Okay, so I realize tons of you have never heard of epilating before, and I have no clue why! Hair removal is one of the biggest downsides to being female. I am in no way saying that females should remove body hair, it is a personal choice, but most of us choose to. I am going to briefly go over different methods of hair removal and the positives and negatives for each. I am not discussing threading and the Bellabe/spring thingies in this post because those are primarily used for facial hair. I have just discovered epilating and I wish I had known about it earlier! Epilators are basically devices that have multiple tweezers that rotate really fast and pull out hair by the root. There are cordless ones, battery operated ones, and chargeable ones, some can be used in the shower, some come with massaging heads, there are SO many options. Don't be scared to try it because of the pain factor! It is not that bad and it is so worth being hair free for the next week at the least!
SHAVING
Pros: fast, easy, cheap, usually not irritating to the skin, smooth to touch afterwards
Cons: hair *seems* to grow back thicker (really it doesn't, but if it looks like it does it might as well be), stubbly/prickliness, can see the hair underneath the skin sometimes or the little black dots (five o'clock shadow), cuts/nicks/scrapes, very short lived results
WAXING
Pros: pulls hair out from the root so results last a while, smooth to touch afterwards, won't see hair under the skin, no stubbly/prickly feeling when the hair grows back, hair grows back finer and patchy (because hair grows in different cycles and some follicles are damaged enough that they no longer grow hair)
Cons: expensive at a salon, they sell cheaper at home kits but they may be tricky to use effectively, can cause ingrown hairs, may irritate the skin, painful, have to wait for the hair to grow out a bit before you can wax again
DEPILATORY CREAMS (Nair, Veet, etc.)
Pros: fast, easy, smooth to touch afterwards
Cons: made of harsh chemicals that can irritate, burn, and darken the skin, results are short lived, can see hair underneath, prickliness/stubble when hair grows back, this is pretty much shaving with chemicals instead of a razor
EPILATING
Pros: pulls hair out from the root so results last a while, cheaper (in the long run), won't see hair under the skin, no stubbly/prickly feeling when the hair grows back, hair grows back finer and patchy (because hair grows in different cycles and some follicles are damaged enough that they no longer grow hair)
Cons: can cause ingrown hairs, painful, does not get the super tiny hairs so it will not be SUPER smooth to the touch, may cause redness afterwards
