No Pain, No Gain

A few years ago, after hearing that I shave my legs every day, my mother-in-law recommended that I get an epilator. In the 80s I tried my mom’s epilady for about one second and swore off them forever. My MIL assured me there were new innovations and they were much better. Plus, she said it makes your hair grow back finer. Since my skin is very light and my hair is very dark, in certain areas you can still see the hair under the skin even when the surface is completely smooth. I thought an epilator might be a good way to get rid of the “black dots.”

So I got one. It had a cylindrical head that had to be held at a specific angle as you moved it along your skin, and every once in awhile it would yank out a hair or two. It took forever, and it hurt. But mostly I was annoyed that it was so inefficient. I hated it. I decided I would rather just wax my legs and get it over with all at once. Except I never ended up actually waxing my legs because I can’t stand letting my leg hair grow out.

Recently, I heard of a new kind of epilator from Braun and decided to try it out. The cylinder now has a plastic head built around it, which keeps it at the proper angle for plucking and easily adapts to body contours. It has tiny nubby “massagers” in front of and behind the cylinder, to dull the pain… a little. (If at all.) It has a light, so you can see what you’re doing. It has two speeds, and the fast one is FAST! You can epilate like the wind!

The one I got, Braun SE7781 Silk-Epil Xpressive Epilator Body System, came with different heads: an epilator, a shaver, a trimmer, an underarm cap and a “beginner” cap.” It also came with some Olay wipes that are supposed to make the process easier, but I tried it both ways and didn’t notice a difference. (I wish they were numbing wipes. THAT would have been useful.) There is a similar model that is Wet/Dry, if you want to epilate in the bathtub.

The Xpressive works a lot better than the epilators I’ve tried in the past. It grabs a lot more hairs, and it does it quickly. It’s very efficient. It definitely reduced the black dots, though they are sometimes replaced with pink dots. But let’s get one thing straight: It still hurts. It hurts like you wouldn’t believe. (And I used to get Brazilian bikini waxes before I got lasered, so I’m no sissy.) I would say it feels EXACTLY like you are getting your leg hairs pulled out. If I hadn’t been so dedicated to trying this out fully, I probably would have gone and gotten a half-leg wax first, and then used the epilator to maintain it. In fact, after I did one leg, I considered just going to get the other leg waxed so I wouldn’t have to epilate it. But I took a deep breath and powered through. I should note that the hair on my lower legs is “strong” so if you might have an easier time if you’re not Italian. The hair on my upper legs is lighter and grows slower, but I couldn’t stand the time it was taking to grow it out, so that’s just not getting epilated. If you think you want to start using an epilator, I would seriously recommend getting a leg wax to give you a head start, then use the epilator once the hairs start to randomly grow back.

The other thing is, you might not get all the hairs on your first shot. I only let my hair grow out for a couple of days, so there were still some that were too short to catch. A few days later, I did it again which got me relatively hair free, but not “smooth” like shaving. Fine for normal day, but not for date night.

I used the epilator on my arms as well, and it really didn’t hurt that much. I think it was partially due to the fact that the hair is finer, and some of the hairs were broken off instead of being pulled out by the root. Still, it’s cheaper than waxing, plus you can maintain it easily. My experience with having my arms waxed (or even doing it myself) is that a lot of the hair gets broken off instead of getting pulled out. This results in having a little bit of arm stubble a week later, which is NOT OKAY. I was hoping that the epilator would solve that problem by being more targeted. It really is a lot better than waxing, but not perfect. The great thing is, if you start to get some hairs growing back, you can just epilate them really quick at home with no mess.

The model I bought comes with an underarm head, which I tried, but NO. NONONONONO. That is definitely NOT happening. Again, maybe if you got a wax first, you could use the epilator to maintain. But otherwise, no. Not for me.

Something to remember is that with epilation you’re not getting the exfoliation you would be getting with a shave. When you shave, you scrape off a little bit of skin, when you epilate you do not. To prevent ingrowns you might want to switch to an exfoliating body wash and a loofah or scrubby pouf. Also, remember to shower and exfoliate really well before epilating to make sure all the hairs are as accessible as possible.

This isn’t a perfect solution, but I think it’s definitely worth the effort, and even the pain. They say it hurts less the more you do it. The maintenance is really no big deal, it’s the first run that is somewhat… excruciating. This epilator is not magical, but it’s another good tool for your hair removal arsenal. One you could probably actually use as a weapon.