Medival torture device masquerading as a method of hair removal (Philips Satinelle Ice Epilator HP6481)

Member Name: MarieHHH

Product:	Philips Satinelle Ice Epilator HP6481
Date:	19/06/09 (49 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheaper, longer duration of action

Disadvantages: pain, less smooth

One Saturday afternoon my housemate and I were sitting around lamenting how hair removal is expensive, time-consuming business. We got to the topic of epilators and realized that their two main selling points could reduce our whining on the subject of hair removal: once you've bought one, no further cost (except I guess the electricity to run it) and since they claim to keep hair away for up to a month it would be less time-consuming. So off we toddled to the shopping centre and settled on buying a Phillips epilator as a mid-range, 'safe' option.

Back home we unpacked it, admired its smooth lines then plugged it in. It sounded like an instrument of torture. We marveled at its rapidly rotating tweezer-like blades and realized it looked like an instrument of torture. We therefore turned it off and opened a bottle of wine.

A couple of glasses later we felt ready to tentatively try it. Leg outstretched, eyes half shut I placed it against my shin and started moving it upwards. Seriously, I have never felt such pain in my life and my housemate laughed hysterically, partly at the faces I was making and probably partly as she realized she had to try it too. I stopped within seconds, looked at the streak of hair-free leg and remembered the mantra of no-pain-no-gain and continued.
Twenty minutes later, after much stop-and-starting, I had two fairly hair free legs that were throbbing in agony. Now it was my housemate's turn. She had had time to consume more wine prior to starting but also found it excuriatingly painful, and in fact stopped after half a leg.

I then took up the challenge again to try my underarms. This redefined the most amount of pain I've ever felt to a new level. She then did her underarms, and had the opposite experience to me - she found underarms less painful than legs. By the end of this one of our male housemates came home and was mocking our intolerance of pain. He foolishly agreed for us to try it on his leg and, as a bynote, the epilator test proved men really do have a lower pain threshold than women.

The following day we both had legs covered in red bumps which we moisturized with passion. By day 2 our legs looked hair free and 'normal', but on touching were not as smooth as after shaving. However, they remained 'acceptable' on an aesthetic level for the next week, at which point I decided to persist with using an epilator for my legs but not underarms while my housemate decided the inverse.

Now, several months on, I can report that epilating does keep your legs hair free for a couple of weeks at a time, and when the hair grows back it is less visible than the stubbly hair that grows back after shaving. It also does become less painful to epilate with time, although I still view it as an activity best combined with some form of alcohol.

Would I recommend it? Well, you definitely need to have a high tolerance of pain, and the end result looks fine but doesn't feel as nice as shaving. You will also occasionally need to be prepared to dig out odd ingrowing hairs with tweezers. However, overall I find it's the best method of leg hair removal for me.

Summary: a good method of hair removal for those with a high pain threshold