When people used to talk about epilating it used to send shivers down my spine, it looks like a mini lawnmower and sounds awful! The first time I tried it I must have been around 16 years old and it was so painful, the moment the epilator touched my leg I pulled it away as fast as I could. If don’t know what an epilator is I like to think of it as an electric tweezer, there are little ‘teeth’ that spin round quickly and pluck the hair out from the root as they open and close.
Over the past few months I’ve found ways which make this process as pain free as possible and now it doesn’t even hurt at all. There are so many benefits to epilating such as that you don’t have to wait for your hairs to get to a certain length like you have to with waxing, you can remain hair free for up to six weeks depending on your hair cycle and you can easily do it yourself at home. Also over time I’ve found that my hairs have got thinner and thinner with each use. I know that some people suffer with a rash afterwards as well as ingrown hairs but I’ve included some tips on how to keep them away. The first time will hurt a little bit but hopefully these tips will help you and over time it will be completely pain free.
- Have a bath – Every single time I use my epilator I have a hot bath, it cleanses your skin to prepare it and opens up your pores. You could have a shower instead but personally a bath works best for me and majorly reduces the pain.
- Exfoliate – Whilst in the bath make sure you throughly buff your skin with a grainy exfoliator, this will help you to remove dead skin cells which will reduce the likeliness of getting ingrown hairs. Once I have epilated my legs I like to gently exfoliate every other time I shower as it helps to keep those pesky ingrown hairs away.
- Pull the skin taut – When using the epilator gently pull the skin taut in the same way that you would if you were tweezing your eyebrows. This will reduce the pain and will help pull the hairs out easier.
- Aloe vera – After I have epilated I always get a few tiny red dots (this is why I always epilate in the evening) and everything irritates my skin apart from aloe vera, it’s the best thing that you can use on your skin to soothe it. I wouldn’t recommend using any lotions or creams, just aloe vera. It takes a few hours for the red dots to fade but by the time I wake up the next day they are completely gone, I then use a moisturiser daily to keep my legs hydrated.
Now that I’ve been epilating for the past few months I can’t see myself ever going back to shaving, my legs are smoother than they ever were when I used to shave and I love how I can go weeks without having to worry about my legs. Will you be trying out epilating this summer?
Rebecca x
