Battle of the Beauty Tools #4: Silk Epil 7 Epilator

If you were going to pick the best electronic gadget for removing those pesky hairs from your pins it would be from the best brand possible, and that's Braun. They know what they are doing when it comes to hair removal. From the Silk Epil 3 (which has only 20 tweezers) to the current Silk Epil 7 (which has 40 tweezers)variations. Braun have made their way into the prestigious Harpers Bazaar Top Beauty 100 in 2013 with this sometimes scary to look at gadget. But once you get used to the pain.... it's fine - or thats what all of your girlfriends have been saying about epilation for years. Me included. 

If you are not that familiar with this method of hair removal, epilation is the removal of hair from underneath the skins surface, taking the hair (from whatever part of your body) away from the root. The epilator, as seen in the picture above, has a rotating head which is filled with lots of tweezers, that as they are pulled along your skin grip on to the hair in its way, and pull from the root. Like tweezing your eyebrows but on mass, epilators can be used from those stray hairs on your toes (we all have them!!) to the underarms, obviously though I would avoid the face and any sensitive skin. 

All epilating devices all work in the same way, so essentially you don't need to keep buying different versions, get a good one like the Silk Epil 7 (retails at around £130.00) and you can be set for quite a while. There's no buying razor heads or refilling your wax pot here, except you will need some kind of electricity source to recharge after all the hair removal fun, so really you do get your monies worth. 

As technology changes though, it's good to jump on the 'new epilator band wagon', not only do old versions make a hell of a noise, but they also can not be used in water or have a light which highlights those finer hairs you may have missed. The Silk Epil 7 has both of these additions, and Braun have even brought out the Silk Epil 7 Dual Epilator (the combination of both shaving and epilation for extra smoothness) and the even more recent Silk Epil 7 SkinSpa which provides exfoliation and epilation - I am quite eager to get my hands on this one after having my original Silk Epil 7 for some years now. 

If you epilate for enough years, the story goes that your hair will eventually stop growing in that area, it will almost just give up! I am waiting for this time, however from epilating for 5 years, I now epilate every 3 or 4 weeks, and there are some people that shave every dyay, so that's a lot of shaving foam, and blades you would be going through. As a plus to not shaving every few days, with epilation the regrowth is definitely finer, and lest noticeable. 

First Impressions; The whirring noise of the motor, and the initial pain of pulling hairs out of your legs with tweezers is enough to put you off BUT perceiver, it gets easier girls (or guys.. although in my experience the noise is enough to scare them off). Your legs/underarms may look a little blotchy and red after but this is your skin freaking out, and telling you it's not used to it. After a few weeks you'll be totally confident with the whole process! 

Lasting Impressions; Apart from the fact that I think the battery is now dying on my epilator and always shows a red light (above) it has had a very good run and I refuse to shave and break the habit.  I am not always sure it picks up EVERY little hair, but perhaps I am not patient enough. 

If you are thinking about epilating here are some good tips that work well from my experience;

1) Have a hot bath/shower, this will open your pores of your skin - in turn when you epilate whether in the bath or not, it will be less painful and the hairs will pull out without a problem. 

2) If you have some aloe-vera gel, or moisturiser handy after your epilation session, wait about 10 mins for your skin to calm down and then slather on the soothing stuff, this will take down the redness immediately, and refresh the area.

3) Hold the area you are epilating taught, so that the hairs are picked up more easily. 

Let me know if you have any epilating tips?

Natalie