epilation

i got one:

http://www.onlineshavers.com/pd_brau...0_epilator.cfm

and it really wasn't as painful as i expected it to be! i mean it is painful but it isn't as bad as i thought it would be. i'm the kind of person who prefers to take the band aid off slowly, however, and so i have to say that i prefer this to waxing because i have more control.

i do have a bit of a rash on my legs but no worse than i get with waxing and i guess it will be gone tomorrow. should probably get an exfoliating sponge because you have to be careful about ingrown hair apparently.

it came with a starter head but after about 10 minutes i was getting bored so i switched over to the other head. i had a go at my underarms too but i want to check that out a bit more...

i picked this one because it had good reviews online. some people were saying that they bled when they were trying to do their underarms, though. they were saying that you have to make sure you pull the skin taught or the tweezers pull your skin. i'm not sure whether that is what is happening or whether i'm bleeding because some follicles have about three hairs coming out of them. just a tiny bead of blood... made sure i used the steralising gel before epilating my pits and rubbed savlon antiseptic cream on them after but i'll admit that i stopped once i saw blood because i worried that i wasn't doing it right. i'll have another go tomorrow...

i got this one because it was on sale. this one and another one (with gold tweezers) came up as the best rated from people but the other one only came with a 1 year warantee and many people said that it died just out of warantee (and it was about twice as expensive as the one i got). so...

i'll find out about the bleeding... unless anyone here knows???

happy with my legs

:-)

Not sure about epilation - but on a related side note. I went to a health expo recently where a girl was there representing one of those laser hair removal places. So I asked how much to have the face done - I have some of that chin and upper lip hair - yuck! It costs $800!!!! Holy cow - and then she says it's a lifetime guarantee but when I read the pamphlet it was like a 2 year guarantee.

Very disappointed.

Tranquility

The epilation thing pulls the hairs out? Is that how it works? Ouch! LOL. I've never had anything but my eyebrows waxed. I don't have a ton of hair anywhere. I would love to get that lazer hair removal though, and just be done with it.

Whoever the first woman was to shave her legs....ahhh. We'd be free and clear if it weren't for her lol.

Hope that tool works out for you Alex, and I hope you don't get any bleeding or anything!

PS - Off topic....but how's your hair straightener working?

alex, do you know how long you can go between epilations?

I did a lot of research last night :-)

Basically... The head of the epilator is made up of lots of tweezers and so it works by ripping the hair out at the roots. It works very similarly to waxing (but it is less messy than having to deal with wax). You run it (fairly slowly) over your legs kind of like a razor (going against the grain of hair growth) and you might need to run it over again to pick up all the hairs. The hairs grow back finer similarly to waxing and the hairs grow back at about the same rate as they grow back after waxing. It is painful because you are pulling the hair out at the roots but as I'm a pull the band aid slowly kinda person epilation is like a more controlled waxing IMHO.

Some people say that they epilate once a month. Epilators are capable of getting hair that is 2mm long, however, so you don't have to wait for the hair to grow like you have to wait to wax. It is also a lot cheaper to do touch ups. You can just plug it in and you are away. Some people (who seem fairly paranoid about being completely hair free) say that they use it every two weeks or sometimes every week to pick up those tiny little hairs while they are still short. Sometimes the epilator breaks the hair too in which case you will get some hair growth in a week. The finished effect isn't as smooth as shaving or waxing because both of those scrape off the surface of your skin. You have to be more careful about exfoliating regularly if you epilate (I used my face scrub on my legs this morning - rash completely gone). Some people epilate then shave for special occasions when you really want that silky feel. Some people say that after a few years... They don't need to use it very often at all. Depends how paranoid you are about hair growth, I guess.

I finished my underarms with tweezers. I found out that the hair was a bit long for epilation. It would have been perfect for waxing but the ideal length for epilation is shorter than the ideal length for waxing. When the hair gets a bit longer it curls back towards the skin and apparently that is when the epilator gets the skin instead of the hair. And, yes, I should make more of an effort to raise my arm and tense so the skin is taught. And I should also go very very very slowly and carefully and start from the edges and not just go for the hairiest parts like I did.

