As we all know, hair removal is women’s worst nightmares. Either it consumes so much time on a daily basis, or on weekly basis but with higher pain. Also, both ways cost fortunes. In case you shave, you’re going to do it daily as you only cut the surface, appearing hair. In case you wax, this should be a part of your weekly routine – 2 weeks at most. But, when epilating, you only epilate once every 4 weeks as epilation means removing hair of its roots. Moreover, unlike waxing, you can epilate whenever you feel there are growing hairs on your skin, not at precise length.
Epilators are semi-long-term solutions for hair removal. They give up to 4, and sometimes 6, weeks of hair-free, silky-smooth skin. But, they are more painful than other short-term hair removal methods.
It’s worth mentioning that there are painless hair removal methods that give long-term or “permanent” hair removal such as IPL and laser hair removal. Anyway, people are afraid of trying new technologies, especially light-based methods although they are totally safe! But one who is used to a precise method, she sticks to it and fears changing it.
When we read users reviews on most epilators, we find that their biggest problem is pain. So, our team of experts in personal care fields decided to make a guide for epilator users to lower pain level.
Table Of Contents
How to Lower The Epilation Pain Level
These are 10 easy tips that will help lowering the pain caused by epilators. Some of them are purchased, some come with the epilator as accessories, and others are about the technique.
1) Wax The Targeted Area!
Before epilation, try waxing the targeted area first, then use the epilator to remove hair after re-growth. This may help giving your skin more pain tolerance. Over time, you will get used to this pain and regularly don’t feel it.
Some people who followed this way reported less pain feeling after epilation. Also, they reported less irritation and redness duration!
Scientifically, this happens. Exposing a specific area to a precise pain level makes it more enduring and less sensitive.
2) Epilate Large Areas First
Start epilating large areas first. Usually, large areas has thinner hair. This is not a must, however it has thinner hair than other smaller areas such as face. Also, larger areas are less sensitive than other small, detail areas.
As in case of waxing, epilating larger areas will make you gain more pain tolerance. Which in turn will make it easier to epilate. And with time, you will get used to it.
3) Use Lower Speed Setting
If you’re using an epilator with 2 settings, use lower setting as a start. This will help lowering pain level and irritation. After 1-2 sessions for an area, move up to setting 2.
If you’ve a one-speed epilator, then you need to read tip 4.
4) Glide Gently
Whether you’re using a two-speed epilator or only one speed, do not press too hard against your skin.
Congenitally, your skin is sensitive to friction which leads to irritation and redness. In addition, when first-time epilating, pushing a spinning head loaded with tweezers against your soft skin is something more like itching it with sharp nails.
So, all you need to do is to glide gently to give it enough time to get used to it. Also, make sure not to epilate irritated or injured areas.
5) Use Wet Epilator
Use a wet & dry, waterproof epilator; wet epilation is less painful. However, you need to know that it’s more time-consuming.
When you glide on wet skin, it becomes harder for the tweezers to catch the hair as it becomes more “glued” to the skin. But, it’s an effective way to lower pain caused by epilators.
6) Use A Numbing Cream
Whether it’s your first-time epilating or not, use a numbing cream; numbing creams truly reduce pain to a great extent.
To be honest, this is the biggest problem of epilators. In addition to their cost which may reach $160, and increasing each time a new improved epilator shows up, you need to pay more money for numbing creams.
However, the more expensive an epilator is the more effective it becomes and the more accessories it includes. These accessories have ones especially for massaging the skin and reducing pain and side effects.
7) Exfoliate Your Skin
Exfoliate your skin before and massage it after epilation. Use a brush or a hot towel to exfoliate. Exfoliating targeted area before epilation make it ready to be epilated and reduces its sensitivity.
Anyway, there’re epilators like Philips Sat Prestige and Braun Silk-epil 9 provide exfoliating and massaging accessories, they are great editions.
8) Epilate In A Circle-Shaped Way
Make sure to epilate in a circle-shaped way. Also, epilate back and forth. This way, you’ll catch all hair with different angles from the first time if possible. Which in turn will make you epilate over this area less times with less pain and less irritation probability.
9) Hold The Skin Taut
Hold the surrounding skin very taut when epilating. It’s something like how men hold they skin when they shave their chin or neck. This will make epilation easier, faster, and hassle-free. Also, if you’re epilating on wet skin and the hair is glued to it, this will make it easier for the tweezers to catch all hair.
But, do not forget not to press to hard against your skin especially if you’re holding it taut. Anyway, it’s not dangerous, but just in case.
10) Wash & Clean Your Skin
Make sure to clean targeted area before epilation. Also, try not to epilate on makeup. Believe me, it’s not good for you to have an irritated, made-up skin.
Anyway, cleaning your skin makes it easier for the epilator to work and hassle-free.
Epilation Tips for Beginners
If it’s you’re first time epilation, then you’re now in the very right place. This part of our guide is dedicated to you. As a beginner, you may face many problems before, during, and after epilation. The biggest is epilating before you go out without prior knowledge that this will turn on you. So, we’re trying to make it easier for you. All you need to do is spending some minutes to avoid similar deadlock!
- Start your epilation experiment with larger areas such as legs. Usually, they've more pain tolerance and results on them can be a scale for your pain tolerance and how sensitive you are. Based on results obtained from the previous step, you can or cannnot epilate sensitive areas.
- Also, use a waterproof wet & dry epilator first. Epilating in the shower is less painful.
- An important tip is: If you are going out tonight, epilate in the morning. This will make any irritation or redness disappear by the night.
- Put an epilation schedule for yourself. Commit to this schedule and do not miss sessions. Epilation gets more comfortable with regular use.
Permanent Hair Removal
“Permanent” in hair removal is a metaphorical word, we mean with it “long-lasting up to 1.5-2 months” of hair-free skin. Of course, epilators are not a permanent hair removal method. They actually give around 1 month of hair-free skin, but with continuous use, pain, and a lot more time.
“Permanent” in hair removal is a metaphorical word, we mean with it “long-lasting up to 1.5-2 months” of hair-free skin. Of course, epilators are not a permanent hair removal method. They actually give around 1 month of hair-free skin, but with continuous use, pain, and a lot more time.
When you use a permanent hair removal light-based device such as “Tria Laser 4X” or “Philips Lumea Prestige IPL BRI956“, you use it once every 2 weeks for around 6 weeks and you will get up to 2 months of hair-free skin.
Moreover, IPL and laser hair removal is %100 pain-free. Another advantage, usually IPL and laser hair removal take only 10-15 minutes to treat full body! So, W go with IPL and laser hair removal. They are the best hair removal methods in our opinion.
Conclusion
You have 10 tips to lower pain caused by epilators and 4 tips for first-time epilators users. However, those tips and tricks are only for help, there are not meant to significantly reduce pain level. Anyway, just keep epilating and epilating until you get used to it then you will find it less painful. Also, we are providing you with 7 easy steps to use an epilator the right way.
OK, this was our guide for safe, effective, and painless epilation. If you do any of our tips and you have any comment on them, we’d be pleased to hear from you. However, it’s not necessary that all tips give you high results, ultimately, they will only lower pain a little bit. And as we always say in such cases, individual results varies depending on personal usage, hormones, and pain tolerance.
