Epilate...If You're Brave Enough
Written: May 07 '03 (Updated May 24 '05)
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Pros: Yanks those hairs right out! Over time, hair does get defeated.
Cons: Pain! Takes a while to do a good job & is a bit noisy.
The Bottom Line: If you have the determination to get through it, this sturdy little model will serve you well.
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| XSarenkaX's Full Review: Braun Silk-Epil EverSoft 2170 Electric Shaver |
History & Experimentation
I bought the Braun Silk-Epil Solo 2170 in January, 2003, after reading a little bit about other people's experiences with similar epilators. Back when I was much younger, I once tried the famed "Epilady" when it was just getting popular. The thought of not having to shave any more was appealing to me. Unfortunately, back then, I was totally unprepared for the pain of having many hairs plucked out, one right after another. After about a minute or less, I gave up and gave the machine away.
This time, I'd revisited this concept with the knowledge that ripping one's hairs out of one's skin will never feel good. But there are benefits to this method of hair removal. Allow me to elaborate...
Epilation Basics
If you've never tried epilation or even waxing, be warned that this process is painful, especially the very first time. As I once wondered myself, I'm sure you're wondering why anyone would choose to submit herself to such pain. Well, back when I bought this machine and first tried it out, that thick forest of hair on my legs, underarms, and bikini area was anchored very strongly into my skin, as I had been a regular shaver for years (outside my experimentation with Nads, which did not go well. See my Nads review if you like.)
For those of you who are unfamiliar with epilation, this is a process by which a hand-held motorized tweezing device is used to pluck a great many hairs out of one's skin very quickly. It's a lot faster than tweezing hairs individually, but slower than waxing, which yanks out a whole patch out at once.
Epilators are best used on legs, but can be used anywhere you have a nice, fine crop of hair to get rid of, like underarms and bikini area.
The advantage of taking whole hairs out, rather than eliminating only hair above the skin, is the lack of stubble and the slower, softer regrowth. The promise of no stubble was one of my main temptations, but I am finding that getting 100% of the hairs out at any one time is an unreasonable expectation, at least at this early stage of only 3 months of regular use. I have found, however, that by epilating about 1 or 2 times a week, I will never have as scratchy a pair of legs as I'd often had just a day or two after shaving! (My fiance is grateful for my bravery.) Fewer, finer hairs with pointier ends rather than blunt-cut ends make for much nicer feeling skin, even if it's not perfectly smooth (yet).
Underarms are also still not completely "clean" looking when I'm through, but I can definitely get it cleaned up to leave about 10% or less of that shave-shadow. When I need to be ultra smooth, I can always shave after epilating. There is almost nothing to shave, but it takes care of any missed or broken hairs or ones that were too short to grab by the epilator.
The most effective way to use the device is to kind of "pull" the epilator up back into the direction of hair growth. The head turns from the back side around to the front side, so holding the front (thumb) side toward you, you can kind of crawl up your lower leg from the ankle up to your knee. This way, the turn pulls the hairs up and into the head, for more a more effective job.
Product Features
This particular brand of epilator is designed with a rotating cylindrical head, armed with many tweezers built into it, as is probably a common design. As the head rotates (it's a blur when it's on) each tweezer opens and closes at just the right angle to pull hairs quickly out of their follicles, with the root.
There are two speeds to choose from by sliding a switch with your thumb. The switch is on the front of the device, just below the head on the main housing. I like to use the slow speed (1) on sensitive areas and fly through on the faster speed (2) when doing lower legs, which are easier to do.
The housing is plastic and the plastic head is also removable for cleaning. The individual tweezers are made of metal themselves. It is a corded device, but the cord detaches for easier storage. It also comes with a tiny brush for dusting off hairs that may cling to the unit, as well as a mesh little storage zippered bag to contain all the parts.
There is also a plastic "massaging" guide piece that can be added on top of the head. It's a plastic frame with two rolling guides that will give with pressure. When attached, this piece can train you to keep the epilator at the proper angle (perpendicular to your skin) while using it. According to the manufacturer, the little individual spiky beads on this piece, which rotate while rolling over your skin, supposedly "massage" your skin, preparing it for the tweezing pain. I had high hopes that this feature would help me get through the pain and stick with the project this time around, but found it more to be a hindrance to getting complete coverage once I felt confident enough to try epilating without it on. It helped me when I started out, but I feel I've graduated to flying solo. Luckily I had enough pluck to go through with the process despite the false promise of "comfortable epilation".
