Epilator 2: revenge of the machines

[denny]

In 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.

Comments

[tephramancy.livejournal.com]

is that still the polite term for depilating the genital region if you're talking about a bloke instead of a woman?

I think it's more commonly known as "deforestation" ;)

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

I find that putting ibuprofen gel on the, erm, bikini area about half an hour beforehand makes it a lot less painful.

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Ooh, sneaky. Ta :)

[mr_magicfingers]

Interesting, might be worth looking into, and around the cost of a single waxing session.

Ponders.

[uberredfraggle.livejournal.com]

Yeah I was thinking 'speedo line' doens't sound right. :p

Oh btw I saw Beana recently and have contact details for her. I will find them and let you know.

[reddragdiva]

Let us know how long it takes to grow back. I shave my entire body, but ineptly cut half my flesh off every time.

[sepheri.livejournal.com]

yes girls, you are neither unique nor funny when you pull your boyfriend's leg hair...
You say that but it never seems to stop making me laugh ;)

Boots in fact have a company policy that the customer really is always right and will often give refunds on things even if you can't prove that you bought it in Boots at all. They once gave me 10 ponds worth of Advantage Points free because I misunderstood something, paid for my lunch for a week while at Uni.

And, no, I don't think you can call it a bikini area on a man. How about pubic area?

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

This is why I've never even tried shaving as a body-hair solution... I don't even shave my face using a blade, let alone anything trickier :)

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.

[reddragdiva]

I used to pluck my arms. Unfortunately, the hairs would grow back under the skin first ... leaving my arms and hands covered in dark grey itchy bumps. Ew. I wonder if this would do the same.

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

That's not terribly euphemistic :)

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Yes. Same as with waxing and plucking, you have to exfoliate a lot, and initially, put up with a lot of ingrowing hairs. However, your skin does adapt over time and they become a much less frequent occurrence... I've already noticed this from waxing.

[sepheri.livejournal.com]

Oh you wanted a euphemism!
How about 'tighty whitey line'? *ggl*

[reddragdiva]

Ahahaha!

I am tempted :-D

[bluecassandra.livejournal.com]

1)yes girls, you are neither unique nor funny when you pull your boyfriend's leg hair...
Never thought we were unique, and it IS funny; for us, anyway!

2)I imagine a girl with a reasonable pain threshold could defuzz pretty much everything with it though.

Only if you don't have body hair roughly similar to kevlar, plus also extra pain.

I'm going to go away and wince because of thinking about this now.

[adjectivegail]

During the 'adapting' period it can be useful to have a pair of tweezers, in case any of the ingrowns look like they're heading towards becoming infected...

[adjectivegail]

Only if you don't have body hair roughly similar to kevlar, plus also extra pain.
Yeah. I carefully tweezered a few short 'n' curlies a while back and carefully measured the roots. 5 or 6 mm deep is not my idea of pain-free!

[indusbitch.livejournal.com]

welcome to the world of epilation :)

And yes it's perfectly possibly for a girl to get every last hair with an epilator, though the first few times take a little gritting of teeth, but I know a guy who does the same so it's definately possible with persistance ;)

go on - you know you want to try ;)

[blanche-carte.livejournal.com]

Yep, once a week, sometimes more often, and not much to remove if you're epilating weekly.
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.)

[bluecassandra.livejournal.com]

Indeed; my partner suggested we send my body hair off for military research because I can get ingrown hairs about an inch long, the roots don't come out when I wax/epilate etc, and I can even manage to get chunks of hair root stuck under my skin. Nice. This has generally meant I've never been tempted even to trim. Happily I never had any desire to remove the whole lot anyway.

[adjectivegail]

Indeed. The one time I tried to use an epillator like dennyd's talking about, approx 4 weeks after I got my legs waxed, I started with my shins/calves and managed to draw blood from where the roots got ripped out.

Veet might smell, but it doesn't make me bleed!

[cryx]

Hmm... thanks for writing this up. I have become somewhat tempted by epilation, and this post may actually push me over into buying one....

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

*nods* Exfoliate and moisturise. Exfoliating takes off the top layer of skin to uncover any ingrowing hairs, and moisturising keeps the new skin soft and supple enough for the hairs to be able to push through.

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.

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

... "Better out than in"? ;)

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Knowing me, I'll probably persist in edging away at what's left until I do myself an injury :)

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Yay, share my pain ;)

This is why I've been writing up my various forays into hair-removal... it's a bit of a mission. Look out for the laser posts in a few years ;)

[indusbitch.livejournal.com]

yeah, that's the way I started doing everything, you'll learn the techniques to stop it biting you ;)

btw I recommend epilating once a week to keep yourself hair free rather than letting it grow back before doing it again.

[kynetik.livejournal.com]

I epilate. It hurts. You get over it though. And you achieve respect from all your girly friends who shave. :D