Does At Home Hair Removal Laser Work?

Does A $200 Home Product Work Like A $15K Clinic Machine?

It isn’t difficult to search online and find many results for best at home hair removal laser and things of that nature. “Best” of course is a relative term…something could be the best but still not be very good.

Rather than listing a series of at home laser hair removal products that I’ve never used and telling you my favorites like others may do, let’s take one step back and ask how well these products work in general terms and the science behind them.

Can a $200-$400 at home hair removal machine be expected to perform as well as clinic-grade machines that retail for $15,000 and up?

Since both light-based (Intense Pulsed Light or IPL) and laser hair removal products are sold for home use, we’ll discuss both.

At Home Hair Removal IPL & Laser Products

IPL and laser both offer hair removal potential but use a different form of treatment and the process is slightly different too.

Before we look at at home IPL and laser hair removal products, it’s worth knowing about the commercial versions of each that are used in clinics because they came first and thus have a longer track record and frankly have better levels of success removing hair than at home self use products.

So we’ll distinguish between Professional IPL and Laser products found at a clinic or doctor’s office, and At Home products you use yourself.

NOTE: IPL products, whether at home or commercial, are not lasers.

Professional IPL Hair Removal

IPL uses a broad spectrum, unfocused light (not laser) as you see from the picture above on the left hand side. The light flash comes from a lamp that hits the hair and surrounding skin, penetrates the skin and attempts to target the hair follicle. The hair is heated to the point of being destroyed, with the ultimate goal of killing the hair follicle’s ability to regrow hair ever again.

One key difference between IPL and laser hair removal in general is the necessary use of a cooling gel for IPL treatment. The cooling gel is applied over the skin prior to treatment to protect from burns that would otherwise be caused by a commercial IPL machine.

Typically with commercial IPL hair removal offered by a professionally trained clinician at a doctor’s office, clinic or similar, permanent hair reduction may be achieved with repeated visits. Again, IPL is not a laser despite what you might have heard or read. It uses intense pulsed light.

Professional Laser Hair Removal

Laser hair removal utilizes a focused, single beam of light that targets the hair and penetrates the skin at varying depths depending on the type of laser used and the wavelength each provides. As you can see from the above photo on the right hand side, the laser flash is more focused on the individual hair(s) so while it may hit fewer hairs each flash cycle than IPL, it’s generally regarded that laser offers better long term results than IPL for hair removal.

As with IPL, multiple hair removal sessions can offer permanent hair removal over time when operated by a professionally trained laser clinician.

Check out my main laser hair removal page to learn more about Ruby, Diode, Alexandrite and Nd:YAG lasers to see what professional hair removal clinics use.

At Home IPL & Laser Hair Removal

Although IPL and laser are different products, they are often marketed and sold like they’re the same and to an extent, they are: They’re generally stripped down, weaker versions of commercial IPL and laser machines.

They also don’t have the personalized settings that clinic-grade hair removal machines have the a trained practitioner can adjust when needed.

Think about it: If IPL and laser machines in clinics require training (they do) and skill to operate (they definitely do), how could a regular untrained person be expected to operate a similar machine in their own home without hurting themselves?

They can’t.

So the at home hair removal machines are generally much less powerful and thus less effective for hair removal. Even if they do work, they’ll undoubtedly require more treatments to get the same results as a clinic’s machine which is more powerful.

There are other reasons why at home products may not work.

Why Don’t At Home Hair Removal Laser and IPL Machines Work?

If you’ve purchased an at home hair removal laser or light-based machine and aren’t seeing decent hair removal, what could be causing the lack of success?

Low-powered machines

As mentioned above the at home machines you buy online or in a store are much weaker than clinic grade lasers or IPL machines. How much weaker?

Clinical laser hair removal machines: Have a wavelength between 694 nm – 1064 nm (nanometers).

Clinical IPL hair removal machines: Typically offer a wavelength between 400 nm and 1200 nm.

Home hair removal machines: I found it very hard to find this information. Instead they focus on the total number of pulses the machine might offer during its lifetime (ie. 250,000 pulses) and its’ wattage (100-240 volts, adapter = 19.5 volts).

250,000 pulses sounds impressive but it’s kind of like a bed mattress with a 25 year warranty. Who keeps a bed mattress for 25 years?

