Figured I’d post this here, hopefully give a bit back to the community rather than just lurking <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
First, a bit on me:
I’m male, mid-thirties and have been developing an increasing amount of hair over the entirety of my body. Light-skinned with dark hair. The hair on my arms was very long, fine and dense (it would overhang a dive watch when I would wear one). Went down across my hands, fingers, toes, feet, chest, stomach, back, etc. Not a good look (IMO).
My wife talked me into shaving my back and chest about a year ago. I loved the look, but hated having to “cut in” the legs and arms – deciding where to stop shaving and having the DMZ of hair at my hips and shoulders. So I ended up going full body (except for the head). Love it, have no desire to ever go back to the furry look.
I was spending about 30-40 minutes a day in the shower shaving (I had it down to a bit of a science and was able to cover full body in that time). Even with daily shaving, the stubble was not fun. No matter how close the shave, there would be stubble within an hour or two.
So I decided to try epilating.
The good: I love it! No hair, normal shower times, and my skin is smoother than it ever was before. I’m about a week and a half in now and have removed most of the hair over the entirety of my body (first-timers note: plan on every day or so doing “touch ups” for the first week or two). The hard part is done (or so I’m told)).
The bad: It hurts the first time. A LOT. The chest was, bar none, the worst. The back was not much better. Arms were tolerable, stomach and pubes hurt like crazy. Lower legs, not so bad, thighs not so great. Arm pits, suprisingly, easier than the stomach.
Immediately after epilating for the first time, my skin (which is always extremely sensitive) got very red and blotchy. Most of the redness went away by the next day, almost all of it within 48 hours.
Some pimples which I believe are a result of the epilating…but that’s largely due to my own lack of any skin-care prior to this.
Which brings me to the main bit of advice that I would give to anyone looking to epilate or wax: take care of your skin. I’m taking a quick shower in the morning and at night before bed, using a homemade Tend Skin after each, and epilating. My skin is not only clearing up, but is getting better than ever before (I’ve always been prone to acne and skin problems…very annoying).
After the first, very painful experience, the follow-up cleanings are almost pain-free…reasonably pleasant for those that like a nice, hard back-scratch.
I’ve been using a Braun Silk-Epil. While I’ve been very pleased with it (it picks up very short, very fine hairs), it does have problems getting at certain areas (arm pits are a bit difficult to work through) and has caught the skin once or twice when I haven’t been careful. I’ve got an Emjoi Optima on the way (should arrive in a couple of days), so we’ll see how well that does. My assumption is that each will have their advantages and disadvantages…which simply means that I’ll use both <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
More as I have it…