I got an epilator - phillips satinelle cordless with a massage attachement (not the ice one). I used it plugged to the mains as I could not be bothered waiting for it to charge.
This one:
(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fecx.images-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FI%2F314T5E9H9YL._SL500_AA240_.jpg&hash=614281ca09530152b649bb1e85ac61976bf17f8b)
My first time last night was an experience :o
Holy! It was not comfortable. I managed to do all of my lower legs to just above the knee. Took me about 30 minutes. I think the knees were the worst, but the shin bones were not so nice either brrrrrrrrjudder judder. I had to make little runs at them. But it did a real good job, got pretty much everything! I can feel a few broken hairs but that's ok - will get them the next time round, you can't see them.
Damn I was on a high after, the endorphins must have kicked in because of the pain.
The massage attachement was a waste of time. If anything it felt more painful with it on - it just added to the discomfort.
My legs are smooth but feel a little bit abused today. I have a number of light pink spots where the hairs have been pulled but it seems to be fading.
If your tolerance for pain is good I would recomend it. I hear it gets easier over time.
I just got one not too long ago because I have bad luck with razor burn on my legs. I haven't tried it quite yet haha so I'm sure I'll share that awesome experience with you soon :p Wooo pain!
I have a Panasonic wet and dry epilator and the first time I used it dry and HELL it hurt.
I found it to hurt a lot less when I used it in the shower with some soap but I noticed a lot more broken hairs. Now after a couple months use, there is a lot less pain and I can use it either way, and only need to use it once every couple of weeks.
Jamie Lee
I was going to try an epilator. I shave regularly as I hate my hairy legs. How long do the hairs need to be to be pulled?
One problem I have with facial electolysis is looking like a monkey in a dress. >:(
Cindy
I really liked the initial results for the epilator, but the catch is when it starts to grow back, that is, it comes back unevenly and tends to get ingrown-ish. I say ingrown-ish because it doesn't turn into the super painful bump kind of ingrown hair, but the hair sort of grows in right beneath the surface of the skin, so that you can see the hair, but using the epilator again won't actually pull out because nothing is sticking above the surface. Other times they grow into these tiny little bumps where the hair is like growing in a tiny spiral right under the skin -- if you pick at it a bit the whole hair pops out to its actual length.
So at first it looks great but, but keeping it that way is tricky, or at least those were my results. If i was going out for an event i would definitely do the epilator, but for now (especially since i don't go out in girl's clothes at the moment), I'm sticking with shaving in the shower.
it does get easier and less painful over time. I used to have lots of problems with bumps caused from shaving, not just ingrown hairs, lots of ittitation. using the epilator has pretty much eliminated that problem.
The red spots are common after using the epilator, I try to epilate at night and usually by morning the spots have faded away. I used to have a serious problem with my chest breaking out after epilating, but it doesn't seem to be as bad anymore and if there is a breakout it's minor and goes away quickly.
to avoid the uneveness and the need to epilate too often, I like to shave a few times after a couple weeks so that slower growing hairs have a chance to catch up.
you'll develop a system that works well for ya eventually too, I use different angels on each part of my body than I do for shaving. it only takes me about 30 minutes to do my arms, legs and chest/torso every 2-3 weeks.
you'l really be happy with your purchse, congrats!
The hairs will grow back finer so it's not as painful next time and nor are they as visible, especially if you're on HRT.
My experience is that once I'd cleared "everything" that first time, I can just do a quick touch up as and when I notice hairs growing - that way it's just a couple of minutes at most, once every couple of days.
You're not gonna like the first time on the higher inner thigh tho :P ;D
I just got a Braun Silk Epil and tried it yesterday (test run). WOW! Yeah, it did hurt a bit and did irritate a bit, but it wasn't so bad. Just legs so far - still to come, everything below the neck. (well except the groin area, not that crazy yet)
As far as the in-growns, I have seen it recommended highly that you exfoliate your skin after epilating to remove the top layer of dead skin and allow those new, little, weak hairs to break through the surface. You also need to moisturize after as well.
I can't wait for the silky smooth, hairless body. :)
Deanna
My instruction book says that hair needs to be 0.5cm CindyJames. I guess the adbantage of lazer is you don't need to let the hair grow - although afterwards the nuked hairs look really thick and dark.
I've been taking my upper legs a bit slower - I'm up to mid theigh, plan to inch my way up over a couple sessions. I'm actually starting to like the pain of it. Weird. I'ts like getting a piercing, you get this shock of pain and then it is 'wow - pretty'.
The back of the theighs were surprisingly ok - I guess the hair is thinner there. On top of the theigh was not nice.
I'm going to keep topping up regulalry just to keep on top of it, maybe every 3 days or so. I'm not sure if I am brave enough to use it on my chest :-\
Yeah, I already get some of those weird hairs that grow along just under the surface, particularly on the knees. Easy to pick out though with tweezers. I got some exfoliation gloves for the shower so hopefully those help.
I've found I have not needed to moisturise like I do after shaving. Does not seem to dry the legs like shaving does...
so much better than shaving. With shaving I get stubble within a day. I now have none (except for the off broken hair), feels good.
