I have been using an epilator for about 3 years now, but the hairs sitll grow back every few days so i have to epilate twice a week. Although the results are loads better than when i was shaving (i used to get horrible stubbly black dots all the time, and my legs at least look more hair free with the epilator) I wish there was some way/model of epilator that would mean that my legs could feel shaver smooth for at least a week or two?? Im so sick of spending 2 hours every 3 days doing my legs, and still having them always feel a bit hairy with little dots. PLus its costing me a fortune in tend skin doing all this epilating!
I used an epilator for ages as well. Back then I felt the result were better than shaving, legs feel more free of any hair. But yes, the time and patience of doing it all the time was a drawback. Plus when you’re at the end of one hair free run, the creeping regrowth drives you nuts. It becomes a full time obsession, at least it did for me. I just up and up started setting aside part of my paycheck for regular laser visits of which I start in five days. Thank god. It’s really worth the money considering it’s gone forever, and think of the carefree time you save. What I realized is that once well into epilating, it’s very similar to shaving in that the four week old plucks are getting ready to surface anyway. At least with shaving you get smoothness from exfoliating. But the big things I didn’t like about epilating that I began to see happening is:
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The ingrowns. Because the follical gets yanked on alot, it starts to disrupt the orientation angle so that follical will always be more susceptable to ingrowing again. Hence, a long term darkish bump. Some I still have from ingrowns months ago.
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Follical splitting. After the follical gets abused over and over, I think they can split apart sometimes, or get damaged to the point of one follical sprouting two hair shafts, and even sometimes three hair shafts. When I had to start growing out my hair for laser, I was amazed when I looked closely at all the “double shaft” follicals I now had. After I saw that I was pretty convinced to only stick with permanent, productive sensible solutions.
And, 3) Matted hair effect. I noticed that, prior to epilating, my leg hair had more curl and wave to it that made it look a lot more aesthetic (I’m a guy I should add) and normal. After the epilating, I noticed very different regrowth. The hair was more straighter and matted. Like a saskwatch or wookie. Then I really was thinking, even if I wanted to grow hair back, it would look alot worse than before. These are just things that happened to me. I’m sure there are people out there that swear by epilators, but with me, it was great for a year or so, then ingrowns got more prevelant and my plucking obsession kicked in as I would spend way too much time a day after sessions looking for missed hairs to pluck.
I think my veiw on epilators now is that; if you have fairer hair that doesn’t really show when a few little hairs start to grow, they are great. But if you have pale skin with dark hair, you’re going to epilate more frequently, and it’s going to mean more redness, more pluck bumps, and your ingrowns will be more apparent.
The bad thing about laser is that I can pretty much say goodbye to any playing out in the sun for the next year or so. And here in San Diego that’s not easy. Tanning disrupts it’s effectiveness, so to get 5 ongoing treatments six weeks apart, and then switching to other areas, I guess it means this will be an “indoors summer”, or more like, an “indoor year” you know? Not such a bad thing though.
Mantaray
hmm, thanks loads for your help! Dont think I’ll be able to afford to do that for a while, but if i were to give up 5 sets of six weeks to it, would i never ever have hairs on my legs again?? I always think this sounds to good to be true… haha. I live in England so the sun isnt a problem at all. Could you do two whole legs in 30 weeks you think? I agree it would be worth the saved time if it really was going to last forever. Are there any health risks, other than temporary sun sensitivity?
Thanks again!
Hi Emilyjane,
Well see, they do both whole legs at once. It only takes about an hour. I’m getting both entire legs and feet done. So they zap all hairs that are in the growth phase. Hairs that are dormant, it somehow doesn’t effect as much. So, they wait six weeks, then those hairs are in a growth phase and they zap those, then another six weeks, different hairs are coming into their growth phase, and so on. So after the first two sessions, there’s supposed to be a marked reduction in hair. Then, after that it’s like a cleanup to get missed hairs. Some people switch to electrolysis after three laser sessions because, although it’s slower, it’s a more surefire way to rid yourself of a few stray hairs instead of paying for two or three more laser sessions.
As for health risks, I personally can’t speak for everyone. I know it seems somewhat concensus that laser isn’t a good idea on the face. Some people have reported burning. And that one lady talks about a type of “sunburn” damage. But, other than that. The people I’ve met, my coworkers, and people here that’ve had it done seem to all be all for it. They recommend it. I think if you look around for a good, solid, experienced Laser Aesthetician, that goes a long way in insuring your safety.
Like you, I stuck with the epilator because the permanent options seemed so much more expensive. But I just looked at the situation, how much time I was putting in, and preoccupied with dealing with hair removal, and I just said to myself there’s got to be a better way. I just, I’m going to eat less fancy food, rent more DVD’s, don’t buy anymore CD’s, no more pizza, stay with the clothes I have now, no more shoes, and viola, the budgeting was done. It’s amazing how much you can save and how much weight you can lose by not buying junk!
Mantaray
OK, I’m a guy, and can epilate my entire leg in about 15 minutes, so 1/2 hour for both of them, on a maintenance basis, the first time took longer. How do you, as a woman, spend 2 hours on them? I have to do the bottom, and the top, front and back. My lower legs have little hair, but the upper ones have a good bit. Now that I’ve caught most of the growth cycles once, I can do this only once a week, and stay very smooth. My lower leg feels just like a close shave. In the beginnng, I had to do it more often, as all the hairs had their own growth cycle, but over time, you catch them all, and then it takes less time. I also do my pits, and that goes quite quickly as well, of course it is a small area, but lots of hair. I will say the pits need to be done more often, though I hope over time that evens out to once a week as well. The result on my pits is fantastic, I’m very pleased. You do miss some, so I just use tweezers and pull the skipped ones, rather than fooling with the epilator, it is qicker if only a few are missed. I use the Emjoi Opti Max, with two roller tweezer heads, and it is a terrific design.