How Often Should You Epilate for Smooth Skin?
Most people new to epilation want to know how often should you epilate to keep your skin smooth and prevent hair from returning too quickly.
The answer can vary from person to person because everyone’s hair grows back in different cycles and in different ways. However, we’re going to cover some general rules so that you can figure out how often to epilate according to your hair cycle.
If you’ve ever wanted to know how often do you epilate underarms or how often to epilate legs without pain or other epilator benefits, then this guide should help you out.
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Why is a Consistent Cycle of Epilation Important?
One of the most important things to consider when figuring out how often to epilate is the cycle in which your hair grows, which we’ll get into more in-depth in this guide.
Everyone’s hair grows at different rates. Some people have hair that grows unevenly, with some growing longer and faster than others, while other people have a very even hair growth rate.
Epilation needs to work with your specific hair growth rate, so making a consistent epilation routine can help your hair get into a more consistent growth cycle.
Let’s talk more about a few of the reasons that creating an epilation routine is essential for keeping those pesky hairs away:
Hair Growth Cycle
As we mentioned, the hair growth cycle is one of the most important things to consider when creating your epilation routine.
Consistent epilation will eventually help to make your cycle more consistent also so that removing hair becomes easier. Make sure you don’t practice any type of hair removal, like waxing or shaving, between epilator uses to ensure that your cycle stays on track.
Pain Reduction
Routine epilation is one of the ways that you can reduce pain from using your epilator. Most people find that, after the first few epilation cycles, they experience less pain from epilation.
That’s mostly due to the process of epilation leaving you with less hair over time, so you’ll have less to remove with each cycle, reducing the pain you feel.
Thinner and Fewer Hairs
The process of epilation removes hair below the surface from the hair root, whereas other methods of hair removal, like shaving, remove hair right at the surface. Epilation, therefore, can keep hair away for longer than shaving.
Since epilation removes hair straight from the root, your hair will likely grow back softer and sparser than it was before.
The best way to get this to happen is to be consistent in your epilation routine. After several months of using an epilator, you should begin to notice your hair thinning, making the epilation process quicker and easier.
How Does the Hair Growth Cycle Work with Epilation?
How often to epilate underarms or anywhere else on the body depends mostly on your hair growth cycle, so we want to discuss this process more in detail.
Every person’s hair growth cycle goes through two main periods known as anagen and catagen. Anagen incorporates active growth periods, whereas catagen starts the resting phase in which it stops growing.
Some hairs will be in active growth stages while others are in their resting phases. Some people have most hairs in one phase than the other, whereas other people will have hairs in various cycles at any given time.
The reason that consistent epilation is important is that it helps align the hair growth cycles so that you can remove as much hair as possible at one time. Those that have not grown out enough from the surface because they’re in the early stages of growth are impossible to remove with an epilator.
Consistent epilation gives your hair a more consistent cycle so that you won’t have to epilate as often.
For most people, epilating every two weeks can trigger hair to get on the same cycle. If you notice that your hair cycle causes fast hair regrowth, then you may need to start epilating on a weekly schedule instead.
How Often to Epilate Different Parts of the Body
Knowing how often to epilate legs without pain or how often to use your epilator on your face to make hair growth more consistent and manageable is an integral part of the epilation process.
Some body parts may need more frequent epilation than others, depending on how your hair grows. Here are some general guidelines for epilation schedules for the most common parts of the body where people have unwanted hair:
Underarms
Let’s talk about how often to epilate underarms. The underarm area is one of the more sensitive places from which to remove hair, so it’s best to have an epilator with several tweezers that can help you remove more hair at once to reduce pain.
Shaving your underarm area every week instead of every two weeks may help keep unwanted hair at bay and may also toughen the skin over time to make it less painful.
Be sure to shave a couple of days before you epilate to keep your underarm hair as short as possible and use an epilator that can grab short hair reliably.
Legs
Want to know how often to epilate legs without pain? This is one of the most common questions we hear from people interested in epilation because the legs are one of the most common areas of the body to epilate.
Generally, your legs can be free from needing an epilator for about two weeks, and possibly longer as you use your epilator consistently. When you’re first starting out, though, you may want to bump up your routine to every 5 to 7 days to trigger the alignment of your hair growth cycles.
Face
For most men, the face grows hair the fastest out of all the body parts. It’s not uncommon to see stubble several hours after shaving in the morning.
Women don’t typically see facial hair appear as fast as men, nor does it seem as dark and thick.
Men may need to use an epilator for facial hair at least once per week, while women may get a month or more without needing a touch-up.
Pubic Region
For both men and women, the pubic region is one of the fastest growth spots for hair. It’s a very sensitive area, though, and frequent epilation of pubic hair can prove to be quite painful for those with sensitive skin.
The frequency to use an epilator on pubic hair depends on your skin and how well you can tolerate the discomfort or pain. If you notice irritation every time you epilate, you may want to decrease your epilation frequency to every couple of weeks or longer.
However, if your skin seems to handle epilation well, then epilating once a week or so is typical for the pubic region.
Conclusion: How Often Do You Epilate?
The hair growth cycle can differ in everyone, and consistent epilation can make the cycle more regular, causing hair removal to become more comfortable and less frequent over time.
So, how often should you epilate? It depends mostly on your hair growth cycle and rate and how well you can tolerate epilation. For most areas, you can start with epilating once every two weeks, adjusting your schedule as needed.
