The right epilator for my needs

Hair Removal Methods Rotary epilators
#1

Hey, i’m a hairy guy for my age (19) and i get quite bothered about how i look because of it. I’d prefer to remove it permantly but i’m not willing to go to a salon so home kits are my best choice.

I’m not willing to shave because imo the stuble sort of feel defeats the purpose of doing it in the first place.

I’ve been reading up all around the forums here, and for me it’s come down to waxing or epilating, and i’ve decided epilating. Only i have no idea what kind of epilator to get.

Ok, so… my hair type is thick and dark. My thighs are just as hairy as my legs which REALLY bothers me (there’s rarely only 1 hair growing out of each follicle! it’s not uncommon to see 2 or 3 hairs growing out of the same follicle). I want to remove my leg hair, stomach hair, upper chest (not too fussed about chest hair, as it’s fairly normal anyway), and also the hair on my upper arms (who on earth gets hair there when they’re 19?? crazy) and also shoulders and back. The hair on my shoulders and back is thin and light but as i get older it’s turning darker, so it must go.

But yeh, all my hair is dark and thick.

Price is not an issue. It means enough to me to spend on.

And lastly, pain is not an issue if it means more effective. (though i’ve never experienced the removal of hair pain before. Is it THAT bad?)

ANY help is GREATLY GREATLY GREATLY GREATLY appricicated!

Nick.

p.s. i’m under the impression that once the hair is removed from the root (i.e. with waxing and epilating) it comes back lighter and thinner? is this true? if so i might be satisfied with only 1 or 2 removals, as i don’t mind too much being hairy, it’s just the extent of how hairy i am that bothers me. I’d be happy with a slight peach fuzz.

#2

Hi. I’m a 33 year old guy with about the same body hair type as you. I’ve always been hairy. I was an early bloomer when it came to body and facial hair. Got the first appearances of a mustache in Junior High at the age of 11 or 12, so I know how you feel.

Anyway, this was 20 years ago and body hair was “in” back then. So hair removal wasn’t even thought of.

Now it seems that a lot of men get rid of their body hair. In fact, it’s rare to see body hair on any guy that into body building of sorts. Athletes especially.

As far as your upper arm hair, yeah, me too on that. I also had a good pelt on my lower arms as well.

My chest and stomach…you could weave a nice fur jacket out of it if you wanted to. My legs were about as bad, but not as thick as my cousin for example. Fortunately, I don’t have a hair back. Just the little peach fuzz around the back of my shoulder blades.

Anyway, you’re asking what kind of epilator to buy?

Well, I did some extensive research before I bought mine and I eventually bought a Braun 5270 Silk-épil X’elle which is selling for just under $60 now. I think I paid about $70 a couple months ago.

It comes with a few attachments to ease new users into it, but once you get used to the “pain”, you’ll find you really don’t need the newbie heads. It also comes with an oscilating foil shave head to get the hairs that the epilator head can’t get. I find that hairs aorund the elbow are hard to get due the boneyness of that area I guess.

The epilator is also good for pubic hair too. Including the shaft and scrotum. But be careful…got to go slow in that area.

#3

great! thanks for the reply. (i’ve been checking this thread every day since i posted it, haha)

You sounds like a hairy mofo just like me, and after reading your various posts around this forum it looks like you’re having success, so a braun might be the way to go for me too. thumbs up thanks.

What about the age old question:

How does the hair look when it grows back in the long term?

I’m talking long term as in 3 or 4 months away. Would it be thinner or thicker than it once was. Or does it just go back to normal?

If it’s the same or thinner then i’ll go buy my epilator right now! If things get thicker and more coarse then epilator is not the answer for me. I don’t plan on epilating every months for the rest of my life. I just wanna pull out my hairs and start fresh!

Anyway, anybody who can answer the long term question will be hugely thanked!

#4

Well, to be honest, despite what some people may say, it appears that the regrowth does indeed to be thinner. Especially on the arms. The chest is something different, however. I’m not sure if it thicker or thinner, but due to the regrowth cycles, it seems like its coming in all the time (in different places of course).

On the legs, however, and epilator works really well. The hair is generally very long under the skin, so it stays away for a good couple weeks before any regrowth is seen. And when it does come back in, it’s hard to even see it. It takes the bright LED on the epilator to see some of it. Especially on the lower legs, around the shin especially. Same thing on the sides of the thighes. We’re talking the peach fuzz look. Top of the thighes a bit different. The hair there doesn’t seem to getting thinner there, but I couldn’t tell ya with any authority. I could be, but I just can’t tell.

Anyway, it’s still a good idea to do a regular body shave every so often to exfoliate the skin. It’ll help with ingrowns and gets rid of that layer of skin you’d shave off anyway to give you that nice smooth feel.

#5

Sweet!

