Hi, love the site. I’m 18 and have thick, dark, manly hair that grows about three inches every minute. Shaving takes care of my legs all right–I’m not big on wearing shorts anyway–but my underarms are a major problem. I can shave with a fresh razorblade in the morning and by late afternoon I have to do it again. Which doesn’t really matter–the awful “shadow” that shaving leaves is just as bad. I am denied the pleasure of sleeveless shirts. I’ve tried various brands of hot and cold waxes–even Nads, for Pete’s sake!–but they either barely work or don’t work at all. I’m not even going to talk about Nair. I once took three or four hours to pluck my poor pits with a pair of tweezers and that seemed to work pretty good, though I’m not sure it was worth the time. I’m thinking of epilating now. Is this a good idea? Is there any other poor female out there with this same problem who found a reasonably cheap, effective solution? I hate to dole out the money unless I’m absolute certain. I’ve spent way too much already on stupid hair removal products that didn’t do a @&$!# thing. Help!
Hey fuzzhead!
If you could deal with plucking all your armpit hair, you’ll definitely like an epilator better. Spend the money and get a good one-- mine lasted for years. I recommend the Brauns, but there are other good ones, like the Panasonics and some of the Emjoi products.
It’ll set you back $75 bucks or so, but it will save you a LOT of time-- you can do armpits in under half an hour easily, probably in 10-15 minutes or less.
Just be sure to exfoliate and use an AHA or BHA to keep from getting ingrowns. Good luck!
I have the same problem as you. A rotary epilator is the only thing that works for me (I have an Emjoi Gently Gold Caress). It will hurt like #$@#! the first one or two times though! But the result is so worth it! Be sure to keep the skin tight so you don’t pinch yourself, and it’s best to epilate when the hairs are very short. I was able to epilate one day after shaving. The shorter the hair, the less it’ll hurt (it’ll still hurt though!) But after a while it won’t hurt at all. The only problem I have with rotary epilators is that I get a lot of ingrown hairs- hairs that lay flat just underneath the skin surface. I think regular exfoliating would help with that. The good thing is that, unlike waxing, you don’t have to wait for it to grow out- it will pick up very short hairs.
Hope this helps!
Thanks for the post, Sharifa! I love my epilator, too-- and I have the same problem with ingrowns. you should definitely check out Tend Skin or the Paula’s Choice equivalent. It helps my ingrowns a LOT!