I’m considering an epilator for “delicate areas”.
Does anyone have any specific “do buy” or “don’t buy” recommendations?
I’m considering the Oris Bikini Epilator (available form argos.co.uk)
Hi, I would recommend a Braun 3370 (or 2170), or an Emjoi Optima. Those are the two top of the line choices. Also, I would familiarize myself with all that’s to be expected when you go the epilating route. The pain, the bumps, the way bumps will soon go away, the way the pain diminishes after you use it a few times, the intervals, the time it takes. To me, considering the money I was spending on waxing, the nubs on the back of my upper thighs that were driving me batty everyday from regular shaving, the horrid smell of Nair, the cost and time of laser or electrolysis, and the convenience of being able to do it whenever you want in your own home, rotory epilators are very much the sensible way to go. I can’t imagine not using one. Consider this:
The Braun 3370, which I have, can get very, very fine hairs out, is more precise in directing, and has a smaller (single) head for curves and corners, but has no safety mechanism and can cause some serious pain if it gets caught up on skin. It’s a noisier unit because it works on the basis of little individual tweezer units opening and closing rapidly. It is a great unit, as Braun is a quality company, but will cover large expanses like the thighs a lot less quickly than the Optima. Also you’ll have to go over the areas more times to pick up all the hairs, as it doesn’t have that bi-directional ability the Optima has. But the hairs it’ll pick up will be a lot smaller and finer. The Braun 3370 comes with a bunch of extras of which I use none, except the cleaning brush and case.
The Optima has a bulkier head that’ll require more gymnastics, but has a more powerful motor with a safety mechanism. The Optima is quiter and faster, which is why I’m looking into getting one, and uses a rotating disc technology which I think kind of “herds in” the hairs upon the first sweep, so repeated sweeps aren’t as necessary. Plus you have the trailing rotor that’s going to pick up some too. I’m currently taking anywhere from 1.5 to 2.0 hours to do most of the body and want to cut that time way down by purchasing an Optima, but know that I’ll have to tolerate the fine hairs the Optima will leave behind as opposed to the Braun that gets everything.
Whichever one you chose, don’t expect to conquer Rome in a day. Take your time and be really careful.
Since this thread already has some odd 73 views, I guess I should also add more details if some visiting are interested.
Using the Braun will take longer, but then again some women or men may not want to do as much as I am. Some women may only want to do legs once a week or every two weeks, so getting a closer level tweeze at the expense of taking a bit longer may be worth it. Also, as hair patterns and techique are learned and improved, and the number of hairs popping up greatly gets reduced after a month or two, the process will speed up anyway.
For the $70 bucks I paid, I think the Braun is a unit I’ll always keep handy even if the Emjoi Optima does prove to be quicker. What I think is the Braun weakness is that it uses lots of little quarter inch tweezing mechanisms mounted on the rotating barrel. This allows for finer hair extracting, but you have to move the unit slower over the skin to take advantage of the setup. It relies on the hair and tweezer to be in the right place at the right time while it’s closing to grasp. If you move it too quick past the hair, it skips over the hair all together. But, if down the road, after you get past the dreaded first month, you want more of a shaved smooth feel, then the Braun will give you that with enough learned technique.
Right now, two months into using the Braun, by once a week epilating, my legs are very close to a shaved feel. Tweezing bumps go away overnight, a cool shower helps, there’s absolutely no pain, incoming hairs are very fine and are plucked with ease, ingrowns are minimized, and the funny/weird feeling you get when you get goosebumps is now greatly reduced and can hardly be noticed.
No matter which epilator you choose, the main hurdle is getting past the first month or so. That’s when you’re getting past all the hair cycles, the next day “new hairs” that unexpectantly pop up that make you think the machine’s not working right, the coarse hairs that broke the first few times and became ingrown, the old, long time follicals giving you the weird feeling when goosebumps happen, and you yourself learning you to optimize the situation. I used to have a couple glasses of wine prior to ease the sensation, but now I know that increases your skins circulation and causes sweating, preventing the unit from gliding across the skin. Now, I’ll do it first thing in the morning with a fan pointed at me to cool off, I’ve found that works best. Usually, I’ll have a primary epilating day, like Thursday, then a clean-up missed hairs day on the following Saturday, then I’m good for awhile.
I hope all this helped to those thinking of going this route. I think once you do, you’ll see that these companies only supply the machines, whichever you choose, but there’s still a bit of knowledge that should be learned to get past the difficult stages which this website is a goldmine for.
