Epilating

[Shannah]

Hey Girls,

I've been shaving my lower half since the start of summer. I was having problems with ingrown hairs, up high on my inner thighs and on my butt, so I decided to try epilating. It was a long and sometimes painful process but, I got through it and was happy with my smooth legs. Now my hair is growing back and it appears almost every hair on my lower legs is ingrown. At least they aren't infected, like the ingrowns I got from shaving. Is this something thing that will go away, once my skin gets used to it? I exfoliate like crazy and moisturize every day. Any tips or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Shan

[racquel]

I found ingrown hairs are common and ongoing.I am commited to waxing.Lasts long and is easy to do.Try it you'll be hooked.:p

[Tamara Croft]

Unfortunetly this seems to be a big problem with epilating. When you wax your legs, or shave them, you remove the hair in the opposite direction of the growth. With epilation, this isn't always the case. When you epilate, a lot of people tend to make the mistake of using it like an electric razor (up and down, side to side), this is incorrect and you should use the epilator the same way you would wax off the hairs, against the growth. Another reason you will get a lot of ingrowing hairs is due to the fact, epilators tend to break a lot of the hairs, rather than pull them out, again this is caused by incorrect usage.

Ingrown hairs are really hard to get rid of. I would suggest buying an exfoliant that has sea salt in it and exfoliate once a week. You could also use a sterilsed pin to hook the hair out and then use a pair of sterilized tweezers to pull the hair out. Remember you must moisturise the legs after you have used an exfoliant, but I would recommend using an after-wax lotion containing either tea-tree or aloe vera.

[Rikki Elisabeth]

Find a salon and get waxed. It is the only way.

[Shannah]

Thanks for thr replies. I'm using the epilator according to the instructions, against the hair growth. I use sea salt or sugar scrub 3-4 times a week, a nylon scrubby every shower and lotion twice a day.Salon waxing is too expensive for me, not to mention I just spent $60 on my epilator. If the problem is hairs breaking off, is there a way to minimize it. I'll try a couple more times and see if there's an improvement, if not I'll go back to shaving.

Thanks, Shan

[PennyAnne]

This way works for me.
I use my epilator (emjoi from Sharper Image) in the morning before I shower.
During my shower I rub my legs briskly with a lufa. After showering, I use witchhazel on my legs. I then put on my makeup. By the time my hair and makeup are done, my legs are dry and I use a good quality moisturizer. You might want to try Aveeno Daily Moisturizer. It is fragrance free so doesn't conflict with your own perfume. The Aveeno product is quite reasonably priced and doesn't leave you feeling greasy. You feel silky smooth all day. I've been doing this routine for three years now. My hair is now very fine and comes out with hardly a tingle. It's good for a month, and you have ho stubble except for the last two or three days. You have to allow a little regrowth for the emjoi to catch properly. In my case, I use it for two or three days the first week to catch any ones that I may have missed. When I first began I had a few ingrown hairs, now I hardly ever have any.
May razor's use is reserved for underarms. I tried the emjoi there once....never again!!!!!!!!!!!

[DonnaCD_54]

I have also noticed that the more you use it the less problems you will have and the easyer it will be