Epilator 2: revenge of the machines
Nov. 29th, 2006 04:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dennyIn my continued quest not to be hairy, I bought an epilator on Sunday. I'd previously discarded the idea of buying one, as several people had independently told me that they hurt to an incredible level, and I'm fully aware that I have an under-developed masochistic streak (and no interest in developing it further).
However, recently a few people who I know rather better have given me considerably different opinions, saying that it was a bit painful, but not terrible at all. Also, after my last waxing experience, I was left with a definite opinion that it would take some doing to be more painful than that. And at least an epilator would be free (after initial expenditure), rather than having to pay for my pain by the hour.
So, I bought one (a Philips ceramic something-or-other with coolpack feature blah blah), at Boots in Milton Keynes, where I was lurking for family reasons. Reduced from 50 quid to 33ish. I gave it a quick go when I got home on Sunday night (cleared a few stripes on one thigh) and it didn't seem anywhere near as painful as early reports had indicated, so I figured I'd do the rest of both legs the next day (it was quite late, the machine seems quite noisy, and my flat's walls are far from soundproof).
Speaking of the noise... the whole thing gives an impression of being a threshing machine with rubber blades. It gives me the fear just picking it up, let alone turning it on, hearing it roar into life, then applying it to the skin on my inner thigh :) In use, it reminds me irresistibly of the scene in Lawnmower Man where a lawnmower-bladed head is eating his frontal lobes (pic).
Anyway... Monday I stick the stereo on to cover the noise a bit, and apply the machine to the rest of my legs. It took about half an hour to do one leg, which I figured wasn't bad for a first run. I'm told it gets faster if you do it regularly, and I can certainly see it getting faster as you get less scared of the thing (which I'm assuming/hoping will happen). It's not badly painful - it feels very similar (unsurprisingly) to having your leg hair pulled - albeit having it pulled a LOT and quite fast. Still, anyone who's had a girlfriend with a malicious streak is probably familiar with the basic sensation :) (yes girls, you are neither unique nor funny when you pull your boyfriend's leg hair... sorry). By the way, it's basically intended for hair between 0.5mm and 5mm in length - anything beyond that and they say you should trim it first. Mine was still reasonably short from being waxed a while back, so I decided to just plough straight in.
The reason I only did one leg on Monday is that as I was getting to the end of doing so, the motor apparently burnt out and the thing ground to a halt (after a period of running at random but mostly non-usable speeds). Obviously I wasn't too impressed with this, having only used it for 20-odd minutes when it started getting flaky, so yesterday evening I took it back to the local Boots - who fortunately didn't try to make a big hassle of either the fact that it wasn't bought in that branch, or the fact that I bought it on special offer and they didn't have it on offer in that branch (so their till kept insisting I owed them 16 pounds and some pence). They kicked their tills into line and exchanged it for me anyway, so that was good.
I got the new one home and did the other leg, plus any relatively flat bits of skin in the bikini region*, and it still seems to be working fine, so I assume I just got a broken one first time round, rather than the whole range being crap. The bikini region stuff certainly hurt more than the legs, but it had regrown quite a lot since the last waxing, so I wasn't entirely surprised. And it still hurt less than the waxing did, and left the skin less traumatised afterwards.
On the whole, I'm definitely happy with it. I'll still need to figure out whether to go for waxing, plucking or creams to handle the areas of the male body which aren't suitable for epilating**, but this thing certainly seems to be the way forward for most of my defuzzing needs.
* is that still the polite term for depilating the genital region if you're talking about a bloke instead of a woman?
** crinkly testicle skin plus threshing machine blades (rubber or not) equals nothankyouverymuch. I imagine a girl with a reasonable pain threshold could defuzz pretty much everything with it though.
However, recently a few people who I know rather better have given me considerably different opinions, saying that it was a bit painful, but not terrible at all. Also, after my last waxing experience, I was left with a definite opinion that it would take some doing to be more painful than that. And at least an epilator would be free (after initial expenditure), rather than having to pay for my pain by the hour.
