Making the first time easier

Hair Removal Methods Rotary epilators
#1

Amanda sent me this tip in April:

"I bought a Braun SilkEpil and have been very, very happy with it. My legs are GREAT!! My arms however, tend to break out quite a bit. For the most part, I’ve found it pain free. My legs are basically hair free weeks later (and I am VERY hairy) plus, my legs didn’t break out at all which they normally did when I shaved. Here is one pointer though: wax the area a few weeks before, as the hair will not be as numerous. I had waxed every thing but the upper leg and found the upper to be excruciating and slow because there was so much hair.

Thanks again for your site."

#2

i too have just bought a braun silk-epil. it is so much faster than tweezing. i have a very sparse beard but with dark hairs so even after shaving it was still dark, so instead of shaving, i would tweeze. it would take a long time though, so moving up to an automatic tweezer was the next logical step. the main benefit now is the speed, but it’s hard to get all the hairs so i still need the revlon tweezers. oh well. i’ve tried it on my chest and woke up with a bunch of little dots, but thankfully as i’ve noticed in the past, they should go away in 4 or 5 days. in ‘other’ areas, the braun pinched too much, so i’ll just have to continue shaving there. is there any concensus on who makes the best rotary epilator? i’m going to return this braun and try some others to see if any are better, but i started with the braun because it came highly recommended by a friend down in sydney.

[ May 14, 2002, 05:44 PM: Message edited by: johnny ]

#3

i was just wanting to know what people thought was the best epilator. if anyone has had good or bad results with one PLEASE post it because i am trying to decide which one to buy. regular tweezing is great but i need something to cover more area. thanks a lot.

#4

Have any of you heard of Emjoi? Here is their web page:
http://www.emjoi.com/productpages/hair/departmenthair.htm

They’ve recently unvieled a new double tweezing rotary tweezer that’s supposed to pull hairs as short as .5mm or approximately .020 inches. That’s pretty darn short. Some of the epilators I’ve read about need at least .0625 to .125 inches in length to be effective. This model cost about $100, though. They have some battery powered models for around $40. I’ve never owned one but these look very promising.

#5

Just wanting to show my awe at women in general for being able to put up with epilators.

I bought an epilady (I’m a guy) - tried to use it on my stomach/back/chest - lordy lordy…wayyyyyy too painful. I didn’t get anywhere with it. $40 down the drain.

#6

I’ve read comments from women that bought an Epilady. They used it once and that was enough. I think they must be not as elegant as the rotary tweezer style, but I don’t know.

#7

The original Epilady was a pretty nightmarish device with these awful twisting coils that weren’t very effective and quite a bit more painful than they claimed in their early ads.

They had a big marketing push right before Christmas, and a lot of wsomen were screaming in agony that day. Nothing kills a bad product faster than good advertising. they say! :wink: I’m surprised they didn’t even continue with the brand bame because there were so many bad consumer associations with the name. The newer models they sell are more in line with the improved models of their competitors.

Personally, I don’t think I’d use one on my face, but for women who spend a lot of time each day plucking, it might be a time-saving option.

#8

HA! Funny you should mention the Christmas story. The article I read told of the author’s teen years when her sister got a Epilady as a Christmas gift. They both rushed upstairs to try it out and … She said it quickly became a garage sale item. Andrea, you have a lot of experience with the rotary epilators. Pardon my persistence, but have you, or anyone you know tried any of the Emjoi products? Their latest invention is a double rotary model with gold plated tweezers and they “claim” that these will get the shortest and finest of hair. I can only surmise but it would seem to me that if a person kept their hair very short all of the time by using one of these devices, my guess is that the pain would be much less severe than tweezing a mature hair. Do you use your epilator exclusively for hair removal?

#9

I got a Braun Silk Epil Eversoft, I’m pretty sure it’s new, and it’s not like the Supersoft model. It came with an “Easy Start” head and the regular head, so that the first few times you can use the “Easy Start”, then switch over. The “Easy Start” only has half as many tweezers. It made the process totally bearable. I still got red dots, but they did not sting really bad like ones I’ve gotten from waxing. It was just so much easier than anything else I’ve tried, and I’m really glad this product came out.

