Aesthetic medicine, watch out for hyped news

The market for permanent hair removal is hot, so it’s not surprising to see a continuous flow of news on the Web. The last wave concerns the new hair remover from Philips, the Lumea. According to the Daily Telegraph, it’s even ” sacred Graal of hair removal”. No kidding. I just want their and why some newspapers are so willing to praise certain products…

Thus let’s compare this new technological marvel with hair removal with pulsed light realized by a specialized center of aesthetic medicine. As a source, we shall use the Web site of Philips, to avoid any suspicion of being too critical.

Notwithstanding certain press articles, Lumea does not belong to the domain of definitive have removal. In fact, Philips says “use Lumea every other week on armpits and shirt, and every four weeks on legs … ” As for the safety of its use and the dangers of side effects of the removal of hair : “If the hair remover Philips Lumea is correctly used, the removal of hair is quite gentle and safe, even on skin and sensitive zones. ” If ?! … And if not? As for the applicability to the various types of skin: ” not adapted to the red, light-blond, grey hairs, and onblack skins. Philips Lumea is effective on naturally dark and brown hairs. Philips Lumea IS NOT suitable for persons whose hairs are naturally red, grey or light-blond. Philips Lumea IS NOT suitable for very dark skins (type VI).”

Once more, the user is entrusted with the safeguard on his own skin. Even the duration of the arouses some doubts : “Philips Lumea is a gift with a lamp which lasts 40,000 flashes”. If we are to take into account the number of flashes per minute, this doesn’t seem a whole lot.

Finally, the 499-Euro pricing: you can see why it’s tenfolds cheaper than a professional hair remover, can’t you?