What’s one of the biggest cosmetic issues faced by teenage girl or women? Hair growth – in all the wrong places.
Tweezing and plucking (upper-lip, chin, eyebrows), shaving and waxing (larger and tougher body parts like arms and legs) are methods used to arrest hair growth.
Waxing is expensive (if you visit salons regularly), painful (may leave blisters or rashes on your skin) and time-consuming.
Shaving is not painful but does not pull out hair from the roots. The re-growth is very quick and you may need to spend hours every week for a completely smooth and shaved look.
This is where an epilator comes into the picture.
Epilator is a one-time investment and can last for at least 1 year and more than 5 years depending on the quality. The results can last up to 4 weeks as the hair re-growth slows down.
Before you start using your epilator, here are a few important things to keep in mind to ensure a smooth, irritation-free shave-
Should You Shave Before Epilating?
If you have never removed hair before, your hair length will be long and thick. They will get tangled up with the epilator and may not even be pulled out properly.
This is also seen when you have not removed hair for a long time.
Waxing or shaving is recommended in these cases. Shaving is preferable since it causes least pain which is a boon for first timers.
Shaving will remove most hair and equalize the length of hair. You should shave 2 to 3 days before epilating.
This need not be repeated every time you epilate. This is also not required when epilating your face.
How to Use an Epilator on the Face?
Waxing the fine facial hair can be extremely painful. Shaving, on the other hand, will see a fine stubble mere couple of days later. Tweezing is an excellent option but much too slow in comparison to epilators.
Follow these steps to epilate your face safely.
Choose a face epilator or a dual-use epilator for epilating your face.
- Exfoliate your face.
- Since the face is a very sensitive part, apply a numbing cream to prevent pain. This is not compulsory but recommendatory.
- The rest of the steps remain the same as given above.
You should avoid epilating the super fine hair on your cheeks. These are almost invisible and as it is too small to get caught in the epilator head.
You should also make sure you do not accidentally epilate your hairline on the forehead or at the sides of your ears.
How to Avoid Pain When Using Epilators?
The biggest fear we face before starting with any hair removal routine is prepping ourselves for the incoming pain.
Epilators will hurt. However, you can use some means to reduce or avoid pain.
- High quality epilators are less painful compared to cheaper ones.
- Shaving before waxing will also reduce pain during epilating.
- Wet epilators are less painful compared to dry epilators.
- Epilators with more tweezers will also hurt less and take less time for completely removing hair.
- Use a numbing cream before epilating.
Numbing Cream
Numbing creams are topical creams which temporarily numb the skin surface on application. It blocks pain receptors from sending pain signals to the brain for a short period of time.
These can be expensive in the long-run. However, using numbing cream before epilating your face, armpits or bikini area will give wonderful relief.
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How to Choose Your First Epilator?
On the Basis of Usage
Tweezer-type epilators are the most common epilators found in the market today. These contain multiple rotating metal plates that work like tweezers to pull out hair.
However, this type of epilator may not be suitable for the more delicate parts of the body such as face or bikini area.
You can choose a spring type of epilator for taking care of facial hair. However, these mostly lack durability and are also hard to find.
Some epilators are dual-use viz. they come with separate attachment for the delicate areas. These are a little more expensive compared to the normal tweezer-type.
On the Basis of Needs
Cordless epilators are best used when travelling as they are smaller and more convenient. They run on batteries, so make sure you carry some extra batteries so that you don’t run out of power in the middle of epilating.
Corded epilators are more powerful but take up more space as well. They are best suited for home use.
On the Basis of Convenience
Dry epilators do not require wet skin. They can be used as such and are considered more convenient. However, dry epilating can be painful.
Wet epilators require wet skin. Thus, you need to take a warm shower or at least rub the areas with a mixture of warm water and soap before use. Wet epilating is less painful than dry epilating.
Points to Understand before Using an Epilator
- Some may experience redness, itching or skin irritation after using an epilator. Try epilating at night instead of morning or mid-day.
- Do not epilate if it’s your first time removing hair. Shave or wax first.
- You may continue to feel pain the first couple of times.
- Exfoliate your skin before use and moisturize after use to reduce irritation and soften your skin.
- Always clean your epilator after every use. Epilators come with small brushes to sweep out hairs from the epilator heads. You can also use rubbing alcohol sanitizing.
- Using unclean epilators can increase risk of skin infection.
FAQs
- Is it better to epilate wet or dry?
Ans: Epilating on dry skin provides better grip meaning you can grab more hair and reduce the time spent to remove hair. There is also reduced risk of hair breakage and greater chances of pulling hair from the roots. This leads to longer lasting results.
Epilating on wet skin will reduce pain. The epilator is also easier to clean.
If you do not have pain tolerance, it is recommended that you use either a wet epilator or apply a numbing cream before using a dry epilator.
There are also some high quality wet and dry combination epilators in the market.
- Do epilators cause ingrown hair?
Ans: Yes, all hair removal methods can cause ingrown hair.
When hair is not removed completely, it may revert back under the skin and grow beneath the surface. It leads to problems such as itchy pimple-like bumps on the skin, pain and skin irritation, swelling and inflammation especially in the delicate areas.
High-end, high quality epilators have lower chances of causing ingrown hair. Exfoliating the skin before epilating, moisturizing post epilating and cleaning your epilator after every use can prevent ingrown hair.
- Should I epilate every day?
Ans: Short answer – no.
Long answer – it depends on the hair growth rate, thickness etc.
Beginners who want to reduce hair regrowth cycle quickly should epilate every day for a week. Then, decrease the epilating to 3-4 times in the next week.
You should increase the gap between epilating slowly. Eventually, you will find that it will last for 4 weeks or a month.
- How do you get rid of epilating bumps quickly?
Ans: Red bumps on the skin are a common reaction among most beginners. They are caused by inflamed hair follicles.
Usually, the inflammation calms down on its own after a few hours. This is why epilating at night is recommended.
For quickly getting rid of these epilating bumps, treat with hydrocortisone and an antibiotic like polysporin.
You can prevent red bumps by cleaning the skin post epilating with 100% witch hazel or 100% tea tree oil. You should also apply an aloe vera based moisturizing cream or gel as aftercare practice.
- Is it bad to epilate your face?
Ans: No, in fact, epilating your face is better than shaving or tweezing.
However, you must use an appropriate face epilator or dual-use epilator to avoid intense pain and skin irritation.
- How often should you epilate your face?
Ans: Epilate your face once in two weeks. It will increase your pain threshold and the overall hair regrowth reduces over time. Later, the gap may become as long as a month.
- Is there a painless epilator?
Ans: Epilators pull hair from the root. Naturally, it will be painful.
The intensity of pain will reduce with increased frequency of epilator usage.
As such, completely painless epilators do not exist.
However, there are some epilators in the market which promise almost painless experience with regular use such as Braun Silk-épil 5 5-280, Panasonic ES-ED50-N and Braun Silk-épil 9 9-579.
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- How long should hair be when epilating?
Ans: Epilating works best for short hair of the same length over a particular area. Most epilators work well with hair lengths between 1/8 inch and 1/4 inch.
- Can I use numbing cream before epilating?
Ans: Yes, numbing creams have to be used before epilating to prevent pain especially in sensitive parts such as face, armpit and bikini area.
Conclusion
Beginners or teenagers what you say may find epilating a daunting experience. However, epilating is actually very easy and convenient. High quality epilators promise near painless epilating experience. It will also leave your skin smoothers and softer
Last update on 2024-11-21 at 08:28 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