#10

stubby, I am a big fan of the Braun epilators, too, thanks for sharing here and on the other forums! :relaxed:

#11

In response to LongPonyTail’s question- I’ve been using the Emjoi Gently Plus for a few years. I like it, it is kind of painful the first one or two times but after that it does not hurt. The only thing I don’t like is that I get a lot of ingrown hairs even when I exfoliate. Another thing is that it takes a long time, you have to pass it over many times to get all the hairs. I haven’t tried any others so I don’t know how it compares to others (Well, I tried an Epilady many years ago, OUCH!!!)

#12

This is a wacky but helpful tip here. This may help somebody somewhere, it sure helped me!

In trying to get my epilating times down, and be as efficient as possible, I tried using grids. That’s right, use of mapped out grids of the areas you want to epilate. Before, I found myself re-doing areas, wandering from my plan, and forgeting what areas I had already done, so I thought; why not use some sort of marker to follow on my legs so I don’t waste as much time being unorganized. So here’s what I did, got a easily washable pen, and basically put small dashes breaking the leg into vertical quadrants and horizontal spaces about four inches tall. Not big lines, just little marks to keep track. I then would do one grid completely before moving on to the next. It helped immensely!

My time went from about two hours to do what I usually do, to about 65 minutes, with a much more thourough job! Less wear on the epilator, and less irritation on the skin. It’s also a lot more mindless too so it just takes less effort in general. It’s just a form of discipline to allow you to accomplish the task with no time wasted.

Just a pointer that seems kind of far fetched, but may help some. …Just make sure to wash off the marks before you leave the house though, you don’t want people thinking you’re some life size sewed up puppet walking the streets!

Mantaray

#13

This is a wacky but helpful tip here. This may help somebody somewhere, it sure helped me!

In trying to get my epilating times down, and be as efficient as possible, I tried using grids. That’s right, use of mapped out grids of the areas you want to epilate. Before, I found myself re-doing areas, wandering from my plan, and forgeting what areas I had already done, so I thought; why not use some sort of marker to follow on my legs so I don’t waste as much time being unorganized. So here’s what I did, got a easily washable pen, and basically put small dashes breaking the leg into vertical quadrants and horizontal spaces about four inches tall. Not big lines, just little marks to keep track. I then would do one grid completely before moving on to the next. It helped immensely!

My time went from about two hours to do what I usually do, to about 65 minutes, with a much more thourough job! Less wear on the epilator, and less irritation on the skin. It’s also a lot more mindless too so it just takes less effort in general. It’s just a form of discipline to allow you to accomplish the task with no time wasted.

Just a pointer that seems kind of far fetched, but may help some. …Just make sure to wash off the marks before you leave the house though, you don’t want people thinking you’re some life size sewed up puppet walking the streets!

Mantaray

LIke anything a gud Epiator is critical and with experience you will be much quicker and will have a smoother body no matter what part you Epilate.
Granted areas like pubic needs to be done more freguently than say legs but just adjust schedule acordingly as needed.

#14

which braun eversoft are you using? the 2270 or the 2150?

#15

I tried the Braun in the past, and threw it in the trash. However, I really wanted a solution for my legs that lasted longer than shaving, and for my underarms, because the hairs grow at a slant, shaving always looks like there is a 5:00 shadow under my arms, so I wanted to remove their hairs altogether. I cannot afford laser at the moment, and think waxing is money down the drain.