Mantaray
…Currently, I’m still using the Braun 3370, and was just a day away from getting online and ordering an Emjoi Optima. But today fro some reason saw an Emjoi Gently Gold Caress at the store and bought it (it has one rotor w/36 gold tweezers, can be used as rechargeable or with the AC adapter, with the vibrating heads). This was my second choice to the Optima but now it has me thinking about what’s better one rotor with 36 tweezers, or two rotors with 18 each. I’ve used it only once for 10 or so minutes, but being able to compare it directly to the Braun has changed my thinking somewhat. It’s a really great unit. In a few days I’m going to post what I think of the two epilators. It definitely has its pros, but also has it’s cons, of which some would also apply to the Optima series as well.
Mantaray
Okay… I’ve used the Emjoi Gently Gold Caress, which I felt was a solid, no frills epilator from Emjoi, and have compared it to my Braun 3370, which I felt was the most solid, current design epilator that Braun offered. And this is just my two penny opinion, which is just mine, not solicited from any third party, and may respectfully differ from others as others may use these devices in a different manner than I do. I’m a guy who’s pretty much normal in terms of body hair amount. Have it on my chest, back, arms legs, have to shave once a day, and I want to keep most everything smooth from the neck down, except for underarms and arms. For thorough, reliable, easy epilation the Braun 3370 is the hands down winner. In terms of noise, they are about the same. And in terms of speed, for anything other than lower legs and arms (the emjoi’s stronghold), the Braun requires much less fuss to get all the body parts to the point where you’re saving about an extra 45 minutes. In terms of comfort, the Emjoi is better. The Braun is just plainly more an “aggressive epilator” and would probably hurt more to the first time epilating person. In terms of motor strength, I don’t know everyone was talking about, the Braun motor is more powerful 12volt versus 3.7volt, and it shows.
In comparing these two, the biggest factor is the shape of the head that makes contact with the skin. The Braun is flat, straight edge, and the Emjoi is curved, with the vibrating pads on each end projecting even further than the rotor. The straight edge just plain out allows less effort to epilate all areas, it’s just more familiar and easy to get over lumps, corners, and small flat surfaces. The Emjoi’s curved contact surface works great on arms and lower legs, is much more work to use on the other, bigger, less curved areas. In fact, they say not to press it hard agianst the skin, but keeping the unit verticle, with the end pads to deal with, you have to press it down hard to get the needed contact with skin on flat parts, or even upper thigh areas. I found myself just completely unable to epilate these areas without working hard to find ways to get the rotor to make good flush contact. These is something that is no problem at all with the Braun. After I was all done using the Emjoi, I switched back to the Braun for some touch ups and found myself happily revelling in it’s excellent design! The phrase that came to me was one I had read here “I love my Braun!”
This competition wasn’t even real close for me to decide. And as for the heads on either to rapidly epilate, The Emjoi 36 tweezer setup may be slightly faster, but all that design is wasted in all the time it takes to use it’s curved head on things like the back of calves, knee sides, side of thigh, etc. The Emjoi failed especially in the bikini area where the body meets the thighs. It really took time to epiliate in the simplest manner in this “concave” area.
The Emjoi would definitely be quiter if it weren’t for the two little vibrating heads that rattle when you use it. Why they put these on the unit is beyond me. Most people that use a Braun 3370 or 2170 know the little roller “pain dampener” four way thing is a complete waste of plastic after the third use of the machine. Why Emjoi woukld want to have these two little vibrating pads installed permanantly is beyond me. They should make them switchable or removeable. On the plus side though, the vibrating pads do help the unit glide across the skin better, that I liked.
As for using this to determine how the Emjoi Optima would work, I can only say the Optima has two curved heads just as the Gently Gold Caress has a curved head so some of these problems will repeat.
Final advice: If you’re going to do just legs and arms, and your upper thighs are small framed, or petite, then the Emjoi Gently God Caress is a viable option.
If you want a more versatile epilator with a stronger motor, but has a more aggressive feel to it. Get the Braun 3370. The Braun just has a more “pro” machine feel to it. It’s not rechargeable, but the Emjoi did start to lose RPM’s and torque into the third timeframe of it’s charge cycle. I didn’t like this, epilating is hard enough as it is without having to worry about dying charges and loss of performance.
If you want yet another epilator that will probably work as good as these two without spending as much, get a Braun 2170. It would be well worth it, and I plan on getting one asa backup as well.