So, I bought one (a Philips ceramic something-or-other with coolpack feature blah blah), at Boots in Milton Keynes, where I was lurking for family reasons. Reduced from 50 quid to 33ish. I gave it a quick go when I got home on Sunday night (cleared a few stripes on one thigh) and it didn't seem anywhere near as painful as early reports had indicated, so I figured I'd do the rest of both legs the next day (it was quite late, the machine seems quite noisy, and my flat's walls are far from soundproof).
Speaking of the noise... the whole thing gives an impression of being a threshing machine with rubber blades. It gives me the fear just picking it up, let alone turning it on, hearing it roar into life, then applying it to the skin on my inner thigh :) In use, it reminds me irresistibly of the scene in Lawnmower Man where a lawnmower-bladed head is eating his frontal lobes (pic).
Anyway... Monday I stick the stereo on to cover the noise a bit, and apply the machine to the rest of my legs. It took about half an hour to do one leg, which I figured wasn't bad for a first run. I'm told it gets faster if you do it regularly, and I can certainly see it getting faster as you get less scared of the thing (which I'm assuming/hoping will happen). It's not badly painful - it feels very similar (unsurprisingly) to having your leg hair pulled - albeit having it pulled a LOT and quite fast. Still, anyone who's had a girlfriend with a malicious streak is probably familiar with the basic sensation :) (yes girls, you are neither unique nor funny when you pull your boyfriend's leg hair... sorry). By the way, it's basically intended for hair between 0.5mm and 5mm in length - anything beyond that and they say you should trim it first. Mine was still reasonably short from being waxed a while back, so I decided to just plough straight in.
The reason I only did one leg on Monday is that as I was getting to the end of doing so, the motor apparently burnt out and the thing ground to a halt (after a period of running at random but mostly non-usable speeds). Obviously I wasn't too impressed with this, having only used it for 20-odd minutes when it started getting flaky, so yesterday evening I took it back to the local Boots - who fortunately didn't try to make a big hassle of either the fact that it wasn't bought in that branch, or the fact that I bought it on special offer and they didn't have it on offer in that branch (so their till kept insisting I owed them 16 pounds and some pence). They kicked their tills into line and exchanged it for me anyway, so that was good.
I got the new one home and did the other leg, plus any relatively flat bits of skin in the bikini region*, and it still seems to be working fine, so I assume I just got a broken one first time round, rather than the whole range being crap. The bikini region stuff certainly hurt more than the legs, but it had regrown quite a lot since the last waxing, so I wasn't entirely surprised. And it still hurt less than the waxing did, and left the skin less traumatised afterwards.
On the whole, I'm definitely happy with it. I'll still need to figure out whether to go for waxing, plucking or creams to handle the areas of the male body which aren't suitable for epilating**, but this thing certainly seems to be the way forward for most of my defuzzing needs.
* is that still the polite term for depilating the genital region if you're talking about a bloke instead of a woman?
** crinkly testicle skin plus threshing machine blades (rubber or not) equals nothankyouverymuch. I imagine a girl with a reasonable pain threshold could defuzz pretty much everything with it though.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-29 04:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-29 05:05 pm (UTC)I'm assuming the regrowth time will be comparable to waxing or plucking (two or three weeks?), given that it's just a high-speed version of the latter. The good thing is that I can just keep doing it weekly, and it'll take care of any emerging hair as soon as it's long enough for the device to get a grip on. Given that hairs re-emerge at various speeds, hopefully this will mean that there's never very much noticeable hair around from now on. w00t.
Anyway, yes, I will post a follow-up report after I've been trying this for a while.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-29 05:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-29 05:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-29 05:14 pm (UTC)I am tempted :-D
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-29 08:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-30 09:37 am (UTC)I recommend Lush's "Buffy the Backside Slayer". Smells herbal but not girly, lasts for ages, and exfoliates and moisturises at the same time.
I don't find that epilating gives me as many problems with ingrown hairs as shaving does, mind. Possibly because it doesn't irritate the skin as much.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-29 10:38 pm (UTC)Though I have a feeling that it was less frequent when I first started using the little machine.
A liquid called TendSkin (essentially an aspirin & alcohol solution) is excellent for getting rid of, and preventing, ingrown hairs when mere exfoliating scrub isn't quite doing the trick. It's available from The Garden Pharmacy on Long Acre, and they also have a good online shop.
Signed,
an epilator user for seven years
(But I wouldn't let it anywhere apart from my legs.)