Author: Heather McClure

At first, choosing an epilator seems like a pretty straightforward process. It just pulls hair out like tweezers, how complicated can it be? But a little further investigation and you’ll find that there are many different types of epilators on the market these days. So many, in fact, that choosing one to buy is overwhelming.

In this article, I will break down the three main types of epilators for you, plus explain all the other major variations on the market. With this information, you should have a good foundation for deciding on your next epilator purchase.

The Three Main Types of Epilators

If we divide epilators based on how they grab hairs, then there are basically three types of epilators: spring, disc, and tweezer.

Spring Type Epilators

In 1986, an Israeli company called Epilady released the first epilator. This epilator was the spring type. Spring type epilators have metal coils that rotate and move in a fashion that squeezes the coils together and then apart so they can grab hairs, pull them out, then open up to release the hairs.

Here’s a spring type Epilady epilator:

The springs on these are easily worn out and need to be replaced often. They also have a higher chance of pinching the skin and typically take more passes to pull out all hairs.

Spring epilators have mostly fallen out of popularity as newer designs have been created, although there are some manual spring type epilators still available to buy, like this one:

Rotating Disc Type Epilators

The spring type epilator was a commercial success, but the springs’ low durability made them less than ideal. In response to this, Remington used the epilator concept from Epilady, but changed up the design slightly, using an element made up of rubber discs instead of springs.

These discs were stronger and lasted longer. The discs work in much the same way as springs, though, rotating and coming together to grab hairs and pull them out and then moving apart to release the hairs. But compared to the metal coils, these discs were stronger, lasted longer, and were less painful to use.

This Lady Remington Smooth & Silky epilator commercial from 1989 shows how this type of epilator worked:

Soon after, this design began using rotating metal plates, as seen in this Braun Silk-épil model from 1990:

Tweezer Type Epilators

After more years of refining the design of epilators, most companies are now selling tweezer type epilators. As the name suggests, they work like tweezers. These epilators have a head with multiple metal plates. The plates rotate continuously to move together like tweezers, pull out hairs, then release.

This video demonstrates how the tweezer type epilator works:

Other Types of Epilators

Spring, disc, and tweezer are the three main types of epilator design. However, there are many other ways to categorize epilators. Let’s explore some of the other types of epilators.

Corded vs Cordless Epilators

You can find corded, cordless and dual epilators on the market.

Corded epilators have an attached cord that must be plugged into the wall when using the epilator. In the past, almost all epilators were the corded type.

Then there are cordless types that run on batteries. These have less power but are typically smaller and more convenient for traveling.

Today, most epilators are a combo type similar to cell phones: they have a rechargeable battery and a removable charging cord. You plug the epilator in to charge it and then you can remove it from the cord to use the epilator with more ease. However, if you don’t have time to fully charge it before you need to use it, you can leave it plugged in and charging while you use it.

Wet and Dry Epilators

Corded epilators are always dry epilators. That means they can’t be used in water. For many epilator users, this isn’t a big deal.

However, water makes epilator pain less intense, so many epilators are now designed to be waterproof. These “wet and dry” epilator models are the corded/cordless types so that you can charge the epilators, then remove the cord to use them in the shower or bath.

Manual Epilators vs Electric Epilators

All mechanical epilators are electric epilators. They won’t work without a power source. Most epilators fall into this category.

But there are also manual epilators. These are super simple versions of the spring type epilators.

They are basically just one long spring with handles on each end. You hold the handles and roll the spring against your skin. As you are rolling, the coils grab hairs and pull them out.

These are really inexpensive and use no electricity, but they lack durability and just don’t work very well. Most people use them for peach fuzz or small areas of facial hair, like in this video:

Body Epilators vs Leg Epilators

You may notice that some epilator descriptions seem to make a distinction between epilators for legs and epilators for the body. This seems odd because the legs are usually considered part of the body, right?

The main difference is that epilators designed for the legs usually can cover a larger area quickly and put less attention into reducing irritation and pain. Legs generally can take more pain and speed and don’t need to be handled as gently.