I hoped this helped. I’m sorry if I offended anyone. I know what it’s like to work hard on an R and D team just to have some neophyte poop on your new product. It’s just my opinion.
Mantaray
Wow…thanks for all the advice Mantaray! Awesome!
…After taking a real close look at these two units, getting a good idea of the results they produce, and the re-growth rates after using each, I have just a little extra something to add here. I feel now the Braun is a far superior unit, and would never buy this Emjoi unit again if it were to break. The Braun, on slow barrel speed, plucks hairs a lot more effectively and breaks fewer in the process. The more plucking and less breaking, the longer you can go without having to touch up or re-do. This Emjoi feels less painful when used, but that i think is because it’s breaking all the difficult hairs instead of plucking them like it should.
A big difference between the Braun and the Emjoi is that the Emjoi’s barrel spins way faster than the Braun. And this helps it clear areas much faster, but the hair follicals I don’t think have time to react so the hair snaps before it can be cleanly plucked. I looked at all the removed hairs that I caught on a clean paper mat after removal and by far the Emjoi had more rootless shorter hairs. The Braun had much more rooted, longer hairs removed as by-product. And that’s why I think I get less ingrowns and longer periods of smoothness with the Braun. In Areas cleared by the Emjoi Gently Gold Caress on high barrel speed, I got way more ingrowns. And at one point in this comparison, I was in full damage control mode trying to work out a whole huge mess of ingrowns two to five days after using the Emjoi and had lumps galore. It was very close to a shaving regrowth; thick, dark, and grain directioned.
It’s probably better just to shave instead of using this Emjoi on high speed, at least it’s going to give you smoother results, if just for twenty four hours. The Braun I found, works way more effectively on the slower barrel speed as well, getting far less broken hairs. I’ve found that epilating is no race. Even if it takes an extra half hour or forty five minutes, spend the extra time to go slow and break fewer hairs, for guys it could add an extra day or two between sessions, and make up for the extra time several fold. I’ve asked my girlfriend to start using the slower speed as well to see what happens. …Like I say though, these are just my results, your hair may be less breakable, and you may or may not get better results.
Summary:
Braun 3370 Slow speed: Best results, few/no ingrowns, still dicey (risky) in ‘private areas’, slowest regrowth
Braun high speed: More brokens, less painful, less bumps, much more risky in ‘private areas’
Emjoi Gently Gold Caress slow speed: Less brokens than high speed, less painful, best and safest in ‘private areas’ but very ineffective and difficult to get all hair areas around knees.
Emjoi on high speed: A veritable juggernaut for hair clearing, clears rounded parts of legs fastest by far, as fast as a shaver, but way too many broken hairs, way too many induced ingowns, way too sloppy, even breaks off hairs above skin surface as well as below, not really a realistic alternative to shaving. Lumpy skin, needed re-epilation within one or two days, ingrowns still came out after five days. Emjoi needs to perfect their barrel speeds on these units.
Mantaray
I’ve bought one in my local Boots store. There were 3 types the first one was BrAun Soft Perfection Easy Start 3270 which is the cheapest, i think it was £39.99 and then the second one was £44.99 i can’t remember what was so different about the second one apart from it was pink. the last one was BrAun Perfection Easy Start Body System £54.99 and this was for bikini and anderarm also. I was gonna buy the starter pack but since i had a £10 voucher i bought the £54.99 one. It also has the starter pack included in it.
I’ve just tried this product today. To be honest i was abit dissapointed at the results. But i also blame myself coz i have such fair skin its easy to snap and break so i end up hardly getting half of the hair pulled out. first try not bad. i will use my epilator in the future though…get my moneys worth! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> I have a high tolerant so i take pain less seriouly but it still made me nevous thinking about doing it for the first time but i got used to it. just like being pinched loads of times! =p
If your hair snaps easy, then you have to keep in mind a few things: 1) take a hot shower beforehand to open pores, and allow your skin to dry. This lets the hair to be pulled out easier. 2) move the epilator slower and use the slower speed. 3) The first time with an epilator is never easy, that’s the worst part of it all, getting out the first and second generation hairs. That includes hairs that snapped and take two and three times to get out. And 4) the next generation hairs come out a lot easier because they’re not so “settled in” and rooted less.
Mantaray, could you please elaborate on this for me. What kind of effect are you talking about here? Pinch feeling, small skin break, or trip to the doctor for stitches?