I'd also picked up the Braun Silk Epil many months ago. Despite exfoliating everyday, I still could not conquer the ingrowns. My hairs are deeply rooted, and the gradual weakening of the hairs only increased the chances of breakage. Because of this, what should ideally only need to be done every few weeks became a weekly ritual, which gave little time for the splotchy-ness to fade. And that was only for my legs. . .I couldn't even use the thing on my torso. Those hairs are strong and even more deeply rooted. . .I'm guessing the Italian in me has something to do with that. (I've had poor waxing results there, too. Granted, I was using homemade sugar wax, but I had no issue with it on my legs before I started using the epilator.)
I went ahead and picked up a body shaver instead for the time being, and I am loving it far more despite the extra time investment. I'd almost forgotten how clean my legs look without the splotchy-ness. I'll still use the epilator on my feet, but as far as the rest of my body, I'll try again after starting HRT.
(Side note: My best results with the Silk Epil occurred using the "advanced" attachment, as the included literature indicates, but I was surprised to find it didn't hurt anywhere near as much as I'd expected given the extra cylinder exposure. If you're getting good results with the regular attachment and have adjusted to the sensation well, I suggest switching to the advanced as soon as possible.)
You girls are way more hardcore than me, respect. I ordered one of those things a while ago and it came the other day. After a long soak in the tub I fired it up on one of my legs and said to hell with that.
Nobody touches me these days anyhow so I'll stick with shaving for aesthetics, got enough painful stuff going on without adding this sadistic little torture device to the list.
I was thinking of buying a second one... ;)
...and using them both at once.. ;)
..so my brain would have trouble telling which was hurting the most... :o
..well that seems to be the idea with all these "attachements" :D
..and....I'm still trying to understand why mine needs to have a light on it..
..I can feel it hurts..I don't need to see it as well... ;D
Chrissty
Just got a Philips Satinelle yesterday. New to all this, and my. While nothing one couldn't put up with, it does hurt a bit. Of course, it's made worse by the expectation that it hurts, with your brain telling you that this hurts, rather than it actually hurting that much.
Still working on the first lower leg, it's not completely smooth yet. >:( Working up the courage to start on the second leg. :D
I've heard that being on hormones or not makes a big difference in how much it hurts -- that is, being on hormones makes it more painful. I'm not on hormones yet and I don't find that the pain is anywhere near my tolerance threshold.
It also hurts more if you're hesitant about it, because then the tweezers are just repeatedly tugging at each hair rather than pulling it out in one go. As soon as the hair is pulled out the pain stops right away (for me), so I just run it right up the leg and get it over with. The one spot i don't do is upper inner thigh because the skin there is different -- the tweezers start pinching the skin itself which is no fun.
It gets better, but the first couple times you just have to grin and bear it.
If all else fails, get a wax kit and get it over fast then use the epi after using wax to remove the hair a few times. Waxing gets the pain over fast.
I just did my forearms for the first time today. I thought the legs were intense, nothing compared. My arms have a lot of thick hair and ripping out all of that hair OUCH! It got me thinking, they should review the SOC to read if someone is dysphoric enough to take an epilator to their body to RIP every hair from their bodies, then they should give them their letters on the spot. :)
Next step, upper arms, chest (if I can muster the courage) and another round of leg shreading. I hope to be largely free of hair by Friday for the Southern Comfort Conference.
Deanna
Nair folks thats my solution it has totally removed the hair from my legs and but took a couple of months of repeated weekly applications but thier gone wish it worked on facial electrolisis sucks just started working on chest i dont believe this will work as well on these will see what hrt does before i resort to handheld torture device
jessie
Quote from: Deanna_Reneethey should review the SOC to read if someone is dysphoric enough to take an epilator to their body to RIP every hair from their bodies, then they should give them their letters on the spot.
Made me LOL ..... and yeah, there's a lot of truth in that ;D
I tried nair first, but I always got red spots afterwards. I still get red spots with shaving/epilator, but nair also has the nasty smell, plus I get freaked out by the idea of accidentally leaving it on too long.
I would really recommend waxing for chest/underarms. I don't actually have chest hair but I from my experience with underarm hair I think it would be less traumatizing than epilator. The other, slightly insane option is to just sit down with tweezers and a mirror for 3-4 hours. Maybe I'm just weird, but I find just using tweezers is less painful and doesn't end up with red spots or pseudo-ingrown hairs as much as the epilator or other alternatives.
I recently tried an Epilady Legend. It was a lot of work for very little results. Oh, it yanked really well on just about all the hairs, but it would only remove about 1/3 of them. I think I might switch back to a razor.
Sigh.
Get waxed first....... once they regrow, they'll be finer, then you can keep on top of it by other methods like the epilator. And don't forget different growth cycles - you might need to wax again. Once it's all fine, new growth it'll work a lot better. :)
Well, I managed to do all of my legs right up to the top with great results. I have a hairy butt though and need to do that :embarrassed:.