Good timing with your post too, i am picking up an epilator later this afternoon.

One more question and then i’m done: There’s a lot of posts around here saying that you should exfoliate to prevent ingrowns etc. But i don’t know what exfoliating is. What do i do to exfoliate? Sounds like a good idea, if it prevents ingrowns.

#6

Exfoliating basically gets rid of dead skin. If your going to be using an epilator you should exfoliate , at least a few times a week so that you can get less ingrowns. You can use a loofah or body scrub to exfoliate which you can buy at any drugstore in the body wash aisle. Body scrubs have a grainy texture and you would rub into your skin and wash it off in the shower just like you would with body wash. Also before you epilate I would say you should probably trim your body hair a little to cut down on the pain factor. Good luck.

#7

YYYYYYYYYOUCH!

So i got my epilator, and epilated my upper arms. It feels like it’s ripping my skin apart a lot of the time. Ouchies. :frowning: It was reasonably thin hair too. Sort of like a peach fuzz except darkish. I can’t even begin to imagine what it will feel like on my upper legs, where there’s 3 hairs growing out of the same follicle. It’s going to kill me. Is there any way i can reduce the pain?? Apart from things like drinking wine or biting something haha.

By the way, i ended up going with the Braun silk-epil exelle like lincoln suggested. i think its model 5500 or something. (Came with a cooling glove actually :o it’s cool. literally)

Also, there’s heaps of red dots on my upper arms from where i epilated. i’m worried they wont dissapear. i epilated around 11pm on the thursday. it’s now saturday 4pm and they’re still there. should i be worried?

#8

Ok it is now Monday 2pm and the red dots are still there. i am worried…

#9

I have the same problem, Nick. Stopped waxing because of the red dots. I prefer my legs the way they are than looking like a duck ready to be cooked.

#10

These red dots…where exactly are they? Are they around your tendon on the outside of your armpit?

If so, then I made the mistake of trying to epilate that area once without watching what I was doing in the mirror. I came back with a bunch of red streaks where the epilator was digging into my arm there. It took about a week to heal up.

But if these bumps are just on the outside of your bicep or tricept, and they’re still there, then that is strange. Any skin irritation that epilation cause should go away within 24 hours.

#11

The red dots are on top of my shoulders and upper arm. Opposite side of the armpit

It’s currently Wednesday almost 3pm, almost a week since i epilated, and the dots are still visible. They have cleared up a LITTLE bit, but if i were to put it into perspective they only cleared up about 10-20%. There’s still some really big red dots, surrounded by a few little red dots. Some big dots even have a bit of puss in them i think.

It’s wierd because other areas i epilated such as my lower half of the upper arm (haha, the part above my elbow) had no reaction whatsoever, and looks fine.

Dissapointing :frowning: I even exfoliated and all that.

#12

The red dots are normal at upper arms and also tighs because they are more sensitive than other body parts.

Another factor that is important is that how much your upper arms and shoulders are tanned in sunlight. This is very important matter that I have realized in my shaving and waxing period. Don’t worry, the red bumps will disappear forever after one or two months epilating.

Good Luck

#13

My upper arms tan pretty easily. what does that mean?

Also, what observations have you made about your regrowth hairs on the upper arms (or anywhere else for that matter)? I can’t be sure but i think the hairs are a bit different. They grow outwards instead of flat now which is a bit interesting. (could be wrong) what happens with you guys? As many guys that can give their observations the better!

#14

Yeah, that’s pretty much the case with my upper arm hair on the outside of my tricep.

However, with some ironic bit of news, I think I ruined my epilator. I was cleaning it the other day with alcohol to remove the build-up of hair underneath the drum and got it all out in a kind of a thick matted together lump. I then doused the drum once more with some alcohol and turned it on and all of a sudden it lost power.

I soon realized that the power connection between the cord and the unit got screwed up. For a short time, I could still get the unit to work if I put pressure on the plug towards the front of the unit. But then shortly there-after it quit altogether.

I haven’t tried it in a couple days, so myabe it has dried out totally now, but I’m not holding out much hope. I think I ruined for good. Shame too, as I just got out the mess that was slowing the drum down. Pisses me off a bit.

#15

Well, shit.

I would never have bought the fucking thing in the first place had i know it’s going to screw the hair forever. This means i have to use it regularly for the rest of my life, unless i want wierd wirey hair on my arms.

I researched so much about it too! :’(

#16

Nick, don’t get discouraged. I use an epilator every week, and though I’m coming at it from a female perspective, it’s just a matter of degree. I’m not an expert like many here, so I defer to the wisdom of any professional, but I have been removing hair for most of my adult life.
Epilating is more painful at first, especially in areas where the skin is thin like underarm and private areas. You have to hold that skin taut by stretching it a little as you’re epilating. Over time, your tolerance builds.