Anyhow, the Emjoi Opti Max is a wonderful device. This is their newest one, and is a rechargeable version of their older machine with two rows of tweezers. The advantage of two rows is they rotate the opposite direction, and pull the skin tight between them, which makes it easier, and less painful, to epilate. Faster, too. I did my arm pits, and was amazed it was not so painful, and the results, after a week or so, are amazing, my pits truly look and feel smooth, not like a pit beard. My legs were a breeze, especailly the lower part. Some areas of the thigh are sensitive, especially the outer part (surprise, since the inner part is so sensual), and the hamstrings came out wonderfully, and they are almost impossible to shave due to the tendons. I did my arms as well, and have some bumps on my forearms, but they get that way from shaving, too. The only place I annot use the device is my chest and abs, WAY too painful. I just shave there, and will laser that area first, as with the Emjoi, I can keep the rest of my body nice and smooth. It gets easier and easier the longer you do it, I can tell that already. You just have to realize that epilators tend to miss hairs, so you have to go over and over, and two, hairs grow all the time, so after a week you will have new hairs to epilate. I would forget the idea it lasts 5 weeks, because all your hairs are on different growth cycles. But, they come in fine, since only the tips are at the surface, as opposed to the stubble from cutting the hair with a razor. Women have less leg hair, typically, so you might get to go longer than I do. After a few weeks, I’ve noticed my lower legs are staying nice and smooth for a while, and I do mean smooth, no stubble at all.

#16

I shaved my legs last night while in the shower. I really don’t like the fact that I have to shave almost everyday (but I just LOVE the smoothness). I’ve been thinking about using my mom’s epilator. How long does the hair have to be? I tried using it today, and it didn’t really work (I think the hairs were too short). Thanks in advance!

#17

Also, I tried using the epilator on my arm pits. I could NOT take the pain. It was way too painful. I think I’m going to wax (or use that sugaring method) them though.

#18

Boy, you people are wimps.

I’m a guy…very hairy Italian guy…full chest pelt if you know what I mean.

I started removing my full body hair in late 2004. Tried shaving the pubs back in the mid-'90s when I was in college, and found that the constant razor burn would lessen the smooth feeling.

Well anyway, back to 2004. Due to some skin issues (achne), I started to shave my body hair because it prooved to help the achne heal up. Well, shaving was a double-edged sword. Yeah, it got me smooth for a day, but then rough stubble would grow back within 12 hours…remember…Italian dude.

OK, so I figured I had to find something different. Did a little research and found that this new generation of rotary epilators would do the trick. And that’s after trying some of these new oscilating cutter block foiled razors. What a waste those were.

So what model of epilator did I buy? The Braun SilkEpil 5270.

Works great. Works on all hairs except the smallest of new grown stubble. Give those hairs another day and it’ll work.

Now, about the pain. But a disclaimor is in need here first. I’m a spinal chord injury patient, so my outer epidermis probably isn’t as sensitive to pain as it would be for a normal person, so take this for what it’s worth.

The pain factor depends on the number of hairs your epilating at any given time. The more hairs you’re yanking out at one time, the more pain. Makes sense, doesn’t it?

But there’s some good news in that point. Once you get rid of your initial “pelt”, the sparity in the hair regrowth cycle means that whenever you do get regrowth, it’ll be a sparce hair here or there. And pulling these hairs out via the epilator is practically painless.

So basically, it’s only the first time that you get that “unbearable” pain.

But back to the Braun 5270. It’s a great epilator, BUT you must handle with care. Drop the thing, barrel first into a hardened floor, such as wood or tile, and there’s a good chance that you’ll jar the tweezer drum out of allignment and it’ll stop working. Oh, it’ll still rotate and it’ll look like the tweezers are still pinching properly, but when you take it to hair…nothing happens.

I’ve gone through four of these things over the past 5 years. The first one I actually fried the inner motor of the hand-held devive with alcohol during a cleaning session. But the next three I ruined with drops on my hard tile floor. (Well, I still had the tweezer drum from the first one.)

So with my latest one, I have gotten into the habit of unpluging the thing after use. Because what was happening was that I was accidently catching the cord with whatever and it’d send the unit flying and crashing into the floor.

#19

Yes, I just purchased an Emjoi from amazon.com. I love it. I’ve been using it for a month and my hair is so fine and sparse now… It works! :slight_smile:

Here is the model I purchased:

Here is the review I wrote:

I had a lot of trials and errors with it, but I have learned to use it effectively now. The links in my signature are a result of this experimenting with this product.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask! :smiley:

#20

Wow!