My Beauty Space : Product Reviews, Tips and Experiences

I decided that I’d had enough of shaving, and that I could handle a little pain - not too much, but a little, as long as I could reap the benefits of having smoother, hairless legs for a long time, especially in the summer.  I have already tried the permanent body hair removal product Ultra Hair Away, and loved the results, but since I’m in the “business” of trying and sampling tons of different products, I decided to also try the Braun Silk Epil Epilator, which had gotten pretty good reviews from what I’d read on other online review sites as far as hair epilators go.

What is an epilator?  Well it’s not really a new concept.  They’ve been around for a while, and they are handheld tools that pull the hairs out by the root, supposedly gently.  In fact, I got my first one way back when I was just fifteen years old (yes, I hated shaving back then too), called the Epilady hair removal tool.  Let me tell you, epilators have come a very long way, because this tool was extremely painful to use.  I’m not sure how, but the Braun Silk Epil body hair removal epilator still works without being as painful as the older models of epilators. 

I guess it’s because it has massaging heads that help to pull the skin taut in the area you are working in that helps minimize the pain.  However, these tools still are not for the faint of heart who cant’ stand a little pain although I will say they get easier to use as time goes on.  I found it most painful in areas such as down by my feet, my knees, and closer to my bikini area, which is no surprise because those areas are notoriously more sensitive to pain. 

I found that if I just pulled my skin taut in these more sensitive areas while using the tool, it would make it a bit less painful while the hair was being pulled out by the root.  You also have to  make sure you use the Braun epilator when your skin is completely free of any moisturizers or oil, so it’s probably best used when you’ve just showered and dried off for best results. 

I did try to do my underarms, and that is definitely a little more challenging, but it does still pull that hair out as well, although it leaves more behind and you’d probably have to grow it out a bit to get the best results (I know, gross).  It’s also very painful under the arms, but again if you pull the skin taut it minimizes this pain. 

All in all, for those that don’t mind a bit of discomfort, I’d recommend the Braun Silk Epil epilator, and I do give it a good review because I feel like it is very thorough in getting the hairs in the areas you cover, and it does have a good pain miinimizing design, plus it’s easy to hold and also has a light on the end of it that you can use to better help guide you in finding those little hidden hairs that tend to escape scrutiny. 

My legs have been totally smooth for almost a week since I’ve used it, and I’m going to go back and do a touch up here soon, which I’m expecting won’t take as long since I got quite a bit of the hair in the first round because I took my time.  All in all, I think this or the permanent body hair removal product ultra hair away are a must have for any woman who hates to shave all summer long when the hair tends to grow a lot faster. 

You may be looking for a great hair remover that really gets in there, below the root, and makes for a nice shave free couple of weeks, but be carefull applying these in the winter.  The winter time is a time of noteably drier skin, and we must make sure that our skin is extremely moisturized and is used to retaining that moisture for several days before we attempt a permanent or semi permanent hair removal product like the one from the Revitol line of skincare products.

The reason is, while hair removal products are a great alternative to constantly shaving, they also can irritate the skin (understandably), becuase the ingredients they contain must be strong enough to actually be effective below the root, and some of them even eventually kill the root of hair with repeated use.  While this is excellent for those of us who hate to shave, we must be dilligent in preparing our skin for the hair removal treatment by nourishing it with plenty of moisture in the winter.

When soaping up the legs and other areas like under arms while showering or bathing, you may want to switch from a bar soap to a rich, creamy skin wash. Skin washes are often more gentle on the skin and less drying than any bar soap.  You could of course opt for more moisture infused soap like oil of olay or Caress, but for me personally, I don’t like the residue these leave on my skin. 

The new skin washes that are built for shower use offer a great alternative to bar soaps that moisturize the skin because they don’t contain the drying tallow and other chemicals that are used to keep bar soap in bar form.  Simply put, there are less harsh ingredients that are tending to dry the skin in liquid skin cleansers.  If you take care to moisturize and do only moisture-infusing things to your skin several days before you apply a hair removal product to the parts of your body you want to rid of hair, you’ll be less likely to have any skin irritation or dryness as a result. 

It’s summer time, and we all know what that means as women. We can’t get away with not shaving our legs for days on end if we want to like we can in the winter months when our legs go unexposed for days and the only person that knows we don’t shave is our poor partners. I personally hate to shave my legs every day, and so I basically don’t. I’ve resigned myself to shaving more often of course, to avoid embarrassment, but I’ve come to sort of an agreement with myself that once every three days is just fine, and I can still have presentable legs with shaving this much.

But what if you really don’t want to shave? What are your options? Well, there are some depillatories out on the market like Veet and Nair, but honestly they smell so terrible that I’m not even sure it’s worth not having to shaving a few more days by using these. I also have to admit, I’m afraid I’m exposing myself to some pretty horrendous chemicals by doing this, because should a hair remover really just “melt” your hair right out of it’s follicle? Makes me a little uneasy, don’t know about you!

