I had a bit of dilemma with this product. While being incredibly keen to try it, it also meant that I had to change my beauty routine. I've been a waxer all my life and so never learned to shave. To use the Tria the hair follicles have to be in place, rather than ripped out which happens during waxing. This meant that at the age of 33, I rather hilariously had to get a friend to teach me how to shave. I've decided that I hate shaving, however it was well worth the experience for the Tria.

The Tria works by using laser light to hone in on the hair follicle and zap it. After a few days the hair will fall out and hopefully not grow back. The light works best on skin which has a high contrast with the hair colour ie: light skin, dark hair. This is because the light focuses on the darkness of the hair rather than just randomly lasering the skin. If you have blonde hair, or dark skin with dark hair, I believe you can still get lasered however you will have to go to a clinic to get it done. Sorry.

When I first took the Tria out of the box it looked like a hairdryer except that when you press the buttons all you get are flashing lights. This is one gadget that I needed to read the instructions to use. You have to wade through loads of safety warnings on both the instruction manual and the website, but luckily when you finally find the instructions they are pretty clear. The Tria had to be left on charge for two hours and then I could let rip with it.

I lasered down the front of my leg first, and that was fine. Then the side of my leg, and that was also fine. I then moved the Tria around to the back of my leg. Ouch! At this point I realised I'd been using the Tria on its highest setting, which was too high for certain bits of my body. The Tria has 3 settings, low, medium and high. For me, high could be used anywhere fleshy, medium was best for bony areas and sensitive skin, and low was the only setting I could use on my bikini line. Aside from that initial surprise, I felt very safe with the Tria. Considering I was lasering some of the most sensitive and *precious* areas of my anatomy, that was a very good thing.

Apparently some people see results from the first session of using the Tria, but this didn't happen to me. I used it for several sessions and still wasn't sure if it was working. Finally after deciding I needed a bikini wax, I visited my beautician. She was fascinated by the Tria and after examining me, pointed out that the areas I'd been lasering actually had less hair growing than the non-treated areas. Hurrah! Success.

Would I recommend the Tria? Using this product will be an ongoing affair for a while. Only small areas can be lasered at a time and you'll still have to shave throughout (as having hair present on the skin can increase the pain factor). However with continual use it does work, and will eventually thin down or eradicate your body hair. Compared to the prospect of shaving your legs every day, or waxing every month for the rest of your life, the Tria clearly comes out tops. If you love gadgets, hate body hair and can think long-term this would be the ideal hair removal method for you.

RRP £695.00 - See www.tria.co.uk for further details