Braun 5185 SILK-ÉPIL X'elle SOLO EASY Sta

...the choice was between a Braun one and a Philips one, and I decided in the end to go with Braun as their epilators have more tweezers per head than Phillips do. Having compared all the models on Braun’s website I decide to go for the cheapest one as I did not need the shaver attachment (already got a few electric razors) or the other attachments for underarms and eyebrows. I bought it about a month ago for £39.99 in Boots, it was on offer at the ...
...might hurt more). According to Braun it removes more hairs in one stroke than any other epilator. The head also has something Braun call SoftLift tips which are there to raise flat hairs and problem hairs making them easier to remove, and it can even remove hairs as short as 0.5mm. You put a cap over the head, and it comes with a choice of two. One cap has the 'active massaging rollers', which move in four directions and stimulate the skin before ... more

I hate shaving my legs, it is a complete pain, it takes up far too much time and my ankles always react and go all bobbly. As I have fair hair I can get away with shaving every three days at most, but if I could magic away the hair forever I would. With the prospect of another summer of wearing skirts most days I decided to look into other methods of hair removal that may last a bit longer. The options seemed to be waxing and epilation. I had no intention of home waxing so it would have to be a salon job, and having seen the results of someone else’s waxed skin, and seem the reaction their skin had I decide this was not for me. So that left epilation, which sounded like self induced torture. I looked into it on the web and read a few reviews to see how others had got on. The general consensus seemed to be that it hurt, a lot, but less so with time, and the results lasted a fair while, and the regrowth was finer.

I decided to go ahead and purchase an epilator, the choice was between a Braun one and a Philips one, and I decided in the end to go with Braun as their epilators have more tweezers per head than Phillips do. Having compared all the models on Braun’s website I decide to go for the cheapest one as I did not need the shaver attachment (already got a few electric razors) or the other attachments for underarms and eyebrows. I bought it about a month ago for £39.99 in Boots, it was on offer at the time and should have been £49.99, but annoyingly it is even cheaper there now (always the way).

The Product

The epilator is an oval shape, sort of the shape of a large pebble, the main body of it is a glittery green colour. This model is the basic model and comes with a silver net bag to keep all the bits in and the starter pack. From what I can gather each model is the same but a different colour, with different attachments depending also on the model. All the models come with the active massage rollers, SmartLight and efficiency pro cap. All are mains operated and have two speeds, fast and slow, and all come with a cleaning brush and pouch.

The main head contains 40 tweezers which allows you to remove more hair with each sweep, so in theory it will take you less time (although might hurt more). According to Braun it removes more hairs in one stroke than any other epilator. The head also has something Braun call SoftLift tips which are there to raise flat hairs and problem hairs making them easier to remove, and it can even remove hairs as short as 0.5mm. You put a cap over the head, and it comes with a choice of two. One cap has the 'active massaging rollers', which move in four directions and stimulate the skin before and after hair removal to help minimize the pain. The other cap is called the Efficiency Pro cap, and allows for a wider skin coverage to increase the efficiency of the epilator (hence the name). The SmartLight is automatically turned on when you switch the device on, and is basically a torch shining onto the path of the epilator to illuminate the hairs. This model comes with the EasyStart set (some don't), this consists of a cooling glove and a starter head. The starter head has fewer tweezers than the main head so that fewer hairs are pulled out at once, so it doesn't hurt as much and lets you get used to the process. The cooling glove is basically a gel ice pack that you put in the freezer for at least 2 hours before you want to use it, you then put it in its glove and it numbs the skin making it less painful. It is apparently approved by dermatologists (why?, its plastic for heavens sake) and soothes the skin minimizing any discomfort.

Other models can come with an additional shaver head attachment, a narrow epilation head (for underarms and bikini area) and a precision head (for use on the face, it only has 4 tweezers), but none of the epilators come with all of the options. The power cable is quite long so you don't need an extension cable.

The Basics of Epilation

Epilators are basically an electrical device used to remove hair, they are a similar size and shape to an electric razor. Most epilators have a rotating head which contains lots of tweezers to pluck the hair out at the root. Because the hair is removed from the roots the results can last up to four weeks. When the hairs grow back they will be finer and sparser compared with after shaving, and it is a myth that epilation increases hair growth or makes the hairs darker when they do grow back. Epilators are mainly used to remove hair form legs but can be used on underarms and the bikini line (ouch). As the hairs are in different stages of the growth cycle it can take a few attempts before you achieve a state of prolonged smoothness. This also means that after the first epilation, assuming you epilate at regular intervals, there will be fewer hairs to remove each time.

Epilation Advice I Have Found

• The best time to epilate is in the evening, this will give any skin irritation the chance to fade overnight.
• Make sure your skin is dry and free from grease or creams before epilating.
• Rub the skin beforehand to lift the hairs to and upright position.
• Guide the epilator against the direction of hair growth (so for legs from ankle to knee).
• Hold the epilator at a 90 degree angle against the skin.
• Stretching the skin with your other hand makes the hairs stand up so they can be removed better.
• Regularly exfoliate the skin to avoid in-grown hairs.
• If you need to apply a moisturiser after epilation use one that is fragrance free and avoid using very rich or oily lotions as they can increase the risk of skin irritation.