Epilators designated for the body are typically designed for sensitive areas like underarms and the bikini area. They have a smaller head to epilate a small area at a time and may have lower speeds.

Most epilators you will find are for both legs and body. They usually do this by having different caps to put on the heads. They also may have different speeds so you can use lower speeds on more sensitive areas.

Facial Epilators

There are very few epilators on the market specifically designed for facial hair only. These models are smaller and lighter, with narrow heads so you can gracefully navigate around the face to remove upper lip, chin, forehead, and eyebrow hair. They use less power, so are often a little slower and quieter, which provides a more gentle experience for the more delicate areas of your face.

Besides epilators for face only, most of the top epilator models come with attachments so you can use them for the face. This can work fine for a lot of people, but larger epilators and harder to maneuver around the face.

Women’s Epilators vs Men’s Epilators

If you couldn’t tell from the feminine designs and the overabundance of purple, pink, and light blue, almost every model of epilator is designed for and marketed to women.

But there are a few epilators out there marketed specifically to men. There are three features that usually distinguish these from the other epilators on the market:

Men’s epilators are typically black or another “manly” color. Gotta love gender stereotypes, right?

They are also usually designed to remove coarser hair as the body hair on most men is a bit thicker and coarser than women’s body hair.

And men’s epilators usually come with a trimmer attachment.

However, almost all the best epilators for women these days come with trimmer attachments and can remove coarse hairs, so men don’t necessarily need an epilator “for men,” unless they just can’t handle a “girly” color or design.

Types of Epilator Brands

There are dozens of companies that make epilators. However, the most popular and reputable brands currently selling in the United States include Braun, Panasonic, Emoji, Philips, Remington, and of course, Epilady.

Most of these companies specialize in personal care products like epilators and trimmers.

Final Takeways

Epilators have a come a long way since they first hit the market in 1986. Whether you need one to just keep your brows groomed or you want to remove hair all over your body, there is probably a type of epilator that will meet your needs.

Related Questions

What’s the best beginner epilator?

In my opinion, the overall best epilator is the Braun Silk-épil 9. However, if you are a beginner, I recommend the Emjoi Epi Slim (click to check it out on Amazon).

This epilator is small and works best for the face, underarms, or bikini area. But it has a low price that gives you the chance to test out epilation without spending tons.

After you’ve been epilating for a while and know it’s something you will be doing long-term, you can simply upgrade to a better epilator and use this as a back up or travel epilator.

Have more questions about epilation? Check out the Epilator FAQ and Beginner’s Guide!

Want to remember this? Pin this to your favorite Pinterest board so you can find it later!

After all my time using an epilator for my body and facial hair, I’ve had some pretty frustrating experiences like skin redness that I didn’t plan for and a totally obnoxious ingrown hair below my knee that I couldn’t get rid of for months. I’ve also found that the disadvantages are totally worth the benefits of epilation compared to other hair removal methods I’ve tried.

Deciding to use an epilator is a personal decision that each person will have to make on their own, though. Learning about all the major and not so major pros and cons that I’ve experienced or heard about from other users can help you do your own cost-benefit analysis before you invest in a new epilator.

So what are these epilator pros and cons?

Epilator Pros

Long-Lasting Results

One of the best benefits of epilation is that it provides long-lasting smoothness. Epilation pulls hairs out by the root, so they take longer to grow back. You only need to epilate once or twice a month to enjoy silky-smooth skin, all day, every day.

No In-Between Days

If you wax, you know that you have to grow your hair out a while before waxing will work. Not so with epilation. Epilators are better at grabbing really short hairs that waxing can’t. In fact, some epilators can remove hairs as short as half a millimeter. In contrast, waxing usually requires hairs that are at least 2 millimeters long.

Can Be Less Painful Than Waxing

Compared to waxing, some epilators are more gentle and can cause less pain. This is because many epilators these days come with built-in mechanisms like massaging heads that trick your nervous system into feeling less pain. They can also be used in a hot bath or shower, which reduces pain and makes you feel more relaxed.

Semi-Permanent Hair Removal

Epilation is definitely a temporary hair removal solution, but there are some permanent benefits if you use them long-term. Roots can only grow back so many times, so hair growth reduces over time.