Some people wax then use an epilator as the hair starts to grow back. That is meant to be a LOT less painful than using an epilator for the first time after shaving (like I did on my pits and legs). I finished my pits up (mostly) with tweezers last night (yeah, took a while) and I'll tidy them up a bit more with the epilator tonight then keep up with that. I'm also going to shave my bikini line and have a go at that when it is just starting to grow back. People were saying that you can do everything down there with an epilator but that you should work up to it very gradually indeed (a bit like with your pits). Some people wax to get the shape they want then move to epilation to maintain it.

It really is a great investment (on the assumption that I'm not going to get ingrown hairs because I'll get something really scrapy to make sure I exfoliate vigerously and then moisturise on a daily basis). Want to touch up my legs tonight (only did my lower leg last night) and see how smooth I can get them.

The machine is a little noisy... But comperable to a guys electic razor, I guess... Will be able to do it while watching TV and nevermind the neighbours!

I think that with the hair thing... It is when we start to get older (older than teenagers / very young adults) that some women start to get very dark and coarse hair on the front of their lower legs. I think that hair removal might have been about getting rid of that initially... Then (eventually) it became fashionable to have smooth smooth legs all over. I have been noticing that I'm getting really dark and coarse hair on the front of my lower legs like that and the shaving stubble would be unpleasant (scrapy as a guys face) in the evening if I'd shaved in the morning. That is why I wanted to get this - to see whether I can lighten it by ripping it out and also so I don't have to remove it so regularly. I'm kinda tossing up whether I need to do the other parts of my legs (my thighs etc) as the hair is very light and fine there. Think I may as well do it (won't hurt for it to be even lighter and finer) but I'm not self consicous about that the way I'm self conscious about my lower legs. I'm semi-tempted to do my arms too but I want to wait and see about ingrown hairs first... We shall see...

Hair straightener is working out okay. I'm having this problem (with my current shampoo I think) where it seems to be very harsh on my hair. My hair is not happy after being washed. It is all static and flyaway. I put in the leave in moisturiser which calms it down a little. I put in this straightening serum which calms it down a little (though I have to be careful with that or it goes oily and looks like it needs another wash). If I use the straightener on it when it has just been washed it isn't so happy... I do like the straightener though... But I haven't really been using it a lot... Need to sort out the shampoo and conditioner situation first... Also... My hair is getting longer now and doesn't need to be straightened in the same way... It will do after a trim though.

Does it work the same as waxing does, and slow hair growth over a period of time?

It works similarly to waxing, yeah. It is hard because you get more information from message boards than you do from promotional websites and there isn't a lot on epilation because plastic surgeons don't do that though they do laser therapy and electrolysis and so on and so forth... but there are also a lot of urban myths that are promoted on websites.

best i can figure it is similar to waxing in the sense that both pluck the hair out at the root. you get some breakage with epilation but then you get some breakage with waxing too. you can epilate shorter hair than you can with waxing so you don't need to wait as long before you epilate. it is also easier (less fuss with wax and less expense with applications) to go over areas multiple times in order to get the odd stubborn hair.

waxing differs from epilation (and is similar to shaving) in the sense that waxing and epilation removes the very surface of your skin whereas epilation doesn't. removing the surface of the skin is what gives it that very unnatural super silky smooth feeling. removing the surface of the skin is also what helps to prevent ingrown hairs. some people will epilate and then shave for special occasions when they want that silky smooth feeling. it is important to use facial scrubs on your legs and / or exfoliate and moisturise daily when you have epilated in order to prevent ingrown hairs. some people who have particular problems with this find that there is some product that they can use that helps with that (don't remember the product sorry). most find that exfoliating and moisturising daily is enough to prevent that, however.

