To see all guides in this series, click here:  Epila Laser Hair Remover.

I haven't written a guide in this series in a long time, and I apologize.  I wrote my last guide on June 26 last year, then on June 30, my mother was in a serious car accident.  I spent 16 weeks caring for her and laser hair removal just wasn't high on my list of priorities.

Once life returned to normal, my resolve to laser like a madwoman had flagged.

Brutal honesty alert:

The Epila Laser Hair Remover is incredibly time consuming to use.  Dishearteningly so.  As I have mentioned repeatedly in these guides, it is possible to zap only one hair at a time and each zap takes about three seconds.  Even a small area can take an hour to treat.

It's impossible to multi-task while using this product, unless you're comfortable with the idea of blinding yourself or the family pet.  It must be aimed precisely and held in position on one follicle for three seconds.  You can't look at the TV, you can't surf the internet, you can't even carry on a conversation while you're zapping.

Ok, enough feeling sorry for myself.  I finally sucked it all up yesterday and sat down with my mirror, my extension cord, my tweezers and my Epila.  I tried something new this time and left a millimeter or two of each hair showing.  I aimed the laser just past the base of each hair, hoping to hit the elusive follicle.  If I felt the sting or "snap," I considered it a successful zap.

Hope renewed alert:

I zapped all of the hairs I could find, then I went around and tugged on each very gently with the tweezers.  A few of the hairs came out easily, with no resistance.  Promising?

If there was any resistance whatsoever, I stopped tugging with the tweezers and zapped the stubborn hair again.  At one point, I tugged a hair and felt resistance, so I zapped again, then tried the tweezers again.  Still had resistance, so I moved on.  After a few moments, when I returned to the previously stubborn hair, it came out easily!  Promising!

I felt I was onto something, so I would zap zap zap zap zap a bunch of hairs, leaving time for each follicle to let go of the hair, if it was going to do so.  Then I would tug tug tug tug tug to see if any hairs came out.  Then zap zap zap zap (fewer this time, because a few hairs had come out easily.)    Tug tug tug tug.  Zap zap zap.  Tug tug tug.

So, once again, my faith in this product is renewed.  That one hair was an epiphany.  I zapped it, pulled, nothing.  But a few seconds later, it slipped out with zero resistance.  To the best of my knowledge, that's how laser hair removal works.  Hit the follicle with the laser.  Over the next few seconds, the follicle submits to the injury and releases the hair.  Repeat this process through multiple treatments over time and the follicle eventually dies from repeated injury.

PROMISING!

So, dear readers, I've climbed back on the horse.  I am excited that the absurd amount of time required to use the Epila might actually be worth it and I will be zapping faithfully again.

Stay tuned!