Today's review is courtesy of City Boy Beauty, who valiantly volunteered to test out the E-One IPL machine.
It has long been recognised that light based hair removal techniques can provide highly successful permanent hair reduction. Until a few years ago, anyone wanting to reap the benefits of these high tech procedures would have to fork out hundreds of pounds for a handful of trips to the salon. However, since the first introduction to the UK of home laser hair removal in the form of the TRIA, home laser hair removal has become a viable and safe option for staying smooth. One of the most recent additions to the UK market is the E-One hair removal device and is the first device intended for home use which uses Intense Pulse Light (IPL) technology. I've spent the last few months seeing how it compares to its salon based origins.
For those of you who don't know or are not in the mood to read the 380,000 Google results, IPL differs from laser hair removal in the way in which the light energy is produced. Whilst the laser emits a particular wavelength of light causing the heating of the follicle, IPL uses a flash lamp to produce light which is then filtered to create the same effect. The key benefit to this IPL being a much larger area can be covered by each pulse.
Having had limited success with the TRIA, most notably due to the time it took to do just a small patch and inevitably missing areas, I was keen to see what results I could get form the E-One. It claims to be 100% safe, 100% irritation free and provide professional results, so expectations were high. After reading the comprehensive manual and striking a few poses wearing the highly stylish protective glasses I began navigating through the many combinations of settings.
With safety being of significant importance when using high intensity light sources on the skin, the E-One cleverly tailors the pulse emitted based on various factors such as gender, skin tone, hair type and then lets you chose the intensity based on experience and sensitivity. It does take a bit of time at first going through all the settings but I was soon used to speeding through all the menus for the setting I required. An interesting feature the E-One has is that before it will become primed, it makes you go through all the safety checks before starting just in case you haven't fully read the manual. It reassuring to see that safety is high on the manufacturers list of priority and also suggests the unit is rivalling professional salon equipment in terms of power.
As you may expect, one you have gone through the in depth preparation, the process of hair removal itself is rather simple. After shaving and applying the gel based conductor it's simply a case of pressing the lens of the hand held unit against the desired area and pressing the button which fires off a pulse of light. Provided I was using the appropriate settings, only a mild heating sensation could be felt with each pulse and no long term side effects were noticeable. In some instances where I had the settings too high it was merely a case of pausing the machine and lowering the intensity slightly. Doing a small area on my chest approximately the size of a post card took around 5-8 minutes for each application. For both underarms I would estimate about the same time and for a woman doing both her legs, I would estimate. 25-30 mins. As light base hair removal systems go, IPL is definitely the quickest option.
Having just treated the area for the third time, the results are already very encouraging. The hair is definitely growing back thinner and could be pulled out gently using only my fingers. As with salon based IPL one application every two months is all that is needed at first, eventually relaxing to once or twice per year to maintain the results.
Given a few more sessions with the E-One I am confident I will be seeing results very comparable to that which would be achieved professionally. Although the initial cost for the E-one does seem high, in the long term it is the most cost effective solution available for having IPL treatment. Its also worth mentioning the E-One can be used on all areas of the body, so there really is no need for those semi embarrassing trips to the salon again.
If you're looking to try before you buy you can now test the E-One machine at the newly opened London showroom. Click here to make an appointment or call 0203 036 0800. The address is Sutherland House, 3 Lloyd's Avenue, London EC3N 3DS.