Not surprisingly, it’s difficult to find the actual power output on many home machines even on the manufacturer’s own product website page. They steer away from discussing it.

And also interesting…when I Google “at home laser hair removal” the majority of responses are actually for IPL machines, not laser.

(As an aside, it’s the opposite of when I Google “IPL hair removal” and get mostly laser results, albeit at a clinic!)

And home IPL machines don’t appear to require the use of a cooling gel like the clinical, professional machines do.

Why not?

Home machines aren’t nearly as powerful and can’t hurt you the same way a clinical version can. Which also means it won’t likely offer you the same hair removal results due to the lower power.

Having said that, the first FDA-cleared at home laser hair removal product – the Tria Beauty Hair Removal Laser 4X – is rated at 810 nm which is certainly a comparable wavelength to some clinic-grade laser hair removal products, albeit without the many other features and benefits that larger much more expensive clinic products have. I had to go digging for this 810 nm figure and found it on another website so I’ll assume it’s accurate.

I mean, if a doctor could get the same hair removal benefits from a $450 at home machine, why would they drop $15K or more on a professional laser machine for their clinic?

You’re not a prime candidate to use it

The second reason you might not see great results from a home machine is that your skin tone and/or hair color isn’t suitable. IPL and laser hair removal machines used in clinics have traditionally only been able to help people with light skin and dark hair. Only recently have newer laser hair removal machines had the ability to work on darker skinned patients (Nd:YAG laser specifically).

And people with white, red, gray and blonde hair still don’t get good results with laser hair removal, even newer lasers.

The same goes for at home machines. The aforementioned Tria Beauty Hair Removal Laser 4X machine has a Can I Use This Product tool on their website where you select your hair color and skin color and it’ll tell you if the product is good for you.

Spoiler alert: If you have blonde, red, white, or gray hair, or medium or dark brown skin, you’re not a candidate.

Lack of skill

When you have to do the hair removal work yourself, you don’t (I’m guessing) have the same level of knowledge and skill that a trained professional has. Do you know how often to use the machine? Can you ensure that you don’t accidentally skip hair that is hard to reach?

Lack of hair growth cycle understanding

Hair growth works in a cycle comprised of four phases. Laser and IPL work on the anagen or growth phase only. So if you’re using the machine in the other three phases, it won’t work. Can you tell the difference between the hair phases?

If you use the home product and don’t see immediate results, you might give up, not knowing that you were using the machine during the wrong hair growth phase.

Unrealistic expectations

What are your expectations of the hair removal machine? If you expect permanent hair removal, you’ll be disappointed. If you expect hair removal results at the same level as you’d get from a $15K machine at a clinic that may cost you $2,000 for 6-8 treatments, you’ll be disappointed.

I’m constantly amazed by the claims I see online – even from medical professionals! – referring to the “IPL laser machine” (it’s Intense Pulsed Light, not Intense Pulsed Laser) and “permanent hair removal with laser!” (it can’t guarantee that) and things of that nature. If “professionals” get it wrong, can a layman who is picking up a laser machine for the first time do it better?

Human nature

I came across an interesting hair removal research report. The gist of the report: Using professional laser hair removal in conjunction with Lipoxôme to darken blonde hair to make it better able to absorb the laser light worked. They saw positive results when they combined Diode laser hair removal with this liposome spray used for several weeks, multiple times per day prior to treatment.

The problem?

The patients couldn’t be relied upon to properly and consistently apply the Lipoxôme themselves at home to make the treatment work. In other words, the patient’s own human nature would ultimately let them down.

Professional laser and IPL hair removal appointments are scheduled at a certain rate and frequency (they should be, anyways) and are performed by a trained professional for a reason. It works better that way.

Conclusion

• There’s a reason that professional laser and IPL machines cost $15,000 and more and home units cost $200 start with: Professional machines work better and are operated by trained pros.
• The first FDA-cleared at home laser hair removal laser is the Hair Removal 4X from Tria. Note: FDA cleared isn’t the same as FDA approved. Cleared generally means it offers equivalent benefits to another similar product that has already also been cleared.
• If you’d like to learn more about an FDA and Health Canada cleared home hair removal device for personal use, check this one out.