There is of course another option to hair removal that is supposedly permanent in the summer time and for that matter, all year round, and that is laser hair removal. Laser hair removal is pretty expensive though, and you basically pay by how large of an area you wish to be treated, and therefore “hair free” forever, or with very little follow up for the next few years.

Laser hair removal works by actually destroying the hair follicles so that the hairs that are individually targeted by the laser never come back. The trick is to get them all though, and so this many times requires several follow up visits to make sure the hair really is all gone. I’ve heard some horror stories about laser hair removal too, but if you go to a reputable place, you should be fine. Just be prepared to pay! How nice it would be to never shave again though….

There are always waxing sessions as well, which some women like and some women hate. Basically wax is applied to the areas you don’t want hair, and voila, it’s ripped right out, and doesn’t grow back for several weeks. A lot of women who have waxing done regularly to remove hair claim that their hair grows back much finer and also is not as hard to shave off, so this may be a good option as well. There are hair removal creams also, some of them natural, like Nad’s and other herbal and natural hair removal creams that claim to make it much harder for your pesky hairs to grow back.

I came across a somewhat alarming side effect of many acne medications, such as Accutane and other prescribed acne medicines that are used for severe acne usually, such as retinoids. 

I guess that if you have a hair removal treatment, like waxing or sugaring or any of the other plethora of hair removal treaments (I’m not sure about laser hair removal - but I don’t think it would be recommended to have this serious procedure while on acne medication either), but this does apply for anything where hair is being forcefully removed from you face or other areas of your body. 

Apparently, if you’re on an acne medicine like accutane, it can make your skin actually come off right along with the hair, so most technicians and salons - at least the good ones should definitely prescreen you for treatments such as this to prevent any skin from coming off of your face during the hair removal procedure. 

If you tell them that you’re on an acne medication, and they act like it’s still ok, don’t get it done there, because they probably don’t know what they’re talking about!

Thumbs WAY DOWN that is.  I kept the Sally Hansen gel hair remover on my legs for ten minutes, and still nothing, nada.  No hair removal. 

It says to slather a generous layer of the hair removal gel on your legs or whatever area you’re trying to remove hair from, and wait anywhere from 6-10 minutes, not to exceed 15 minutes on the skin all together.

I left it on for ten full minutes, and wiped it off.  At first I thought it was working, as I couldn’t tell if the hair was gone because the product is so darn slippery that I couldn’t feel hair or anything else below the slipperiness. 

Then, when I had completely wiped the stuff clean and rinsed it off my legs, which by the way is also a bear because of the slippery nature of it.  It felt as though I could not wash the stuff off.  I literally washed my legs with soap three times before it felt like I had gotten it all off!

Then, once I towel dried, alas I ran my hands over my legs and they felt like I hadn’t shaved them in three days still.  So, the Sally Hansen body Hair Removal Gel was a bust, and I don’t recommend it.  Good thing I only paid a buck fifty for it on a trip back from North Carolina at a discount outlet! 

Now it’s been three days since I’ve used the Veet Rasera hair removal gel/cream and bladeless plastic razor, and I wanted to post a follow up review on how it worked as far as removing the hair for any length of time after you’ve used it.  This is exactly why most women are so interested in Veet, Nair and other bodily hair removal products, because they don’t want to shave as often (God knows shaving your legs every day in the summer is not something any woman wants to do).

Well, I have good news to report, while I do have a SLIGHT stubble now on day three, it’s nothing compared to the stubble I would have if I hadn’t used the system, so that’s a good thing.  I’m waiting to see how much longer it is until I absolutely have to shave. 

I’m thinking now that I know this kind of stuff works, I might go a step further and buy something a little more potent that is supposed to make your hair grow a lot more slowly.  Like a permanent hair removal product that makes it hair grow slower permanently, or even can stop hair growth. 

Ok, so I FINALLY was able to find the Veet dipillatory cream (gel) permanent hair remover with the bladeless razor, and here is my review of the product after I used it last night. 

It comes with a hair removal gel that dispenses like a shaving cream, and a plastic-bladed razor.  I left the gel on my legs for about five minutes total, and the hair came off very easily with the plastic razor being run down my legs.  I also used it a little on my bikini line.

I got very good results with it, except it smelled very bad, like a permanent body hair removal solution, and it did kind of tingle or burn a little bit, so I can see why they said not to leave it on for more than six minutes total.  The hair came right off though.  Now, the real test will be to see how long the hair stays away. 

That will be a whole ‘nother follow up review of the Veet hair remover products!

OK, where to start with this hair removal product? I’d love to give it a glowing review, but honestly at the moment I’m upset that Nair did not spend a little more on good packaging. To make a long story short, I left the bottle on its side in my bathroom cupboard and I now have a sticky, gooey mess to clean up. The entire bottle of the sugar wax leaked in my cupboard and everything the sat near it is now stuck to the bottom!But that little rant aside, I generally did not see a great benefit in using this product, and I don’t really know why I bought it, because all of my past experiences with Nair dipillatories and permanent hair removal products have been less than stellar.