently reduced, and pain level also would be less after a few 'sessions'.

I can't afford using multiple sessions on a laser clinic, or one doing electrolysis, while home IPL wasn't working well at all: Even doing it about every two weeks for 6 months didn't make much difference. This mechanical epilation seems to be for me the only viable "semi-permanent" path to try now. i hope the best. Anybody having good ideas how to a) Make it less painful, or b) to get best possible 'permanent' results?

Teddy, the first time I used an epilator, it was applied to my pubic area, and it as so painful I thought I had wasted my money on the device.  But once my skin cleared up it was so wonderfully smooth I persisted. 

A few tips, learned from experience:

1. The hair should be about 1/8 inch in length. Shave a couple or days before, then use the epilator. 
2. Stretch the skin tight.
3. I have found that applying a coat of talcum powder to the area beforehand makes for less friction.

I can't believe how wonderful my breasts feel thanks to the gradual removal of all the hair with the epilator. And with the use of progesterone cream my breasts feel like silk to the touch. I can't stop caressing them!

[Teddy]

I was doing some epilation yesterday, with a "rotating tweezers" device. I took some pain killers one hour before the operation, but it as still quite painful to pluck my chest/budding breasts, belly, and even upper crotch area. It had likely been much more fun, if I had been a dedicated masochist. I now hope repeating this nearly-torture for some months the hair growth is permanently reduced, and pain level also would be less after a few 'sessions'.

I can't afford using multiple sessions on a laser clinic, or one doing electrolysis, while home IPL wasn't working well at all: Even doing it about every two weeks for 6 months didn't make much difference. This mechanical epilation seems to be for me the only viable "semi-permanent" path to try now. i hope the best. Anybody having good ideas how to a) Make it less painful, or b) to get best possible 'permanent' results?

Teddy, the first time I used an epilator, it was applied to my pubic area, and it as so painful I thought I had wasted my money on the device.  But once my skin cleared up it was so wonderfully smooth I persisted. 

A few tips, learned from experience:

1. The hair should be about 1/8 inch in length. Shave a couple or days before, then use the epilator. 
2. Stretch the skin tight.
3. I have found that applying a coat of talcum powder to the area beforehand makes for less friction.

I can't believe how wonderful my breasts feel thanks to the gradual removal of all the hair with the epilator. And with the use of progesterone cream my breasts feel like silk to the touch. I can't stop caressing them!

Thank you, Winzig.

I have had the hair length roughly as you suggest, and stretching the skin. I will get some talcum powder, too.
Presumably the pain will be also lesser and less after several "plucking" sessions, as the hair root is weakened.
I noticed the smoothness, and I'm looking forward to have it permanently!

[wInzIg316]

My breasts are now permanently smooth except for the odd soft, practically invisible hair that emerges now and then. My pubic area is over 95% permanently smooth, which I absolutely love!

[Richelle81]

Hi everyone! I used to use Nair twice a year when I would get fed up with long white chest hairs. It burned and it was uncomfortable for a week afterward. So after using NAIR the last time over a year ago, I simply changed to shaving my whole body while i take a shower daily. I buy these 20 ounce things of shea butter - cocunut lotion from Marshall's and use it as shaving cream. Since I do this everyday you hardly have to do anything you just glide the razor around (plus I'm sure PM is helping with keeping the hair off me too). But the point is if you shave every day, soon the hair barely grows back. And my skin is soft, smooth and womanly!