I just got a round of regrowth on my lower legs and it has left my legs a bit 'scabby' - little spots where the hairs have broken the skin. Seems to be healing though. I wonder if this will continue ???
Front of the thighs was bad.
Knees made me twitch, not good when you have bad knees (tendonitis).
The back is also painful.
Still need to do my chest and arms. Chest, oh I can see that being painful, I'm slowly easing into it. Arms, I'm doubting how painful that will be.
If everything were as easy as my lower legs, I would be in heaven
.
Nicky, the butt, umm, well, it's not that it tickles, nor is it entirely painful like the thighs, however it caused lots of muscle spasms, like a small electric shock. Prop your leg up on something to pull the muscles and skin tight, otherwise ZAP! It's really a strange sensation really. :D One which doesn't decrease as much as other areas.
....er....... as I've remarked elsewhere, you want to think twice about doing ANYTHING to the hairs directly around your anus! :icon_yikes:
- if you MUST tackle those in some way, then trimming carefully with one of those little nose-and-ear-hair gadgets is about the best way I have found.
- re-growth of any kind around there is ........ distinctly unpleasant
Quote from: Steffi on September 22, 2009, 04:46:06 PM
....er....... as I've remarked elsewhere, you want to think twice about doing ANYTHING to the hairs directly around your anus! :icon_yikes:
- if you MUST tackle those in some way, then trimming carefully with one of those little nose-and-ear-hair gadgets is about the best way I have found.
- re-growth of any kind around there is ........ distinctly unpleasant
I haven't had any trouble.
@ Leslie Ann ...... you've had no problem at all?
Wow...... maybe I'm doing something wrong 'cos regrowth close around there always drives me crazy itching and prickling!
The only way it seems ok to me is to settle for a really close trim as I said so that there isn't ever an issue with ingrowns etc
....so what's your secret? ;D ...if it's not too graphic to post .... do you epilate or shave or what?
Yeah, I'm not plannining on doing crack and sack... ;D
I have hairy butt cheeks though (sorry ..TMI..)
I shaved inbetween there once and it drove me mad with the itching and regrowth. It was like walking with sandpaper between the cheeks. Never again...
Ouch, ouch, ouch!
I hope the bit about it getting less painful is true, because this is just self inflicted torture! :o
Quote from: Keroppi on September 22, 2009, 07:20:54 PM
Ouch, ouch, ouch!
I hope the bit about it getting less painful is true, because this is just self inflicted torture! :o
It's less painful if you're consistent about it. For me, if I clear my legs for instance, and go and touch up every few days or so then there's barely anything to do and it doesn't hurt as much. But if I forget and it all just grows back in, it pretty much hurts the same amount, maybe a bit less but I can't tell.
I'm not sure how much I can help. I do get somewhat itchy cheeks, mainly because I seem to get a bit of breakage there (which I think causes more itching than regrowth of plucked hairs). When they itch, that is usually about time to run the epilator again, even if only for a few minutes on them alone. That usually will stop most of it really fast. I epilate because shaving is just frustrating for me. I get cuts, and itching much sooner, it's just bad all around.
I epilate everything. The scrotum you can do some of it if you pull it tight (VERY tight, and be VERY VERY careful! I can do about 2/3rds of it, lower half and sides), the rest I hand pluck. Use slow speed if you have it because if you catch something, you don't want it at full speed and power. I have been manually plucking that for years.
For the anus, find a chair and desk/table you can really lean back in and prop your feet up on and spread em' :P (make sure you are clean too obviously). Again use low speed, start off going across the crack and perineum. Don't go with the perineum as you can really aggravate the ridge. You need to go across that. After that slowly work your way more and more inward. Depending how how you flex the muscles, and pull here or there, you can get various areas better. Just kind of feel your way around, don't just start running it across things. If you have a good mirror an occasional check helps so you aren't going over the same places over and over again causing irritation. A finger also works. Go slow, and very, very light pressure if any. Initially try not even touching the skin then work your way in. Also, a good cleaning once you are done. If you have any hemoriods, you may want to steer clear of it.
I do this at least every 2 weeks, preferably 1. Things don't get very long or thick. Both of which makes it more painful.
BTW Nicky, do the scrotum. Really. It changes all sensation there for the better. I did it yeara ago, I don't even remember why, but OMG it was so nice.
I don't use the epilator in the 'crack' simply because I don't want to get it dirty. Bit of an OCD person. I just shave there with disposable razor every few weeks. Luckily the cheeks themselves aren't hairy so that's not an issue.
If you epilate for the first time, you should know that it will hurt a lot. Some people recommend to get a waxing first, to get used to the sensation and to let the hair grow back even. I didn't do a waxing because it time consuming and it is expensive. Instead, I used a cooling bag which I put it in the fridge for a couple of hours and rub my legs before the epilating process.
In time you will get used to it. The pain is bearable and you could also use a numbing cream or some packs of ice to rub the area, where you want to epilate. A hot or warm shower or bath before the epilating process will also ease the pain, because the heat will loose the pores and the hair's root will be released faster.