Laser hair removal or home epilator: what's the catch?

26 August 2021

Beauty has always required sacrifices, not only temporary, but also financial. It is for this reason that the popularity of home devices is growing, which allow you to save time and carry out procedures on your own without leaving your home.

Laser hair removal is no exception in this matter. Indeed, today, in the conditions of open market relations and the widespread distribution of the Internet, it is not difficult to order a home epilator and even a professional device for laser hair removal. The second option, in fact, should be discarded right away, since it costs like a good A-class car and is designed to pay off with constant use, which is achievable with a large flow of patients, that is, in laser hair removal salons. Here, for sure, you won't be able to save money on visiting the salon.

Benefits of home epilator

Home analogue of expensive lasers and epilation systems is a epilator. This is essentially the same IPL (Intense Pulsed Light) machine that is used for professional hair removal. We will discuss the difference below.

The main and most indisputable advantage is that you can carry out the procedure at any time convenient for you in any place convenient for you without leaving your home.
The epilator is compact and does not take up much space.
Relatively low price, which ranges from $ 200 to $ 450 depending on the manufacturer. Sufficient choice from little-known Chinese brands to the most popular Philips epilator.
The procedure is quite safe and comfortable.

What's the catch?

It would seem that if it is irrational to buy a laser for hair removal, then you can limit yourself to a compact and inexpensive epilator. And the main advantage, as they say, is on the face, or rather, on the legs - there is no need to leave the house, and you choose the time of the procedure yourself.

However, there are certain risks, unlike professional laser hair removal, which undoubtedly need to be considered.

Safety first, what about efficiency?

The main task of products in mass sale is safety. Therefore, the devices use a certain wavelength, which cannot cause serious harm, even with complications. Of course, we are talking about burns. The "safe wavelength" does not penetrate deeply enough into the skin. This wavelength is well absorbed by the hair on the surface of the skin and destroys it, but, unfortunately, does not completely destroy the hair follicle. Hair falls out and then grows back.

The power of home epilator... or more about efficiency

Radiation power is the cornerstone of modern laser medicine. It is the power developed by the device that determines the effectiveness of the procedure and the durability of the effect. After all, the main purpose of hair removal is permanent cessation of hair growth forever. Home epilators are not capable of developing effective powers and are 40-50 times inferior to medical lasers!

Even with all the desire, you will not be able to achieve a high-quality result, you will have to carry out 10-12 procedures. And this will definitely not please either as money saving or as time saving.

Inability to epilate in hard-to-reach areas

To ensure safety, home epilators are activated only when the entire surface of the attachment is firmly touched with the skin, therefore, they often do not work in hard-to-reach areas. We'll have to practice with the epilator in front of the mirror.

What are the reviews about home epilators talking about?

To find out whether epilators for home use are really effective, we analyzed customer reviews left in online stores. Among the positive reviews, which, as you yourself understand, the consumer has no motivation to write, we studied negative reviews. Minor annoyances that we described above:

Epilator does not work in hard-to-reach areas
The device is slow
The device is overheating during the procedure
Must be charged to complete the procedure

Major Customer Review Issues

Hair initially falls out, but growth resumes, while the hair becomes thinner and lighter, which is perceived by many consumers as a positive result of hair removal. Basically, it is indicated that even after 10-12 procedures, the hair continues to grow, while for hair removal on professional lasers require only 6-8 procedures to completely stop hair growth. Thinning and bleached hair will be difficult to remove even with a professional powerful laser.

Why is laser hair removal in salons attractive?

Laser hair removal is most effective - hair growth stops after 6-8 treatments, thanks to the deep penetration of the laser beam and higher laser power.
Cooling the crystal to 0 °C makes the procedure comfortable and safe.
A specialist will qualitatively process all hard-to-reach places.