Thank you Clara for offering to be our LHR test subject! I am very interested to see the results. I purchased an epliator over the weekend and it seems quite effective but very painful! It worked nicely on the hair between my breasts on my sternum which has proven notoriously difficult to shave!
I will need to work up the courage to use it on the rest on my body!

-A

When I first started to use an epilator it was excruciatingly painful, too. Hairs that have never been pulled out before are painful to pull out. Subsequent extractions are much less painful. I hardly notice the pain now after three or four epilations. The trick at first is limit the amount of hair pulled out at once. Some epilators come with a beginners head, that exposes fewer tweezers. You can also gradually work into an area of hair to limit the amount of hair getting uprooted on each pass of the head.

Have you experienced the red, swollen bumps after epilating? The itching is particularly unwelcome, especially at night. I'm hoping the laser will avoid that. It seems to be doing the trick for me.

Clara

Thank you Clara for offering to be our LHR test subject! I am very interested to see the results. I purchased an epliator over the weekend and it seems quite effective but very painful! It worked nicely on the hair between my breasts on my sternum which has proven notoriously difficult to shave!
I will need to work up the courage to use it on the rest on my body!

-A

When I first started to use an epilator it was excruciatingly painful, too. Hairs that have never been pulled out before are painful to pull out. Subsequent extractions are much less painful. I hardly notice the pain now after three or four epilations. The trick at first is limit the amount of hair pulled out at once. Some epilators come with a beginners head, that exposes fewer tweezers. You can also gradually work into an area of hair to limit the amount of hair getting uprooted on each pass of the head.

Have you experienced the red, swollen bumps after epilating? The itching is particularly unwelcome, especially at night. I'm hoping the laser will avoid that. It seems to be doing the trick for me.

Clara

I have noticed the Bumps but thankfully not the itching! I will try to ease into an area to see if it makes a difference. I wonder if I can get some kind of topical anesthetic?

-A

One thing about using an epilator is that it does become easier with time and repeated usage.

The only places where it will still grow fairly thickly are the underarms and groin.

Seems I might be the luckiest one here ^.^

I have an allergy to a certain type of chemical used in some a lot of deodorants, which after one application has caused my hair to fall out in the areas I applied it.

10 years since I used it, and the hair still won't grow :3

who'd have thought being allergic to deodorant would ever be a plus
(and I still don't need to worry about smelling bad if I fork out a bit extra for some nice perfume)


that said I didn't spray it all over my body, so I'm rather interested in how Clara's laser goes.

With respect to bumps and ingrown hairs, girls, you might want to try something called Tend Skin. It appeared to work for me a few years ago when I had some body waxes.

The redness and itching of my shaved and epilated skin was particularly awful yesterday, some 2 days later. My only relief comes from ice packing the skin. I checked my NBE log to review the time line related to this unfortunate development, and noticed something very interesting.

Although I've been shaving and epilating since October of last year, the itching problem didn't really develop until late last month (January). A log entry noted that I started taking Spearmint on January 19th, 10 days prior to the first log entry calling attention to the itching. I remember that the itching was bothering me some, but I thought it was just where in-grown hairs occurred. On February 2, I added the anti-androgen Pygeum to my program. It's since then that I've experienced the more severe redness, welting, and itching that been driving me nuts!

So, no surprise, I've stopped taking both Spearmint and Pygeum as of today to see if the problem goes away. If and when it does, I will shave, epilate, and laser my thighs to see if the skin condition still happens. If not, I'll add the Spearment back for a week, then the Pygeum, and watch for the allergic reaction to return. I really want to figure this out.

BTW, since adding anti-androgens to my program, I've not gotten up at night to urinate, and even in the morning, the urge to pee is not that great. I've never had an enlarged prostate according to my doctor so that was not the reason for night time toilet breaks before.

Curiouser and curiouser...

Clara

One thing about using an epilator is that it does become easier with time and repeated usage.

My experience as well. I have found that a thin coat of talcum powder on the area to be epilated reduces friction and reduces the likelihood of abrasion.

Well I'm shaving about a third of the way down my legs, or pretty much to what would be the bottom of most shorts. I have been thinking about "going all the way", just need to gather the courage to. Wanting to get an epilator too but just have not gotten around to it (perhaps next week when the misses is out of town).

On that note, the leg and chest hair is coming back in slower than previously, and I'm really only needing to shave every three days to keep it smooth. There was also a patch of hair that had been growing larger and larger over the last several years on my back between my shoulder blades just below the neck. I used to pluck the hairs, then it got to be so many that I was shaving this section too. I'm happy to report that nothing has grown back in this area in almost three weeks, so something is changing within me to make this happen!

I don't notice my hair growing slower, but on my chest, which I aggressively keep free of hair, I noticed that there are new hairs growing out which are colorless and very fine. I know they are new hairs because they are more painful to pluck.

Clara

No Spearmint or Pygeum today. My itching has already subsided drastically and the redness almost gone. It would seem that I'm allergic to one or the other or both of these herbs. Let's see how it goes tonight and tomorrow.

Clara (encountering her first negative reaction to NBE herbs)