I've tried shaving my leg hair a few times now, but it takes an hour or two just to get back with stubble within roughly two to three days at most. Also for some reason my skin just can't help get irritated, no matter how much I exfoliate, apply lotion afterwards, all that stuff. Because of this, I've been looking into other options
wax seems fine, but having to buy new stuff each time sounds like a pain
shaving cream sounds too good to be true, but from what I've read it also really messes up your pores, so I'd rather not
And so I landed on epilators. Since masc hair is a bit tougher though, I'm wondering if any of you have recommendations of epilators that actually do the trick? I've read a few reviews of some and every now and then you see a review along the lines of "I'm a man and it didn't work properly for me since the battery ran out before I was done" and since I'm not on hormones or anything, I assume my hair growth is similar-ish, meaning it wouldn't be much of an option for me either.
So again, do any of you recommendations for good epilators? And if not, do you have any shaving tricks or generally other ideas for how to get rid of leg, or even better, all kinds of body hair? I loved the feeling I had after shaving my legs, it just sucked that it lasted for two days and then I had about a week's worth of leg itching, despite trying my best to do avoid that.
I’ll second the recommendation for the Braun Silk Epil 9, though noting I never used one pre-HRT. If battery runtime is a concern, there are also several corded models which work well.
I havent used one (yet) but I plan to get and use an IPL device. My friends (cis and trans) all rave about them. Effectiveness can very based on your skin tone and hair type, but each model usually specifies what skin and hair it tends to work best on.
I've used an epilator and it hurts quite a bit, for me anyway. That and I've gotten ingrown hairs from them. Not for me.
I've used a cheaper Braun Silk Epil model. It was a bit slow but was thorough. I'm currently using a mid range Panasonic cordless epilator with 2 rollers. It's much faster but misses quite a few hairs. The battery has run out on me on a few longer sessions, but usually it's fine for arms and lower legs.
Epilation hurts my upper legs too much though. I have to go to an electric shaver above my knees.
IPL may be worth a look if you have the right skin and hair color. It stops most colored hairs from growing. You still get transparent hairs, but I found they can grow longer before getting ugly, and cause me much less dysphoria because they're less visible.
Just a heads up! I had to give up on using my epilator because it caused my hair to grow in under my skin. You're supposed to exfoliate and moisturize but I guess I didn't exfoliate enough so it wasn't likeingrown hairs, but mostly like literally the hair was under a very thin layer of skin. Like you could see it, but couldn't epilate it. So dumb.
I'd suggest trying waxing - as it's legs I think you would be able to learn how to do that
yourself eventually. It's the one thing that has worked for me somewhat reliably for my arm pits (long story), though I haven't tried legs as I don't need to.
My wife has the Braun silk epil and we have the Braun IPL. Tried both for arm pits and lower back (...I'm a hairy man, not even gonna bother with other parts, just those that I need/wanted to try), and whilst the combination of the two lasted a bit longer than shaving, the results were still not as good as waxing.
Also I find wax a bit more bearable to endure than epilators, but that would probably change with time.
Another upside is that not all the hair grow back, it's gradual, and they are softer.
Downside is that you'll have to figure out what works for you if you go down that road. We ordered a little heater of Amazon and found some wax pellets there too after the batch that came with heater ran out. None of the wax strips (wax on backing paper) worked for me though and they would end up being a bit pricey in comparison, but they may be ok for legs?
And for me the major downside was that I can't really do my arm pits on my own with the hot wax, so wife does it for me.
I have a silk epil 5. I havent had any issues with battery life. It's painful when you start epilating because all your hairs are gonna be full thickness. After pulling the hairs out a couple times it gets a lot less painful because the new hairs are a lot thinner and younger. It doesn't hurt at all anymore for me. For hairs that are already thin, epilating doesn't work very well, since the tweezers cant grab on.
I view epilating as a supplemental hair removal method though. It doesn't make the legs perfectly smooth, but it makes hair so thin and so slow growing that I shave probably twice a week. And I only epilate once every 3 or 4 weeks.
It also seems to only work on my legs and thighs. Ive tried epilating my belly and thats what gave me a bunch of ingrown hairs.
I would 100% recommend professional laser instead if you're happy to save up. Its far less painful than epilating, much better than shaving as well and after 6-8 session you'll be far less worried about hair as it grows back so thin.
I'm prolly a bit late to the post, but I got this cheaper one off of amazon for 30 bucks.
I've never used an epilator (and never knew they existed) until quite recently, but I was pleased with its performance. I have these really visible giant black hairs on my chin, so I tried the machine on it and it clamped down on the hairs and ripped them out of their sockets, I dont know the proper term for it but there was like a little "ball" at the origin of the hair which kinda tells me that it took the whole thing out. I'm assuming its gonna grow back but its gonna take a longer period of time before it becomes visible, because it has more hair it has to grow, I dont know how long its gonna take because it just arrived and all happened yesterday.
However, there are some things that should be noted, there are 4 different attachments, I've only used one, but the way they attach and connect to the motor are all the same, plastic gears. Now I aint dissassembled the machine, but if I had to guess, id assume that the geartrain inside that connects the motor to the one gear where the attachments attach are probobly made of plastic too. Now I dont have a expensive one to compare, but id assume the build quality is probobly only slightly better, womens products are made with cheap, unreliable components because they want you to buy more. Also the epilator attachment was a bit magnetic on the sides, I've been told this is bad because magnetic metal can rust, however I dont really know too much about it. Now I'm not gonna be running it 24/7, fighting against the gears, or dunking it in water, so I figure its gonna last a good while, but not for decades.
Now something else that should be noted is that it didnt do much for my thinner hairs, it ripped out some but for the most part ignored them, mabye they arent long enough, but if you can see the hair and like flick it around with your fingernail it oughta be able to clamp onto it.
Also something good is that it doesnt require any stupid "app", any program, it doesnt require wifi, bluetooth, cellular data, a facebook account, a google account, or any stupid nonsense like that. Its just a machine with a switch with 3 states, off, low, and high.
Also something I forgot to talk about is that the ripping the hairs out of its sockets part hurts, I'm guessing you just kinda get used to it, but you might shed a tear or two. If I had to assume, since they all work on the same principal, the expensive models probobly hurt too.
But basically, it works just fine if you dont have much cash or just dont wanna spend a ton of cash on an expensive model.
I've had laser on my face, it was pre-hrt so it took like twice as many sessions as normal. The face is also a much cheaper region to get laser on, but the results are fantastic, I'd recommend it if you can afford it, have light skin, dark hair and can deal with the pain.
The pain is probably comparable to epilation, but each session is over much faster. And modern laser is increasingly comfortable, especially the fancy new cold plate lasers.
IPL is decent, but not a complete solution. It only stops pigmented hairs, so depending on area you might only see a 50-80% reduction in hairs, but the survivors will be less visible so at least you won't need to shave as often.
It has been great on my arms & legs, helpful on my chest, but has done almost nothing for my facial hair and I don't know why.
For an Epilator, I use the Braun Epilator Silk-epil 9. Epilators will take getting accustomed to, especially for more sensitive areas. I recommend taking it slow and just focusing on one area per day at first!
For shaving/hair removal, my favorite method is hair removal cream. I was absolutely amazed at how easy, painless, and effective they are! I have one for intimate areas and another for everything else. I've not had any burns or encountered razor burn-esque irritation or discomfort. A couple days later I use an epilator on any areas which might have hair starting to poke through.
I ordered an IPL that will get here tomorrow that I'm super excited about!