Instructions and Advice
I recommend starting out with the tops of your lower legs and go as slowly as you can stand. It took me an hour or two just to get through the lower legs that first fateful night. If you are afraid to go on epilating after that first trial, please know that you'll never have as much hair (and pain) as the very first time you try it. So if you can stick with it, the worst will be over after the first run on each area. The upper legs are much more sensitive and contain so many thin, tiny hairs that I don't do them as often as the rest. Be sure to pull any loose skin tight while going over the area. I've gotten my thigh skin in the epilator a few times and it leaves a bit of a red mark.
Speaking of red, be prepared to have red bumps all over you after completing your epilations, at each plucked follicle point. I have sensitive skin, so I don't know how long the redness should last on a normal person, but mine lasts several hours. I recommend doing this in the evening so your skin can recover during the night. Either that or plan on wearing some long pants afterwards if you're going out in public. Aloe Vera gel may help sooth the skin afterward. Whatever you do, though, don't try putting rubbing alcohol on your skin (unless you're a glutton for pain). I made that mistake once...just once.
Underarms and bikini area hairs tend to be a lot thicker and harder to pull, so if you're going to be brave enough to try these areas, don't say I didn't warn you. It HURTS! But I got through it myself, so think positive. Try slowly going over with the guide piece on. Go as slowly or quickly as you can handle. The sparser the area gets, the less it will hurt. As you continue, you'll gain confidence about finishing up and may end up doing a pretty decent job, even the first time around.
For the bikini area, be sure to work only on stubble length hairs. (If you're making braids down there, you need a major trim before you can use the epilator.) I cheated here. Because this is a sensitive area, I actually did my first round of tweezing without the epilator. Over the course of several weeks, I diligently plucked individual hairs out using tweezers until the hair was sparse enough to use the machine on it. Now that I'm through all that, it's not that painful to do anymore, and the hairs are a lot less thick and wiry. I do tend to get some ingrown hairs now and then, so be careful with them when they happen. If you have pointy Tweezerman tweezers or a needle handy, they may help you fish them out with minimal damage to the skin. If it doesn't come out easily, take my advice and leave it alone for a few days and try again. Skin doesn't like to be poked at repeatedly!
I hope to update this review in several months, or when any significant changes worth reporting occur. I'm pretty happy with my results so far.
Update: 4/20/05
When I'd last updated this review, I was still epilating dutifully, about once a week for about an hour. Since then, I'd become troubled with far too many ingrown hairs around the bikini area, causing ugly bumps, redness, and unfortunately, some scarring as well. I'd looked into laser hair removal as an alternative, and meanwhile stayed away from that area with the epilator.
As a side comment, there is definitely not enough info out there on laser (and "flash lamp") methods of hair removal! Anyway, after some research, I'd decided on a company named "Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow" and went in for a consulation. They use a non-laser flash lamp, but the method seems to work the same way laser hair removal works, despite their insistence on the differences.
Anyway, once I became interested in starting this regimen of hair removal, I'd stopped epilating at home to ensure all growth cycles of hair would be available for treatment. Currently, I am signed on for underarm and bikini areas. (This is pretty expensive, so I'm holding off on the legs for now.) Since I'm not having my legs treated by HTGT just yet, I was urged by my husband (remember the fiance I mentioned above?) to please, please, please start epilating them again. The shaving stubble is very scratchy and I hated it myself.
The epilation hiatus on the legs caused them to really fill in with hairs again, so that first session on them was very much reminiscent of the first time I picked up this thing a couple years back - VERY painful! But, after a month or so of returning to regular use of this gadget, I am back to having sparser hair and a softer-feeling pair of legs.
My point is, if you're going to bother with doing this at all, keep it up or you will be sorry. Also, doing the bikini area may be a bad idea if you're already getting ingrowns there from other hair-removal methods. The epilator does not eliminate that problem and may actually end up making things worse. My underarms did not have this problem, but this probably varies from person to person and area to area, as the characteristics of the hair tends to vary as well.
If you have questions, please feel free to ask. I'll do my best to answer them. If you're interested in my HTGT experience (there's no place to review them here), ask away as well. You can find my email address by going to my Epinions profile, clicking on the link to my home page, and you'll see a button on the left for email. HTGT has a brief overview on their website, but it is by no means complete information. They are at www.hairtodaygonetomorrow.com
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 50.00
Battery Life: N/A
Noise Level: Average
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Epinions.com ID:
XSarenkaX
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Member: Bonnie ("Benia")
Location: Chicagoland, IL
Reviews written: 43
Trusted by: 36 members
About Me:Got married in Jamaica and we keep coming back.
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