In the meantime, hair grows back with finer tips than with shaving, so hairs are softer and less noticeable.

All Over Body Hair Removal

Epilators can be used all over the body, including the legs, arms, face, underarms, and bikini area. Most epilators come with multiple caps that you can put on the head so the epilator will work better on certain areas like the face or bikini area.

Zero-Waste Hair Removal

Epilators produce no waste, other than the hairs they remove. There’s no shaving creams, no supplies, no disposable parts to buy. They use a minimal amount of electricity as well. Essentially, they are one of the greenest methods of hair removal.

One of the Cheapest Hair Removal Methods

Once you buy an epilator, that’s it. There are no additional costs. A good quality epilator can be bought for around $100 and it should last at least one or two years. Many can last much longer than that.

Compare this to one waxing session, which can cost $30 or more or the price of replacing razors every month and you can quickly see that epilation can save lots of money compared to other hair removal methods.

Ideal Hair Removal for Extra Sensitive Skin

If you have sensitive skin or skin that gets irritated easily, an epilator can be a blessing.

Epilation doesn’t pull on the skin or rub against it like shaving. It doesn’t require chemicals like depilatory creams. It’s like using tweezers, so the skin is minimally affected. You’ll be a little red, but other than the possibility of ingrown hairs, epilation doesn’t have many drawbacks for sensitive skin.

Since daily hair removal with water can dry out the skin, it’s also a great hair removal method if you have skin that dries out easily.

Hair Removal for All Hair Types and Skin Colors

Epilation won’t affect the color or tone of your skin, so no worries in that department.

There are epilators designed for every hair type as well. Whether you have coarse hair, thin hair, dark hair, light hair, or anything in-between, epilation will remove your hair.

Fast DIY At Home Hair Removal

Owning an epilator means that you don’t have to go to the salon anymore for waxing. So no more awkward moments when you are half-naked with a stranger who inflicts pain on you.

As I’ve heard one epilator user say, pain can be more tolerable when you are the one in control of it (like with an epilator). It’s more stressful when you are at the mercy of someone else (like with waxing.)

Being able to remove hair at home is also less time-consuming. You don’t have to make time for a commute to your appointment. And you don’t have to work around someone else’s schedule. You can do it anytime you want.

Convenient Hair Removal for Travel

Epilation is a great hair removal method for traveling. e largest epilators on the market can fit into a purse or travel bag with ease. There are no messy creams or waxes and you don’t need water. If you have a cordless model, you can epilate pretty much anywhere, even out in the wilderness or an airport bathroom.

Easy and Simple Way to Remove Hair

Learning to shave or wax can be a little difficult. You can end up with cuts or just a huge mess of wax all over the place until you get more skilled with those methods.

There’s no learning curve with epilation. Modern epilators are easy to use. Just one epilation session or two, and you will be a pro.

Hair Removal for Busy People

No more waking up early every morning to shave. No more rushing from work to the salon for waxing. No more sitting around with stinky creams on your legs, waiting for them to work.

Essentially, epilation is a great option for busy, stressed-out people. It is the least time consuming hair removal method. Just turn on some Netflix and chill with your epilator for 30 minutes, twice a month. That can be the extent of your whole hair removal routine. How sweet is that!?

Epilator Cons

Epilator Pain

This is one of the most dreaded aspects of epilators. Epilator pain sucks. It can be really horrible the first few sessions. Some people try epilating and decide they just can’t handle it. But for those who can get through the first few times, it does get better. Eventually, most epilator users don’t experience pain when epilating, just some mild discomfort.

Ingrown Hair From Epilating

Some people never get ingrown hairs, no matter what hair removal method they use. For those who are prone to ingrown hairs, epilating can be a huge downside.

If you want to prevent ingrown hairs after epilation, I recommend exfoliating like crazy before and after you epilate and then at least once a week. This doesn’t work perfectly to stop ingrown hairs for everyone, but for most people, it does the trick.

However, the good news is that epilation does make hairs finer and softer over the years, so it is possible that long-term epilator users can become less prone to ingrown hairs just from this side effect of epilating.

