A Hair Raising Tale
Written: May 25 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: removes some hair, easy to store
Cons: hard to learn to use, o-u-c-h!
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| pluckyduck's Full Review: Braun Silk-epil Cosmetic Hair Remover EF 20 |
Writer's note: This is yet another review where I am compelled to reveal secrets about myself. These various secrets, formerly kept either solely to myself or within a small circle of friends, are now published on the World Wide Web for all to see. Keeping in the trend, my next review will publish my credit report, medical records and voting history for the last 20 years.
Gentlemen, may I have your attention please?
This review is for a product which is used by women to remove facial hair. In order to review this product, I have to admit that I have facial hair which needs to be removed. I do not admit this to men. I have never admitted it to my first husband nor my second husband nor any man I have ever dated. I do not care to admit this to you. Please go away. Seriously. Now.
All right then --Girlfriends, let's talk.
What is the deal with facial hair anyway? You've got it. I know you've got it because all women have it in one form or another, barring some dread disease that makes all body hair fall out. Good Lord, though, those of us who have an itsy bit more than peachfuzz with color any darker than blonde, sure as heck can't admit it in mixed company. Can you say "stigma"? Can you say "nerd girl"?
Mine started earlier than any of my girlfriends, though they are catching up to me just fine as the years go on. I was about 13 when I noticed a "shadow" on my upper lip that just wouldn't wash off. Looking back, it makes total sense to me that any facial hair issues would show up earlier on me than on my friends. I had (and have) whiter than white skin (I prefer to call it Alabaster rather than Casper-like) and very dark brown hair - near black. At the time though, I felt like the Gods of Puberty had cursed me with an affliction to compensate for my lack of acne.
As I understand it, excess facial hair has two main causes. One cause is a hormonal imbalance. The female body produces both male and female hormones. When the body gets out of whack and puts out too many male hormones, presto - facial hair. This is usually, but not always accompanied by other symptoms, like the deepening of the voice or the inability to ask for directions when you are lost. A doctor can help with that and should be consulted.
Garden-variety excess facial hair is just plain hereditary and there's nothing medically that could or should be done about it. Blame your Mom. I tried, but I was adopted, so my Mom wasn't at fault. She was actually annoyingly hairless, never even needing to shave her legs. Imagine that. My only revenge was that the hair on her head was thin too, so she wore a wig when she didn’t have time to get her hair done. So there!
PluckyDuck Plucks, and Bleaches and Creams and Waxes
What to do? What to do? Here's what I've tried over the years:
Bleaching. Bleaching worked well for me throughout adolescence. When you bleach, all you do is lighten the hair, you aren't removing anything. I used Jolene Crème Bleach, and learned to time it properly so that I didn't burn half my lip off while lightening. Memo to all of you Jolene users: there is a time when bleaching is no longer an option. If you look in the mirror and see a huge blonde moustache looking back at you, Jolene days are over, it's time to move on to removal.
Depilatory. By the time I reached 19, I had crossed over into the need to remove, not just lighten. I used Nair successfully on legs one day and got it into my head to get Nair Facial Hair Cream Removal for my upper lip. This product comes with the standard disclaimer to "perform a patch test to see if you have any allergies" to the product. Not being highly allergic, but extremely foolish, I ignored the warning. Within a few hours of using Nair, I had a hair-free upper lip and a row of pimples in the shape of a moustache. This Pimple Moustache lasted for days and was not easily explained.
Electrolysis. My experience with electrolysis was brief and uneventful. In my early 20's, I went to the nice man to get rid of my moustache. The nice man took my money, zapped some hairs, and then explained how many times I'd have to come back to maybe, reduce, but probably not eliminate the hair on my upper lip. I can't keep a dentist appointment twice a year, I'm not going to hang out in the electrolysist's office.
Waxing. Waxing my upper lip, for total hair removal, got me through my late 20's and early 30's. Most waxing is messy and involves too much work. Standard wax instructions require you to use a double boiler to melt the wax before you apply it to your upperlip. Yeah, my double boiler. Let's make a cooking project out of hair removal, it's not already a huge enough inconvenience.
I did find, and use regularly, a microwaveable wax (no longer sold) which spread easily and was super convenient. Unfortunately, a few people set fire to their microwaves with it, and they pulled it off of the market. Last year, I tried a new microwaveable kind which was icky and hard to use. Probably has some flame-retardant chemical in it or something. I've also used the wax that comes with its own warmer, (didn't like it) and the cold-wax which you don't have to heat (didn't work for me).
Tweezing. My name PluckyDuck did not come from my friendship with my pair of tweezers, but, if I had thought of it, it would have made a clever inside joke. Tweezing, far and away, has been the least troublesome and most reliable way of removing my facial hair. Yeah, it hurts. But so does every other method of hair removal, except shaving. The biggest problem is, it's very time consuming since the number of offensive hairs on my upper lip, and now the bottom of my chin, have multiplied over the years.
Braun Silk-epil Cosmetic EF20
About four months ago, I was on Selfcare.com, and came across the Braun Silk-epil.
Here's their pitch: "You could spend hours tweezing those numerous and tiny facial hairs or you could use the Braun Silk-epil and do the job in seconds."
Sounded like it was worth a try to me. I knew it would probably be pretty painful, but after what I'd been doing to my upper lip for the last 26 years, I wasn't overly worried. I plunked $32.00, plus shipping and handling, on my VISA, and waited for my package to arrive.
Here's the scoop
What I got: a nicely packaged "kit", containing the thin, nicely styled Silk-epil appliance, a tube of after-epilation cream, cleaning fluid, and a nice storage pouch.
How it works: the Silk-epil has four rotating tweezer heads which whir around, grab the hair and pluck it out in bunches. The tweezer grip is adjustable, allowing you to remove fine hairs or tough hairs. After hair removal, you apply the cream to soothe your red, blotched skin. You also need to clean the appliance before every use with the cleaning solution, with is actually just rubbing alcohol in a fancy bottle.
Does it work: Yeah, sort of. It takes a bit of practice to use the appliance properly. You have to get it close enough to the skin to allow it to grip the hairs, but not so close that you abrade the skin. This can be done, with the right angle, but it takes practice.
I never had much luck with any coarse hairs, but I've found it effective for removing finer hairs that I wouldn't have the patience to tweeze individually.
Does it hurt: Oh, baby, you bet. O-u-c-h! It doesn't take long though, and after 26 years of every form of hair removal, I can gut it up without much of a problem.
Do I use it: I do. I use it about once a month to clean the finer hairs off of my upper lip, under lip and under chin area. I still have to use my trusty $1.00 tweezers, every couple of days, to remove the truly obnoxious individual hairs.
So, would I recommend the Silk-epil to somebody else? It would depend on how much patience she had, her individual tolerance for pain, and how much she wanted to remove the finer hairs.
In general, I'd have to say "no", I wouldn't recommend it. I don't think that the results I've been able to achieve would make the learning curve, or the pain, worth it, to most people. Since I've been through the learning curve, and the pain is no big deal, and the thing is sitting in my dresser, I use it.
Until I get those Laser Hair Removal Treatments I've been reading about! Did you read about those, girls? I'm telling you, that could be just the thing. There was this article in Glamour the other day….
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 32.00
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Epinions.com ID:
pluckyduck
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Member: Andrea Barton Gurney
Location: Almost Philadelphia
Reviews written: 74
Trusted by: 295 members
About Me:
Gone fishing for awhile.
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