It works! Let me start by saying that I'm a 26 year old male with light skin and black body hair. I've been getting professional laser hair removal with the lumenis lightsheer consistently every 6-8 weeks on my entire upper body (except arms) for about 4 years. Yes, that's right... 4 years. I don't know if it's just me that I keep having to go or what, but anyway, the point is I know EXACTLY how laser hair removal works and what to expect. I basically am 95% hairless if I continue to get my laser treatments every 6-8 weeks, but if I stop for a few months which I tried once, it starts to grow back like a mother effer, so laser isn't not actually permanent, but it's a longer term reduction. I'm hoping with this I can extent the time between sessions and reduce the hair enough on other areas where it's not as course.

Now for the actual review, I had been eyeing this literally since I started getting laser hair removal but always thought it was a gimmick. I wanted to try this for my arms, which as I said I don't get done because I always just epilated to save money as it would take an extra $100-$200 per session to get them done. I also want to do my butt and my bung hole which I've had done professionally a few times and it feels so nice when it's smooth, and I'm not shy with my laser lady as she's done literally my whole body at least once, but you know... why not do it in the privacy of my own home.

Ok, so for the actual review. I did a test patch on my arm, shaved about a square of hair and treated it on the highest setting which is supposedly 22 joules and at my professional sessions we go up to 32-34 so I can handle then pain but it does hurt on darker hair. Not terrible, but you'll definitely feel it. I thought at first it didn't work and was a waste of money because when you get it done professionally, the hair either literally explodes out on instant or gets singed and sheds after a week or two. This did not happen with the Tria, it still grew like regular stubble (not burnt and shriveled like it should) and still felt connected to the root since if I tugged in it, I felt it which isn't the case with professional laser. So I shrugged and thought I just wasted my money and forgot about it. Two weeks later I noticed the square I treated looked less dense than the rest of my arm and as the day went on I pulled on the hairs and they came out. Yup. I was amazed! It WORKED! The dark hair had just been ejected!! I was expecting this to work like the professional diode lasers, but I guess it can work differently and still actually work. Awesome!! I have a beach trip in less than a week and I know the hair won't be ejected by then if I treat my arms now but I'm still doing it and hoping that they'll start to fall out at some point. I'm just excited and I can't wait! I also just got my professional session today so I'll have an exact timing of what to expect.

I took one star off because the treatment head is so small and every few pulses it doesn't do anything and I have to re adjust it which is fine but annoying. Also the battery life isn't the best, but since this is happening at home I guess I don't mind as much.

I have included pictures and will update as the weeks and months go by now that I'll have treated a larger area.

By the way, the way my arm and hair actually looks like is somewhere between both pics, certain lighting and my iPhone camera severely intensified the way the hair looks. The black dots are trapped hairs from epilating before.

To preface, I'm going to be updating my review as time goes by. I don't want to wait until the 3 month mark to post my final thoughts on the product, because I'm worried I'll forget small details of early usage, and because I feel like even if I don't have a final "does this work?" verdict, I think I can still offer some useful information.

General first impressions: This thing is surprisingly heavy. Not that it's straining to hold, but I actually take it as a good sign. This isn't just a cheap hunk of plastic, there's actually something going on inside.
It does not arrive charged- you need to allow about 2 hours for charging time before you can play with this, so account for that. Before every use, you need to clean, shave, and dry the area. And that's something I really love about this product. My current preferred method of hair removal in the summer is epilating (many tweezers plucking out the hair from the root), and the real problem with that (and waxing) is that you need to allow the hair to grow out to a considerable length, and having to be hairy for the sake of hair removal is just stupid and it sucks. But this product allows you to continue shaving! However, a couple things to mention regarding this:
1) The manual states you should allow 6 weeks between waxing/plucking/epilating and using this product, to fully allow the hair to grow back
2) The main reason I bought this was to finally be done with having to pluck my beard/sideburns every damn morning (yes, I'm a woman). And I'm not too crazy about having to switch to shaving my face. My facial hair is sparse enough that thankfully it won't give me a 5 o'clock shadow, but the hairs themselves are very thick and coarse so shaving just leaves me with noticeable black speckles that I'm not going to be happy about. So if you're not willing to shave your face, do not purchase this with the intent to use it on your face.

I also want everyone to note that, buried in the instructions manual is one tiny warning paragraph that in some cases, this product was shown to actually INCREASE hair growth. But it mentioned that it was largely only found to happen to woman of more exotic ethnicities. So be warned about that.