The hairs probably seem to stick out because they are newer/shorter than the hairs that you had just left alone to grow to their full length previously. Once a hair has grown out to a certain length and gotten washed with soap/been around for awhile, it will lay down flat more easily than a brand new, shorter hair.

Yes, you will get those. I get them every single time, and if I don’t take care of them, sometimes some will get ingrown or infected a little. It’s a pain, but that’s just how my body is and that’s probably how yours is. What works for me: after epilating, I put on lotion and then if I’m rich that month, I apply Tendskin (Google it), which you can get at places like Sephora (they carry men’s cologne and stuff so don’t feel weird about going there even though they sell makeup, too). Tendskin is MAGIC. If I am broke that month, I get a bottle of pure alcohol from the drug store and douse my freshly epilated legs with it. It burns, sure, but I have a good pain tolerance so I just tough it out.
Performing this “disinfecting” step after epilation seems to cut WAY down on infection and ingrowns afterward.
The thing to remember is, there is no magic overall solution to hair that is quick, cheap and painless. The best we can do is use what methods we have on hand and be glad there’s anything we can do at all.
For long term, if I were you, I would look into getting some laser treatments (read this site’s laser forums). You can reduce the amount and texture of your hair to manageable levels, and many people experience permanent hair removal, though results vary.

#17

Also, a professional thermolysis (electrolyis)practitioner with decent speed can get you permanent results in 9-12 months. Electrolysis is a VERY GOOD solution to your upper arm hair and results will not vary if you get a good practitioner and you actually go in for treatments over the 9-12 month period.

Let’s not overlook an option that has proven results for over 130 years.

Dee

#18

I know, i know, guys. Don’t pull out the cliches :stuck_out_tongue: There’s a reason i chose epilation over laser and electrolysis, and it’s because i don’t have enough money, nor do i much fancy the idea of spending thousands on grooming.

Thanks for putting things into perspective, admin_asst. :slight_smile: Unfortunately for me i was under the impression it makes the hair thinner, so i was just going to epilate 1 maybe 2 or 3 times, just to get rid of the hair i’ve been growing for the last 19 years and start again, in the hope that hairs would be gone, and when they grow back again in a few weeks they’d just be peach fuzz. But apparently it’s not the case and if i don’t want to have wierd hairs everywhere i have to do it regularly now! Oh well. Spose it wont be THAT bad. I shave my face after all, and it’s nothing.

Pretty interesting that they had electricity 130 years ago.

#19

It would be great if there was an easy solution, but there isn’t. That’s why people pay the money they do for permanent removal. Because you get just that. If we could achieve a reduction that you’re hoping for with an epilator, we’d all be doing it. :slight_smile: Ripping hair out with the root either doesn’t change anything or can stimulate the blood flow to the follicles and actually make the hair thicker. For you, it will be hard to tell since you are 19 and will be developing a lot more hair for hte next 6-7 years at least. I found that waxing was the best temporary method for me when I used to only have money for that. Shaving is good too, but only on areas that don’t have coarse dense hair for me. Thankfully, I only have to shave my legs now (which I will get laser on at some point too) and am very happy with my permanent results. Good luck.

#20

Pretty interesting that they had electricity 130 years ago. [/quote]

The science of electricity didn’t start with Thomas Edison. The Greeks observed that rubbing a fur cloth with amber caused pieces of straw to be attracted to the fur (magnetism). Ben Franklin damn near electrocuted himself when he flew that kite with the iron key attached to the string during a thunderstorm. Then there were two Italian scientists, Galvani and Volta who made their own discoveries that was followed by an English scientist, Faraday, who made the first crude generator. Building upon previous discoveries, forty years later, Edison and his side kick made a practical DIRECT CURRENT generator to power electric lights in the late 1800’s. At the same time that Edison was alive, a St. Louis Missouri opthamologist, Dr. Charles Michel,the Founder of Electrolysis (yeah!), was also busy focusing on the use of electricity for treating his patients’ ingrown eyelashes. He used a BATTERY POWERED needle epilator to treat these weird eyelashes. His success was refered to as an electrified needle, however, in actuality, it was a direct current battery that caused a chemical reaction and destruction to occur. Sodium Hydroxide, which is lye, was created inside the hair follicle. It is the caustic lye that destroyed the growing hair follicle by a chemical reaction. It looks like this: 2H2O + 2NaCl > H2 + Cl2 + 2 NAOH. This is the deadly lye Dr. Michel created inside the eyelash follicle, 2 molecules of salt and 2 molecules of water. We don’t care about the hydrogen and chlorine gases in the formula. We call this Galvanic Electrolysis which is still used with success today, in 2007. So, year 2007 minus year 1875 equals 132 years of electrolysis! It worked then and it works today. Thank goodness our equipment is not as crude and slow as what was used in the 19th century.

Dee