Review (4/5): Male Review (Cyclist)
Review from a male cyclist after first use ... I'll try to update a few weeks from now after a few uses.
First, not being a female, I don't care if I miss a few hairs here and there. Granted, after 15 years of shaving my legs, I can't stand when I go a few weeks and they get hairy. I do like the feel. But, the real reason is 'maintenance'. If you've ever crashed on your road biek (i.e. pavement/asphalt) at 25+ mph and gotten road rash from head to toe, you know why we shave our legs ... a lot easier to bandage and take care off. Anyway ...
PLAN AHEAD! What do I mean? Let's see,
1) shave with your normal razor a few days ahead of time and let it grow out to the minimum length (the longer the hair, the more it hurts!) recommended. Or, if starting new, cut it short with a barber razor with no guard. And make sure you get it all the long hairs ... take your time. Lesson learned from the first night!
2) Pop a couple of advil and start some margaritas (3-4, start earlier if you can't drink them that fast) an hour before your planned start. I did my legs over two nights. Knees down first, then up to mid (or a bit higher thigh) the second night. The second night was much easier as I didn't hit the margaritas the first night (don't worry, if you are shaving your legs you are serious enough to burn off the extra calories!)
3) I did shower the first night before I started, but not the second. In hindsight, I think the margaritas had more of an effect than the shower.
4) Pull the skin as tight/taunt as you can when shaving. Hard to remember after you've got a few margaritas in you, but it does help a lot to ease the stinging.
5) If it hurts, don't jump from area to area, it'll just make it worse. Finish one 'area', which will go 'numb' after a few seconds, then move onto the next.
6) If included, use the olay wipes per instructions ... seem to be a very low topical anthesia (sp?), but every bit helps.
I think that is it for now ... Does seem to prolong the smooth legs relative to shaving (i.e. last longer). Hopefully it does get easier/less painful the more you use it as other reviews have said. I'll try to repost on that aspect.
Update (over a year later) ... this thing does work, and works very well if you keep with it fairly regularly. It also gets easier as the hairs grow back finer and are easier to yank out (plus just plain getting use to what to expect). But if it gets cold (winter) and you lay off it a few weeks, you're back to square one. But overall I do like it better than shaving with a razor but about the same as an electric.