The final thing I think that's worth mentioning is that the instructions manual advises using this product every 2 weeks (per area). So you can alternate between areas every week. For example, do your pits and face this Sunday, and legs next Sunday. But I see a lot of reviews saying they're using it a lot more frequently than that. And while I'm no scientist or body hair expert, I definitely will not be doing that and I wouldn't advise anyone to do that either. The entire point of the 2 weeks is because your body hair is constantly in different stages of growth. And the goal is to get every follicle of hair in all the different cycles. Doing it every single day, you're just zapping the exact same hair follicles. And when there's a limited number of zaps, you're just throwing money away. Follow the instructions, and use the provided schedule to keep track of when to zap which area and to keep a rough estimate of how many zaps you've gone through overall.

4-26-18: First treatment, complete. I've done my face and one armpit. I'm going to hold off on doing the other pit for the sake of seeing how well this actually works. I was very surprised to find that is actually didn't hurt at all. I did a couple zaps on the lower settings, but felt absolutely nothing, so I cranked it up to full blast and got what felt like a warm to hot static electricity zap. Every few zaps would be mildly uncomfortable, but no where near painful. It's easy to use and incredibly quick. I anticipate the legs to take a lot longer, but I don't expect it to be as tedious as epilating has been. The nicest thing about this is that the hair doesn't immediately fall out, so you can safely use this on the couch or in bed watching a movie or something. You don't need to pluck yourself down on a cold metal foldy chair over tiled floor for easy clean up, because there is NO clean up. I noticed while doing my face, the areas where I know I have denser hair growth were the more uncomfortable zaps. So I'm inclined to believe it's working, if I can actually feel it getting to the root of a cluster of hairs.

The real numbers. I have Poikiloderma which is treated with IPL. I bought this gizmo to avoid the cost of treatments at the dermatologists office. The Tria 4x model is the most powerful item on the market at the time of my research, 12/17. It can produce 20 joules per cm^2. The next closest was the Remington Ultra with 8 joules per cm ^2. The reason why the dermatologists equipment works better than the home equipment is because it puts out more energy and probably requires licensing and is not available to the public. That being said it takes a minimum of 8 joules per cm^2 to effectively heat up the hair follicle enough to cause it to fall out. The higher the joules, the more damage, the longer the hair takes to repair and regrow if ever. You have to use this thing on the highest setting (5) to get the 20 j/cm2 which does hurt. It really does feel like you have been snapped by a rubber band. Now imagine doing that 100 times to a sensitive area and you will get the point. I am going to look into some numbing cream to minimize the sensation. I gave this five stars because they are upfront about the discomfort and it is bearable. With some form of anesthetizing it would be no problem other than the time it takes to do the procedure. The machine heats up quickly and must be allowed to rest after every 20 zaps or so. The surface area is small, a diameter of about a cm. and it is circular so you have to do an overlapping pattern. Aside from that the construction seems solid, the life of the device seems to be good, 95,000 zaps. It is top heavy and I have read some other reviews on how it breaks very easily when people accidentally knock it over and are upset when they can't get a new one by complaining so be careful with your toys, especially the pricey ones. Hope this helps the people who were, like me, wondering what the physical difference was between units. I gave it five stars because the design flaws are easily minimized and it is the best device on the market for home use.

I bought the Tria Beauty Hair Removal Laser 4X 6 weeks ago. I was extremely hesitant to spend $450 on a device with such mixed reviews, but after struggling with embarrasing facial hair for over 15 years, I decided to take the risk.
I spent hours plucking everyday, only to have stuble in the morning, and at the end of the day. I would carry a razor with me to avoid embarrassment. I dreaded the feeling of the hair growing back. My chin was always red and scarred from the tweezer pinches. I was at my wits end. I couldn't afford professional treatments, and wanted to address my problem in the privacy of my own home.
The laser was packaged very nicely, and the product itself feels very sturdy. I followed the directions word for word, and charged the device completely before registering the laser. People have commented on having to register the device before using it. This took 3 minutes to do on my smart phone, and I have never received any unwanted emails or phone calls from the company as a result of having to give the information.
I have pale skin and thick dark hair on my upper lip, chin and sideburns. I had no trouble unlocking the device with the skin sensor on the bottom. The on/off button also controls the strength of the laser. It is very user friendly.
Wanting to get my facial hair problem under control ASAP I did a few test zaps, and worked my way up to level 5. The first couple sessions were very painful, and sometimes I would have to lower the level to 3 or 4, I did not use any numbing creams. I continued the treatments weekly, even though the instructions say every 2 weeks.
It only took 3 weeks and three treatments to start to see results. The hair on my lip, chin and sideburns started to come in much slower, and thinner. I continued to shave and pluck, and the hairs started to slide out of the dead follicals. Plucking that used to take hours only takes a few minutes. I am able to go almost a week without shaving. Per the instructions, I shave before each treatment. I have been able to reduce treatments to once every two weeks my hair growth has slowed so much. The pain comes from the laser penetrating the active follicles, each time I use it hurts less as more and more follicles are inactive.
Exfoliating has helped remove the hairs that have died, and helps prevent in grown hairs.
After just six weeks, for the first time in over a decade, I can say my skin feels SMOOTH more often than not. My anxiety about people discovering my facial hair has greatly reduced, and I don't touch my face all the time feeling for hairs. I now run my hand over my skin simply because I am AMAZED at my results.
The only regret I have is not purchasing this product sooner, as cliche as that is. It is worth every last penny. It has worked faster and better than I could have ever hoped. No more bleach, waxing, obsessive plucking, and daily shaving. I no longer recoil when someone touches my face.
If you are on the fence about this product, and have the correct skin and hair color, please try this product. It has truly changed my life.
To all the women out there who have struggled for years and years with this common problem, you are not alone! Thank you, Tria! Thank you so much!

