Today I want to talk about epilators. Have you heard about them? They’re electric razor looking contraptions with rotating tweezer-like discs, and despite sounding like a military torture device, are actually awesome.

At some point I started noticing people’s underarms, specifically, other women’s underarms, which were hairless and also looked notably nicer because they just looked like bare skin and not the five o’clock shadow underarm that many razor-using women sport. This is achieved by essentially removing the hair, so the underarm lacks the hair follicle which makes it appear dark under the skin.

Enter The Epilator. No idea where I first discovered them, but I do remember watching countless youtube videos of girls demonstrating and touting the benefits of this holy grail product. After reading every last review on every epilator available (it’s what I do), I eventually ordered the Panasonic Wet/Dry Two Speed Epilator with Three Heads (PS: latest version from Panasonic here), because I figured using it in the shower with steam and body wash sounded a lot less scary than dry ripping hair out of my armpit, and also because if I wasn’t woman enough for this operation after all, at least I could use it as an electric razor.

It turns out that I am woman enough (huzzahh!! hear me roar!), and I use it religiously. It works like this: the tiny discs (see below) rotate and grab your hair like tweezers, except there are a lot of discs, so it’s like 20 tweezers at once. I read over and over that as long as you pull your skin taut, it won’t get caught in the discs, but I’ve never put any particular effort into it. Just holding my arm up in the hair seems to do the trick, and I’ve never once had my skin caught.

The first time you use it, there is a definite ouch factor, but if you can bare it for 30 seconds, your armpit becomes pretty numb to the pain. Subsequent uses are even less painful because 1. you get used to it, and 2. there is less hair. The epilator I purchased has a little guard that goes over it for beginners, which keeps it from getting as much hair at once, but I ripped it off after 10 seconds because I would rather just get it over with.

The results? Smooth, smooth skin. Like baby butt smooth. I went around having various family members feel my armpits because OMG HOW SMOOTH ARE THEY?? SO SMOOTH. Now I no longer shave my armpits (ever), and use the epilator no more than once a week to get the few hairs that have grown (which also appear lighter and thinner since they aren’t hacked off the way shaving your underarms does).

Have you ever epilated? If you want to try, I highly recommend the one I have, but Braun and Emjoi seem to be popular as well. If you have any questions, I’m happy to answer them in the comments.

UPDATE: It appears Panasonic has replaced the epilator I have with this Wet/Dry Epilator. It only takes 1 hour to charge, vs. the one I have which takes 12. Obviously I’ll be upgrading!

UPDATE #2: I’ve been trying out sugar waxing and wrote a post about it, if you’re interested.