Would you be interested in trying out Braun’s latest epilator, the Silk-Epil 7 Xpressive Pro? We would love to send you one.

Oooh yes please, thanks!

In my enthusiasm in wanting to try out something I’ve never done before, epilate, it finally dawned on me that it was something I’ve never done before. Epilate. Hang on, isn’t that tweezing a lot of your hair at one go? Did I just agree to that?

It might seem weird to you, but I’ve never removed hair from my legs and arms before. The hairs on my legs are so fine, they’re hardly even noticable when I’m in a skirt or shorts. The hairs on my arms are thicker, but they’ve never really been a problem. Plus, growing up in Malaysia and with my parents, I get quite a lot of crap from my mum when I even suggested shaving my legs. “Aiyoh*, you shave one, three grows back! They become thicker! You’ll have rough skin!“. Of course, I was young then, didn’t know any better, didn’t know the anatomy of a single hair, etc.

I digress.

A couple of weeks later, the epilator arrived. It gave me the giggles as to how it arrived. The courier rang my doorbell, asked me for my name and handed me this large beach bag. It contained a beach towel, silk scarf and the boxed epilator. He gave me such a quizzical look when he held the beach bag to me with two fingers (“what crazy package is this? I have more important parcels to deliver, yo!“).

I immediately shot an email to Val, and messaged Legeeque over Gmail chat, bombarding them with questions on how to use it, the best times to use it, best ways to use it. Ways that will give me minimal amount of pain. Yes, I’m chickenshit to pain when it comes to hair. Surprisingly, you can pull hair off my head and I won’t feel a thing, thanks to a bout of trichotillomania I had years ago (that’s a whole different story altogether, which I will tell you some day).

Both recommended I epilate on dry skin, and to begin with the legs. Alrighty, so I did. Warned my husband about any sounds he’d hear of me in the loo, and that I love him just in case I don’t make it. Drama queen, much? Of course.

Thank God, the epilating experience was all right. There was a slight stinging sensation on my legs and arms as I epilated, but it didn’t actually hurt. Since it was my first time, my skin became patches of red after epilation. That’s normal, and the user manual suggested I apply body moisturiser to soothe the skin and redness. I slapped on body cream and some aloe vera gel. The latter completely eased the stinging sensation, and the redness was gone the very next morning.

And for the first time in my life, I have fuzz-free arms and legs.

Cue “HALLELUJAH!”

Since I’ve never epilated before, I cannot compare the Silk-Epil 7 with other epilators. Still, I’m glad it was completely fuss-free, and gave me minimal pain the first time I tried it. After a while, epilating became a doozy. Here are some of my tips for a first-timer:
– Do it on dry skin. It gets to hair better, and you finish quicker.
– Shave the area first, and let it grow back up to 0.5mm before epilating. The Silk-Epil 7 comes with a shaver and trimmer that do the trimming for you if you don’t want to wait. I stupidly tried to epilate my arm hair untrimmed. It felt like pulling UHU or super glue off your skin. Yowza.
– Aloe vera gel is great for soothing the stinging sensation.
– Try on your legs and arms first, before you proceed to the underarm area. The underarms are more sensitive and it’s going to be painful the first time.
– Forget epilating “down there”, it hurts donkey balls.

All in all, I’m loving the epilator and my fuzz-free arms and legs, all in time for summer. Which made me wonder, why the heck did it take me so long to try epilating?!

Braun Silk-epil Xpressive 7681WD retails at AU$208.95 and is available at selected electrical outlets and major department stores.

*Aiyoh = a Malaysian exclamation.