Epilator Cost

The upfront investment for epilation can be an obstacle for some people. It’s definatley more expensive than a bag of disposable razors and shaving cream.

However, even the best epilators on the market can be bought for around $100 these days. If you are on a tight budget, some epilators are as low as $30.

Epilator Charging Time and Epilator Batteries

Cordless epilators are nice to have, but you have to keep on top of charging them before you use them. And some don’t have rechargeable batteries. With these, you have to worry about the additional cost of replacement batteries. If you don’t keep some extra batteries around, you may find yourself half-way through epilating a leg when your battery dies. Not an ideal situation.

Skin Redness After Epilation

After you epilate, your skin is going to be red. If you use an epilator, you do have to plan ahead a little due to this inconvenience. Epilating at night is an easy way to solve this, though. It gives your skin time to calm down before you have to be out in public again.

Epilators and Sensitive Areas

Although epilation can be done anywhere on the body, some people find it is just too painful to epilate certain areas, like the bikini area. A lot of people end up using an epilator for legs, but then turning to other methods for their underarms, bikini area, and face. This is obviously not an ideal situation but may work for you too.

So Should You Use an Epilator?

Choosing a hair removal method is a personal decision. There is no perfect hair removal method that works for everyone.

There are many advantages and disadvantages of using an epilator for hair removal. Epilators are a cheap, eco-friendly, and time-saving way to have smooth, hairless skin for weeks at a time. However, these epilator benefits come with the cost of pain and possible ingrown hairs.

Related Questions

What is the best epilator for beginners?

My pick for the best epilator overall is the Braun Silk-épil 9. However, for beginners, I typically recommend the Emjoi Epi Slim (click to check it out on Amazon). This is a small affordable epilator that works best for the face, underarms, or bikini area. The low price lets you test out epilation for yourself without spending a lot. Then if epilation works out well for you, you can eventually upgrade to a better epilator and use this as a back up or travel epilator.

Have more questions about epilation? Check out the Epilator FAQ and Beginner’s Guide!

Want to remember this? Pin this to your favorite Pinterest board so you can find it later!

At my day job, I help people with both chronic and acute pain problems. This has required me to learn about the latest research on pain and the best approaches to preventing and treaing pain. And luckily for people who are concerned about epilator pain, this information is helpful for reducing pain when epilating too.

So how to make epilating less painful? Pulling hair taut, using pain medication and numbing cream, and using ice after are three strategies to help with epilator pain, You can go a step further, though, and use knowledge from pain science to your advantage to trick your nervous system into feeling less pain right away and in the future.

Let’s take a look at how the nervous system processes pain and the best steps to take to make your first epilation session as painless as possible. Then after those first few sessions, epilation should be a piece of cake for most people.

Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.

-Man in Black, The Princess Bride

Pain Science 101

Pain science has come a long way in just the last few years. We used to think that pain was exclusively caused by a painful stimulus, such as a hot fire, being sensed by our sensory nerves called nociceptors. These nerves send a message to the brain and then we experience pain.

With this model of pain, the only way to stop the pain is to stop the stimulus that causes pain (the fire) or block the nerves that send pain signals to the brain with medications or injections.

But that’s not the story of how pain really works. Ultimately, the brain decides if you feel pain or not, no matter what is going on in your body.

These nociceptors nerves in the skin send messages really, really slowly compared to many other nerves in the body. Therefore, the brain recruits other sensory stimuli at the same time as well as memories of past experiences to quickly guess what is going on in the body. It is doing this 24/7.

So your brain is constantly making judgments about whether something is dangerous or not, even before any nociceptor signals reach the brain. If your brain has determined, based on past experience, that everything is safe in a specific moment, then you will feel less pain once that nociceptor signal reaches the brain. It doesn’t matter what the painful stimulus is.

Basically, the more advanced parts of the brain will take that pain signal information and decide that it isn’t that important, and so it won’t “allow” you to feel intense pain.

If this sounds way too complicated or complete nonsense, I totally understand.

