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Is This Laser Razor Kickstarter Real? A Vaguely Scientific Investigation

The creators of a $4 million Kickstarter campaign just uploaded a very sad YouTube video that purports to validate their technology.
Image: Skarp

No one really likes shaving, which is why it wasn't really surprising that a Kickstarter that promised to sever the hair from your body using a laser beam quickly went viral, picking up a quick $4 million in funding.

Thing is, like lots of new gadget Kickstarters, there's little evidence that the Skarp laser razor is actually going to work or even get made. In fact, Kickstarter was so skeptical that the laser razor is a real thing that it removed the campaign from its website, a rare move reserved only for the most improbable of products. Kickstarter said it removed Skarp because the company didn't have a working prototype, which is part of Kickstarter's guidelines.

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And so the folks behind the laser razor just uploaded this video showing its prototype, and relaunched the crowdfunding campaign on IndieGoGo. It already has raised more than $107,000 and is well on its way to being funded. To be clear, this is a new video that wasn't included on the Kickstarter campaign.

This video, embedded below, does not exactly inspire confidence that cosmetic laser veteran Morgan Gustavsson has in fact "discovered a wavelength of light" capable of cutting all hair colors.

This video is literally an advertisement for the Skarp, which is remarkable, because it does little to inspire confidence in the technology. The man runs the laser over his hairy hand approximately eight times while managing to cut exactly one strand of hair that is sticking straight up. These are not normal shaving conditions, and this does not exactly seem like the future.

Here's a sampling of the YouTube comments. They are not favorable.

Notably, a search of medical and technological literature for "laser razor" turned up no scientific papers on the subject of laser razoring. A scientific study testing the efficacy of a "hot-wire" hair removal device (sold as no!no! Hair Removal System on television infomercials) was the closest thing I could find. If you're wondering, the no!no! is a ripoff: It's no better than a normal razor at removing hair and delaying regrowth.

Despite the lack of scientific evidence supporting Skarp's plan, it is indeed possible to destroy hair with a laser. This YouTube video, for instance, shows someone burning their brother's hair off with a laser pointer. It does not seem overly safe.

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One last point on the science: It's true that lasers are used for long-term hair removal. Laser hair removal, however, doesn't actually cut a person's hair. Instead, the lasers are used to damage the hair follicles so that they never grow back.

In recent years, it's become possible to buy a laser hair removal system at your local pharmacy. These products also don't seem to work. From a Swansea Metropolitan University study of their efficacy: "It is clear the design of some of the devices measured for this study have had to compromise product performance with reducing manufacturing costs. Inefficiency of a home-use device may well cause frustration and dissatisfaction to the user."

This is all to say that there's little evidence the Skarp is a real product. The evidence we do have suggests that it doesn't work very well. And yet, people are still pledging hundreds of dollars to be first in line to get one of these things.

It's entirely possible that Gustavsson and his team manages to figure out how to cut hair with lasers, secure a manufacturer, deliver his product by March, and revolutionize the hair removal game, as he says he will. I wouldn't make that bet. Kickstarter didn't make that bet, either—and Kickstarter lets hundreds of ridiculously unlikely products get funded.

I'm not saying you shouldn't buy a Skarp. I'm just saying maybe you should wait until it's in a store before you throw your money at this thing.