Moving into High Gear: Braun Silk-epil 7280 Xpressive Epilator

Hair removal methods. We can't live without them. Unless you are Monique, most of us either shave, wax or use depilatory creams to remove our leg hair (and some).

Me? I am more of a waxer. The results last longer and the hairs grow back finer. The only problems I encountered with leg waxing were the occasional burns from too-hot wax or when I accidentally drop a cold wax strip on the carpet.

Carpets don't like being waxed, by the way.

So for my birthday last year, I bought an epilator for myself. My boyfriend actually offered to buy it for me but I told him that friends might think that he found me too hairy and decided to drop a not-so subtle hint. I forgot what he finally got for me but I am sure it was a lot more romantic.

After much dithering and reading, I decided on getting an epilator from the Braun Silk-epil Xpressive line. The cheapest I could find was the 7280 model and I ended up getting it off eBay for about AUD 150. I think it was selling for over AUD 200 in normal stores at the time.

This pink thing is the most expensive item in my beauty arsenal and I have no regrets so far. It comes with 3 different head attachments: a beginner's epilator cap, a normal cap and a shaving/ hair trimming attachment. While I haven't tried using the shaver head, the others work fine though I prefer using the normal cap head.

Epilators work by having a revolving head which rapidly yanks out your hair. If you are used to waxing, epilating doesn't hurt all that much and if you aren't used to it, the Xpressive models allow you choose between 2 speeds of hair yanking: fast and faster, or speeds 1 and 2. I prefer setting mine on speed 1 as I usually go over the same area couple of times before moving on.

The only drawbacks I have found with my epilator so far are firstly, it doesn't always yank out hairs by the root so I sometimes have to epilate a couple of days later. The second is that it is kind of noisy.

(A good friend in uni used to use hers at night so you could sometimes hear it whirring when you passed her door. It's good thing our room walls (she was my neighbour then) were thick. But some people thought that she was drilling a hole in the wall or since it was 1 a.m., others thought she was up to no good with a vibrator.)

There is no denying that epilators are pricey but when you sit down and do the math, you end up saving more in the long run. I wax about once every 3 weeks (ie. 17 times a year) and spend about AUD 15 on a pack of cold strips each time. That adds up to about AUD 255 annually.

Think of the amount of money I would have left for skincare! Or a Clarisonic system.

Hmm.