Just keep in mind that making your nervous system feel relaxed and safe before, during, and after epilation is the best way to keep pain levels down and cut them even more over time.

The Gate Control Theory of Pain

Another concept in pain science is the gate control theory of pain. Essentially, the idea is that the brain can only process one type of sensation at once. While that sensation is processed, a metaphorical gate closes and no other sensory information is sent to the brain.

To use this information when you are epilating, you need to create novel sensory input on your skin before and during epilation so that the epilation pain is blocked.

How to Use an Epilator Without Pain

There are several important steps you can take to make epilation less painful:

Relax!

From my little intro to pain science, you learned that making the nervous system feel safe is the best tool for preventing and reducing epilator pain. So how do you do that? Calm down before you start epilating.

Do some yoga, meditation, breathwork, go for a walk, or just lay on your bed for ten minutes listening to calming music. Whatever works for you to calm down.

Then set up a calming environment for your epilation session. Light some candles, play relaxing music, turn off your phone’s notifications, and make everything as comfortable as possible.

Skip the Coffee

Another way to make sure you are relaxed as possible is to avoid caffeine and other stimulants like ADHD medications for at least six hours before you epilate.

Remember to Breath

Not just deep breaths. Slow, deep breaths where you are exhaling more than inhaling. This activates your parasympathetic nervous system (aka “rest and digest” mode) and calms your whole body.

Close the Gate

Apply the gate control theory of pain to your epilation session. One way to do this is with water. Hot water hitting your skin from a shower or just soaking in a tub while you epilate can help immensely. Just make sure you have a waterproof epilator!

Another option is to pinch your skin and epilate the hair on the top. Move your fingers along and keep pinching new areas to epilate.

Beyond these two options, you can use topical creams that create new sensations in the skin. Anything with camphor, menthol, or peppermint, like Icy Hot or Biofreeze, is great for this.

Wax or Shave First

You want to make sure your hair isn’t very long when you first epilate. Wax or shave the area, then give it time to grow to about 1/8 inch long and then epilate.

Pull Skin Taut

Pull and stretch your skin as you epilate. This will make sure you don’t accidentally pinch loose skin, will make the process go faster, and will reduce overall pain.

Wait for the Right Time of the Month

If your menstrual cycle affects your pain levels, you will have more tolerance for pain a few days after your period ends. If it is right before your period is about to start, it is a really good idea to put off epilation since this is when more women are more vulnerable to pain.

Drugs

Lidocaine creams can be a lifesaver when epilating. These creams are available OTC with low concentrations of lidocaine, a pain relieving agent. Just slather on before you epilate.

If all else fails, there are also OTC pain medications you can use for your first few times like Tylenol. Take one 30 to 45 minutes before you plan to start. It is not recommended that you use these forever, but they can make your first few sessions easier.

Ice Your Skin

After epilation, use ice or an ice pack for 10-20 minutes to reduce inflammation and pain.

Is Pain-Free Epilation Possible?

Using an epilator hurts. Sometimes really, really badly. Other times, not so much. If you are über sensitive to pain, it’s probably not the best hair removal method for you. Otherwise, using a mix of strategies can help reduce epilator pain. And the convenience of epilation can make that pain worth it.

And the best news is that epilator pain diminishes over time for most people. When you get ready to epilate, remember the tips in this article. With a little time and practice, you’ll build your tolerance to epilator pain and be on your way to pain-free epilation.

Related Questions

Is there a pain-free epilator?

There are no epilators that are completely pain free. However, if you are looking for the least painful epilator, choose a wet epilator with a massaging head like the Braun Silk-épil 9 (click to check it out on Amazon). A wet epilator lets you use water to help with pain while epilating and the massaging head also reduces pain. 

Do hair removal creams hurt?

Hair removal creams are not supposed to hurt, for the most part. If they do, you are probably using them incorrectly or are sensitive to the chemicals in them and should try another hair removal method. Read my article on the side effects of hair removal creams to learn how to reduce your chance of experiencing pain. 

Have more questions about epilation? Check out the Epilator FAQ and Beginner’s Guide!

Want to remember this? Pin this to your favorite Pinterest board so you can find it later!