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.
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I have a Braun Silk Epil 9 and it works very well.
Edit: If you want to get rid of all body hair you can use laser to get rid of it permanently but it can be pricey.
It’s also not really permanent. Definitely better, but even laser usually requires regular (albeit sporadic) maintenance.
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’ll third the Braun silk epil 9. It’s great, battery life has never been an issue for me. Just make sure you charge it after every use.
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.
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.
You may want to ask this question in a cycling community, your interests seem to align here :)
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 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’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 tried epilation and it hurt too much, does anyone have experience with or recommend ipl or laser devices or services?
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.
I use the Braun Silk Epil 3 SE3270 on recommendation from a friend, ive only had it for about two months or so currently so idk how well it holds up in the long run personally but my friend says shes had hers for a few years and its doing ok. since it comes with a power cord you shouldnt have any problems with it running out of battery since its designed to be used while plugged in
i found that it could stand to be a bit better at removing the hairs but for the price its pretty good (also worth noting that i managed to get mine while it was on sale reduced from £45 to £35 so extra worth it for me, you can check here to see how frequently it goes on sale if the difference in price is a thing you’d consider maybe waiting for). its pretty painful the first time you do it but i found it was pretty easily manageable with the help of a little bit of rum.
also btw, dont do what i did and ignore the bit in the manual where it says to not use it on sensitive skin like the face, crotch or armpits - while it pulles out the hair it causes loads of very small cuts in the skin that hurt quite a bit and bleed a bit too. unfortunately you have to use a razor for those bits
Knew about the face, but not about the crotch. Can confirm, caused cuts and bleeding.
also also, according to my friends who’ve been on hrt way longer than me, epilating gets a lot easier over time because of the estrogen and stuff
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.