it is meant to slow hair growth over time similarly to how waxing does. because both methods rip the hair out at its root it damages the hair follicle so that growth is slowed and so that the hair tends to grow back lighter. treatments that are meant to be perminent (such as laser and electrolysis) often don't result in perminent hair loss without multiple applications, however, as they do nothing to prevent hormones telling your body to make follicles and to make hair grow from follicles. waxing, exfoliating, and vigerous plucking are meant to help damage the follicle such that the hair is less likely to grow back, however.

different people find different results with different methods. some people say that after a period of use (a couple years) waxing / epilating results in their needing to do it much less often. other people say that they still need to do it fairly frequently (every couple weeks or once per month) but that it is still the best way to remove hair maintenence-wise.

*Off topic, back to hair straightening cuz I'm scared of the epilation lol* My hair is getting longer and it doesn't seem to straighten as well as when it was above my shoulders. Its at that akward length right below my shoulders so it it always seems to flip up a bit. I don't straighten often at all now. When I do though, I use Tressemme's heat protection spray. It seems to smooth the hair and give it a good shine. Sometimes I'll use a little pomade (hair wax) on the ends if I've still got fly aways. A litle bit goes a really long way there. My hair is fine and straight though. The straightener just sleeks it.

I looked at about 20 websites for this model # here in the states. I can't find it anywhere!!! Sounds like a great investment, though

i think i got the model on sale because it is an old model.

i should say that with respect to the rankings online...

people said the 'braun' one was robust (didn't poop out on them)
and had a good motor so (once you get used to it) it removes hair pretty quickly compared to those with smaller motors
about half the people with 'emjoy' said they pooped out when they were just out of warantee (after one year)
they seem comperable really...
i'm not sure that the models are all that different in what they do
it is more the bells and whistles.

for example... i got a starter head (which i used for all of 10 minutes) and a bag to keep it in.
the really expensive one has a light on it to help light up the hairs (i'm not convinced). i think it also comes with a smaller attachment for face and a different smaller attachment for bikini and pits.

basically... looks like they are fairly much comperable...
i picked it up for AUS$79. i noticed the site said it was about 50 pounds though so looks like (with the exchange rate) i got quite a saving.

maybe check out the braun models that are available...

so...

i used to self harm...
and (as i said) i like to pull band aids off slowly (kinda like epilation) rather than quickly (kinda like waxing).
so... epilation is perfect for me.
when i'm in one of those foul moods and have this urge to hurt myself...
i can epilate my legs.
and when that isn't painful anymore (after repeated epilations) i can epilate my pits and / or bikini!
after you do it for a while...
your body starts to release wonderful chemicals like endorphins that help kill the pain and produce this wonderful calming sense of well being.
helps to counter intense distress...

:-)

Sounds healthier then SI! And you're getting a nice smooth result from it. Two birds with one stone!

I recall a thread a Babble about the Epilady. It still has a lot of fans. All I can say is OWIE.

http://www.epiladyusa.net/

em

How is the epilator working? Any problems with it?

I'm thinking about getting one. I am really sick of shaving every day, and I'm no good with waxing. I don't know what I do wrong with waxing. I end up only getting half the hair and then I am left with a nasty waxy mess.

You have a great idea there, Alexandra!! I tried an epilator once, and I am to big of a wimp...Ouch!!

damn good idea in my mind!!!! thankyou for that, i will try that. good luck with that.
take care all
self

Not too sure about epilation. I see that the new ones come with an add on that you put in the freezer and then stick on to help with the pain. Not too big on that sort of physical pain.
waxing does not work for me..well teh home stuff does not...I am too hairy!!

I decided to go ahead and get one. I got this one. http://www.drugstore.com/products/pr...GFI-0-EVGR-MYR

It's really not to painful at all. Its just like little pricks. Its worse in some areas than others. My lower leg didn't hurt much at all, but it hurt more on the upper leg. Not at all unbearable though. overall, I think better than having to shave every day.

It did leave me with razor burn like bumps, but they are already fading an hour after using it.