It can’t have escaped your notice that summer is now well and truly here and as such my usual jeans or wooly tights have been abandoned in favour of summer dresses, skirts and cropped trousers. But, as all women, especially dark haired ones like myself, will know, pulling on a skirt or a pair of shorts isn’t always that straightforward. Let’s not get into a debate about whether or not women should remove body hair, but I think it’s an accepted fact that lots of us choose to do so and want to have smooth legs when we head out – especially if our legs are on display.
Now I’ve never got on with waxing – a bad experience as a teenager – so I’ve always relied on my trusty razor to keep my legs smooth, but it is a task that I need to do every couple of days to keep my legs really smooth. Let’s be honest – it’s a time consuming faff. I’d rather not have to do it, but I hate having hairy legs even more, so I do just get on and do it.
When I was asked if I wanted to review the new Braun Silk-epil 9 I was a bit hesitant at first. Epilating is supposed to hurt isn’t it? But then I read about people not having to epilate again for a whole four weeks (really?) and a chat with a friend who already uses an epilator confirmed that she can now easily manage 4 weeks between sessions. Four weeks? Wow! Nothing ventured, nothing gained so I decided to give it a whirl.
Now the beauty about the Braun Silk-epil 9 is that it does so much! I had assumed that an epilator was just for use on your legs, yet the Silk-epil 9 comes with all sorts of attachments for epilating other places like the bikini line, or even your face (no way am I brave enough to try that yet!) and also has a separate razor head too, so if you do completely chicken out that can be used like a regular electric razor instead. And even better still – you can use it wet or dry – so it can be used in the shower or the bath if you want to.
As a rechargable unit it comes with a snazzy base that it can sit on whilst it charges, and you just need to plug it in to a shaver socket much like you do an electric toothbrush. Since getting it three weeks ago I’ve actually only had to charge it the once so good seems to be the battery in it. It’s also fair to say that it’s a really nicely designed unit too. It’s very ergonomic and fits in my hand really well. There’s a dial switch on the front from which you can select one of two different speeds for epilating and there’s also a really handy light which helps you see what you’re doing. When I first saw this I had assumed it was a bit of a gimmick, bit actually it is really useful, as I found that wherever I sat to epilate my legs you always somehow end up block the light so the little light on it really helped.
The epilating itself was no where near as painful as I was expecting – yes around the ankles and the knees it can be a bit sore, but if you just pull the skin taught first it honestly isn’t too bad at all – and on the main parts of the lower leg I hardly noticed it. In a few areas I did notice a bit of slightly irritated skin immediately after epilating but I slapped on a good amount of moisturiser afterwards and all was fine again in the morning. My legs in general did seem very dry afterwards but lots of moisturiser helped sort that out.
To me the most interesting thing was the re-growth. The hair on my legs noticeably grew back much softer than it had been before and I was able to go a full two weeks without having to do anything more than use a pair of tweezers to pull out the odd hair that had been missed when epilating the first time. I was totally amazed by this – and very pleasantly surprised by it. With all this hot weather and skirt wearing it has saved me a huge amount of time in the last three weeks alone – and I’m guessing much more over the course of the whole summer.
From a money saving point of view not only have I saved on razor blades and shaving foam in this time, but also the extra time I would have previously been running a shower whilst shaving my legs. Just imagine if I had been paying to have my legs waxed regularly somewhere. The costs savings over that would have been huge!
Overall I’m really really impressed with the Braun Silk-epil 9 and I’m definitely now a convert to epilating. I’ve not yet braved the underarm area and have only had mixed success with the bikini line, but I’m determined to try it out properly as being able to totally ditch my razor would be very liberating – and quite a big time saver too! And just in case you need any more reasons to give epilating a whirl – Braun themselves have pulled together these six reasons to epilate.
In fact the only reason I’ve found not to have a Braun Silk-epil 9 in my life is that it makes my electric toothbrush look really tatty and old sat next to it on the bathroom shelf!
Disclaimer: I was sent a Braun Silk-epil 9 for the purposes of this review. All opinions remain my own. This post contains an affiliate link.
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