“has no safety mechanism and can cause some serious pain if it gets caught up on skin.”
I am thinking about trying one, but not if it can seriously damage you.
Thanks
See, the Brauns function with little tweezer units (about 36) mounted on a rotating barrel. The tweezers stay open until their part of the barrel rotates toward the skin. If the skin is loose, ahhem, if you’re a guy you know where this is (keep this post clean so it doesn’t get moved into “Mature Topics”), then the tweezers will grab available loose skin instead of just hair. This results in a small “pinch” from the little tweezer. It’s not really as bad as you may think, but it does leave sometimes raw redness to the point of sometimes letting of a drop or two of blood. I know what you’re thinking, “how grim!” But it’s really not like that. You learn what you can and can’t do very quickly. If you really want to go the epilating route on a long term basis, get another epilator that is good in areas that your main 3370 isn’t so great in. Like a haircutter has different clippers to interchange depending on the area. Get an Emjoi Gently Gold Caress as an accessory epilator. Emjois work better on the more private areas due to the fact that they use a different technology, they don’t pinch like that, but will still pinch in their own way if they encounter skin that’s too loose and not being pulled tight, the rotating disk technology is more forgiving, but I think less accurate. The Braun 3370 is going to work better (IMHO) on the other 95% of your body, and the 2170 is somewhere in between those two. The 2170 doesn’t have the little “pin nubbies” that do offer more thorough plucking, but slow down the motor and can induce pinches on loose or sweaty skin. I did this:
Braun 3370: almost everything, legs, chest, bikini.
Braun 2170: back, high chest, low neck, armpits, upper inside of thigh.
Emjoi Gently Gold Caress: as much of the private areas as possible, which is most.
Shaved with razor: any remaining.
Hope this helped.
Mantaray
~Don’t pick at ingrowns~
First, I’m a guy, so my hair is a bit thicker and quicker growing than many women, but of course not all. I used a braun epilator for a while, and then pitched it in the trash. I found it painful, and painfully slow. However, I later decided to try again, as shaving never gets my armpits to look hairless, as the hairs are dark, and grow at a slant, so you can see them through the skin, making the area look like a 5:00 pit shadow. After a bit of research, I purchased the Emjoi Opti Max, and it is a WONDERFUL device. It has two opposing rollers with tweezers, and I find that they pull the skin taut between them, making the process work better, and more quickly, and with less pain. My armpits were a breeze, whereas with the Braun I thought I was going to give myself a heart attack from the pain. My pits are beautiful now, smooth and clean looking. I also tried my legs, and couldn’t believe how easy it was to do the lower legs, it barely hurt at all, seriously. They are wonderfully smooth to touch, and it lasts a good week, until more hairs start to grow. I’m sure over time this will get better. The upper legs, especially the outer quads, were a bit more painful, and the top of the quads did hurt a good bit, but the hams went amazingly well, and the results are terrific. I had the problem other women have posted, of little bumps on the top of my hams, and I could never get the area smooth with a razor. Women who have minimal hair there should consider themselves very lucky. I actually have more hair on my upper legs than the lower ones. Anyhow, my hams are now very smooth, with no more bumps, I couldn’t be more pleased. I tried my chest, and that was simply too painful, I don’t know why, the hairs are too thick to epilate maybe, though not as thick as pit hairs, which came right out. I will need to continue shaving there, and laser when I have the money.
The Emjoi Opti Max runs on battery or mains, and has a nice feel to it. The heads are big enough to cover territory, but not overly clumsey. You can tilt it on one side for curved areas, like parts of your under arms, and it will work like a single rotor device. I have gotten it jammed in my skin a few times, and nothing at all happens, it just stops. Perhaps it has a mechanism, perhaps not too much power, but in either case, no harm done. The braun had some sort of a guide to prevent that, but it got in the way, and was of no value at all. The Emjoi does not have the best battery life, if you do your whole body (though on a woman that may be just legs and pits), it may or may not make it, you may have to run it plugged in part of the time, but that works fine, the cord is rather long, and very fine, as there is a transformer at the plug end, so the wire is only carrying a low voltage, and can be very thin, compared with a normal 120 volt wire.
I’ve only had this unit a few weeks, and am certain it will get even better over time, so I endorse it fully.
As much as I used to love epilators, I would never recommend one. Now I have some perspective and experience to pass on. I look at hair removal two ways: If you want hair removed, do it permanently, don’t mess around. Get laser or electrolysis even if it comes out of your food budget. Or, if you’re not going to permanently remove the hair, take good care of your follicals, because mistreatment of your follicals and skin will lead to your skin looking like hell.