My Experience

Having read how painful it can be I decided to take preventative measures and took 2 ibuprofen tables at 8pm. I then read the instructions manual and 20 minutes later I decided to go for it, I got the gel pack out of the freezer, laid a big towel on the bed and plugged the machine in. To start off with, as suggested in the manual, I used the starter head. This contains fewer tweezers than the main head so it pulls fewer hairs out in one go, and hence hurts less for beginners until they get used to it. I put the gel pack in its glove, then realised I’d put it in the wrong bit and started again. I decided to start with my left inner ankle, I placed the ice pack on it for 30 seconds (it is recommended to leave the ice pack on for between 30 seconds to 2 minutes, but not for any longer). This was very painful, but at least my leg was numb. I dried my leg and turned the epilator on to full. I had had a play with it when I was reading the instructions so knew how loud it was, but it still gave me a little shock, it is very noisy. I placed it on my ankle and began. All I can say is ouch. Even with my ankle numb it hurt. I looked at the patch I had just done and was rather disappointed. Rather than there being a nice hair free strip like you get with shaving, there were still hairs. It was clear I was going to have to go over each section of leg many times for it to be smooth and hair free. I continued anyway, numbing my leg then going over it with the epilator until I had done half of the front of my left leg. At this point I got fed up with the ice pack and ditched it. It is probably worth talking about how painful it is at this point. Pain is a personal thing and everyone has different pain thresholds, but I was expecting from the reviews I had read for the pain to be eye watering. It did not hurt as much as I was expecting it to, nowhere near. At the time I put this down to the painkillers I had taken, I thought they must be working and what a good idea it had been. Now even without painkillers the pain is bearable, it’s more like a prickling sensation. I did the rest of my left leg without the ice pack, it took my over an hour. Having gotten thoroughly bored and fed up with the whole process I decide to move onto the normal head for my right leg. It hurt more but I quickly got used to it. I found by the end what was hurting the most was the massaging rollers and the heat of the tweezers after having been on for two hours. I had to turn it down from full speed to gentle in the end, not because of the pain of the hairs being removed but because I could no longer take the pummelling the rollers were giving me. In total to remove the hair from my legs, including lower thighs and knees, took just over two hours. The result? My legs were hair free as far as I could see but were definitely not smooth. In places where the hairs had been pulled out the pore was raised. My legs looked all blotchy from where the hairs had been pulled out, but once again not as bad as I had come to believe they would look, and I thought the marks could have just been down to the massaging rollers leaving marks on my legs. The skin on my legs didn’t hurt like it does after shaving so I did not need to put any moisturiser on. So thoroughly fed up and bored I went to bed. Next morning I admired my smooth legs. All the redness had gone and they felt smooth and hair free. I made sure I exfoliated my legs for the next few days.

Unfortunately the hairs started to grow back a few days later, so one week on from the first time, I epilated again. This took nowhere near as long. This time I used the efficiency pro head, partly because I thought the hairs might have got missed in the first place as the other head does not sit as close to the skin and secondly because I could not face the pummelling again. Once again within a few days hairs were growing back. I read somewhere that it can take a few attempts until you get hair free skin for weeks. Unfortunately I found out the hard way just how important it is to exfoliate regularly. After the first epilation session I exfoliate for a few days and then got lazy and didn't bother. I rather stupidly didn't exfoliate after the second session, so the third time I came to epilate a week later I noticed that a lot of the hairs weren't being plucked out by the epilator. On closer inspection I discovered that they had not broken through the skin and were lying flat just beneath the surface. Utterly horrified I got out my tweezers and tried to pluck them out, a very painful and longwinded experience, not recommended at all. After that I made sure that I exfoliated, at least every other day.

Just under a week later I epilated for the fourth time, that was about a week ago. The hairs are still starting to grow back within a few days. My legs are nowhere near as hairy as if I had shaved but I certainly could not show them off. Because of all the ingrown hairs and my attempts to remove them my legs look a right mess. I have decided to let the hair grow a bit longer then go back to shaving for a while, I'm hoping this will remove the surface layer of skin that is trapping some of the hairs. Once I have sorted out that problem I am going to start again with the epilation, but this time I will exfoliate religiously.

I can't blame the epilator for the problems I've had. It works very well at removing the hairs, and hopefully with regular use my legs will be smoother for longer. The main advantage epilation has over shaving is that it does not irritate my legs. At the moment the results do last a few days longer than shaving, but it takes me currently just under an hour to do both legs, which is less than ideal. I've read that it takes some people only 10 minutes so maybe it will take less time in the future when I am better at it and the regrowth is sparser. I wanted to save time by epilating rather than shaving, and as seeing that is only takes my 15 minutes to shave them and I would have to do that 2 or 3 times a week I would be happy if I could get away with epilating only once a week. Any more than that and I can't be doing with it.

The only problem I have had with the epilator itself is that I find it difficult to remove the finer hairs, especially around my knees. No matter how many times I go over them there are always some very short hairs left. Because these have been trimmed rather than plucked they grow back quicker so I would have to do my knees more often than the rest of my legs.

I found that the pain was very bearable. It hurts the most in the first minute or so each time I use it, but the pain lessens until I can hardly notice it at all. Do not let the thought of how painful it could be put you off buying an epilator; it doesn't hurt as much as you would think. I have not used it on my underarms and have no intention of ever doing so therefore I can't comment on how much that hurts, but I would imagine it would hurt an awful lot. I am not that brave.

In summary this is a very good product. I would recommend it, it does hurt at first but you soon get used to it and the regrowth takes longer to appear than with shaving, and is finer and sparser when it does. The epilator does cost a lot of money, but this is a one off outlay (apart from the electricity) so think of all the money you will be saving by not buying razors and shaving foam. The starter pack is useful and I think it is best to buy one with it than without. But please remember to exfoliate afterwards so you don't end up in the mess that I did. If you are fed up with shaving I would recommend giving epilation a go, and this Braun epilator is very good. 

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