UPDATE 3/9/18
While I am still getting great results, I have found that hair will grow back thinner if you do not use the laser every few weeks. I went maybe 3-4 months without using the laser, still doing some mild plucking and shaving and a significant number of hairs grew back. While most where thin, and spread out, some thick dark hairs did grow back. Once I started the treatments every couple of weeks again, the hair thinned and lightened again. Just have to keep up maintenance. And yes, it still hurts. But worth it.

Before I can talk about the Tria, I have to tell you my background. I have PCOS, polycystic ovarian syndrome. Excess facial & body hair has been a part of my life since I was 13 or 14. I've bleached, waxed, and eventually became a regular shaver, every morning. I didn't start getting treatment for my PCOS until I was 28. I started taking Metformin (to help with the insulin resistance) and hormonal birth control pills (helps with everything). What made a big difference was Spironolactone. After a couple years of taking this, the excess body hair I had virtually disappeared, It did not however do anything for my facial hair. My facial hair has been the bane of my existence. I felt freakish, unfeminine.. I had to shave every morning and worse, I could feel slight stubble later in the day. I had debated about salon laser hair removal or buying the Tria to use at home for years. What finally motivated me to purchase the Tria was noticing a slight 5 o'clock shadow in recent photos of me. I read every review I could find on the Tria and watched a ton of product reviews on YouTube. They are mixed. The thing is, there are so many variables to each person's success with this product. First, you must have the right skin tone and hair color. You have to be patient. You have to keep at it. If you have the unfortunate variable of PCOS, and something like 5-10% of women of childbearing age do (many don't even know), there is a whole other set of variables that come into play. Are you receiving any treatment for PCOS? If you aren't, then the Tria probably won't work for you. If the Tria is your only weapon in the battle against the hirsutism of PCOS, you will not win. If you've had some success with meds, I think there is a chance the Tria may help you. I bought mine in June of this year. I began a rather intense treatment schedule, more than is recommended and I used it (obviously) on my face and neck. I used it twice a week the first and second week, working up the power level a little bit each time. I think I was on level 5 by the third week. I have used the Tria almost weekly with a few exceptions when I just didn't have time. I noticed my facial hair growth had definitely slowed down and some improvement was evident by the third or fourth week. I still had to shave every morning, but I've been aware for several weeks now (it has been three months of treatment now) that I can feel a lot less self conscious in the morning around my husband and anyone who I might see before I get into the shower where I shave. The morning stubble just isn't what it was prior to using the Tria. There was even a Saturday when I could not shave until late afternoon and honestly, I didn't feel anything on my face that had me very worried about it - that was a HUGE change. I am also less afraid of anyone touching my face and feeling some incidental stubble. I really can't feel it. These improvements have made the Tria purchase worth it for me. I can't say everyone will have the same results though - the variables, you know. I don't know what will happen if I quit taking my medications or if I stopped using the Tria, would all my facial hair horror return. Perhaps I will update this review in a year. For now, I am going to continue using the Tria every week or two and continue shaving as long as there seems to be in a need each day. I am hoping I may get to the point of not needing to shave each morning. I think it may be possible. If you take the big leap of buying the Tria (and it is an expensive leap!), I hope it is worth it for you too. Photos show an example of the slight shadow of stubble I had in photos before Tria on the left and the improved state on the right.