Epilators offer a quick fix that at first is impressive, but as someone once posted here, they pretty much just become expensive razors as the hair cycles start kicking in. Epilators are way too hard on the follicals, they rip and tear the hair out and disfigure the follical and bulge over time. And, if the bulge gets really disrupted in it’s angle and constituency, then that hair root will always be a problem, and will always be ingrowing. Ingrowns are minimal at first, then they increase over time as the epilator is used longer. Pretty soon the skin looks like a battlefield, not good. Also, and what bothers me most, if you enjoy the sun, then look out; a plucked hair leads to hyperpigmentation spots, and if you do it over and over, that is, mix plucking with sun exposer, the spots get more pronounced, and look like freckles. I still have these spots and it takes awhile for them to fade. They are most pronounced where my skin was exposed to the sun, on my lower outer calf areas. My skin used to be a rich, smooth, and even color in this area, now I’m waiting for these freckle-like things to hurry up and disappear, and they are, slowly.
Then as you continue to epilate, after ripping at the follical for months, the action starts to physically disrupt the follicals. Follicals that only sprouted one hair will sprout two hairs, maybe three. I know this because this happened to me. This is hard learned experience that taught me this. Today, I use a sensible plan; I shave and combine that with periodic laser treatments. The bumps go away, the ingrowns go away, it takes less time, the skin is exfoliated in the process, I’m making actual reduction gains. And really shaving in the shower is very convenient compared to epilating, a lot cleaner and quieter.
These people that come here telling of their bad epilating experiences, they shouldn’t be put off. What they are going through is very real. If epilating works well for one person, then great. But for others, it’s not a good option. To those that stopped epilating early on, good for you. Your skin will be better for it.
Mantaray
I now have both the Braun 3370 and an Emjoi Optima. I caught my old Optima in my clothes and sort of broke it so I bought the Braun because it cost less and I wanted to see the difference. They are both good. The Braun is nicer to hold and quieter, and although I thought it didn’t work as well as first…It really does just a well as long as you don’t put the attachment to make epying less painful on it. That is fine for sensitive areas, but no good for legs. I guess if I had to choose, I would pick the Braun, but I don’t know if it will last a long as the Optima. My Optima is still running strong after many hours of use.
I love them both!!!
Jen
hmmm has anyone tried the philips ice cold satin one? (i think that’s very close to it’s name lol, i can’t remember) … it’s getting much higher ratings on other websites than all of those u guys r talking about… any opinions/trials/ideas?
DO NOT get an Epilady. I bought one, and it tore up my skin. I think it’s because the tweezer heads weren’t softly rounded into the rotating head. Thank goodness for 30-day refunds. I’ve had very good luck with Braun models, although an Emjoi looks tempting. I only use epilators on my arms, legs, butt, chest, and mons area because the skin is easily pulled taut.
I don’t use epilators to have smooth skin, because due to very short and broken hairs, your legs will not be as smooth as shaving. My arms and legs are only smooth if I epilate after letting it grow out. Mosty, I’ll epilate a as to reduce the hairs before I shave so there’s less incoming stubble.
I bought a Braun Silk Epil. I am using on my arms. I don’t know about these people who claim they can go two weeks without epilating. I see new hairs in a day or two, and my arms feel stubbly all the time. I am going slow and trying different directions. Any ideas?
That’s going to happen. Your staggered hair cycles are kicking in. If you really want to use an epilator, and you don’t want to use it every three days, you can always try shaving a few times between epilations. But of course, then you’re playing the stubble game as well.
The thing about using an epilator, is that, like most stop-gap solutions for hair removal, you now have to keep up on it to keep that appearance. I know you may have never considered it, or maybe it’s not an option just yet, but consider solutions to your long term goals.
Do you really want to shave or epilate your arms for the rest of your life? Because this is what you are essentially doing now. -Arms aren’t a tremendously huge task to perform electrolyis on, really consider getting it done slowly over the course of a few months. None of the temporary solutions give you near the relief of sold, permanent removal. And, even though the progress isn’t made overnight, it’s made in solid steps surely. Good luck!
Mantaray
Perhaps this should be unstickied or deleted and a new one started? Most of the posts are 2 years old and the models recommended are no longer in production.
I bought the Body Bare and have been very pleased!