i started out epilating because i thought it would last as long as waxing... a couple weeks maybe? well, it hasn't lasted at all. we're talking a couple days before the growth starts again. i only waxed once ever, and that was at LEAST a week before new growth started. why doesn't it last as long? does anyone have any ideas? thanks!

Those aren't hairs that have returned, those are hairs that were just beneath the surface when you epilated.

Some may not have been out yet, but others may be broken ones. You may have been breaking off a lot of hairs when you epilated compared to when you waxed. If a lot of them broke off just below the surface, that might be what you're seeing.

Epilating at regular intervals will get to a point where you don't have to do it nearly as often.

andrea, thank you soooo much for your reply!
let me tell you a bit more...
first of all, intimate though it is, i figure i should give you the whole background. cuz i'm talking about epilating my "area" into a brazilian. well, i've been doing it since the end of march and it's still 2-3 days on the regrowth, which is pretty annoying. although right now i've let it go for about 10 and i'm really hairy... but i had so many huge red pocky marks from ingrown hairs that i decided to just leave it alone for a bit. what's your advice, guru?! should i keep epilating and hope that it'll stop regrowing or start waxing again? at this point, i just want my "down there" area to be smooth! so i can stop worrying about it already! i'm so embarrassed to have my boy look at it, cuz even when it IS freshly done, i get infected follicles. i've been loofah-ing like crazy and applying this stuff called prevent which i bought at the salon where my sis used to get tend skin. they said the girls there liked it better. i heard of putting stick deodorant on it to stop it. have you heard of that?! (haven't tried it) anyway, what's your suggestion? by the way, the whole reason i stopped shaving was because i'd always get red bumpies on my underwear line and under my arms. then my man asked me to shave my "area" so i waxed it, and started to epilate for maintenance cuz it was so much cheaper in the long run! and if i shave, my skin is so fair that you can see the hair under the skin! (does that make sense? w/epilation or waxing, that's gone!) also w/epilation the underwear-line red bumpies have stopped, but i have these infected follicle ingrowns (there's always a hair in there somewhere!) and they're so yucky! i'm tired of making love in the dark so he doesn't think i have the plague!!!
can you guide me?!
thanks.
sorry if that was too much detail.

I'm sure Andrea will reply with helpful, practical information!

But in the meantime, let me jump in with unhelpful, impractical information.

I'm sure your boyfriend's great, but man ... if I had a boyfriend who told me he'd like me to start shaving a new area I'd tell him, "Sure! Now, you understand this will mean shaving bumps, stubble, ingrown hairs, nicks, etc. But that's what you want? OK! Just don't complain."

In fact, if I were you, I'd put him on this web site and ask him, "Honey? Since you'd like me to start hair removal in that area, maybe you could figure out what the best method is. Here's a web site where you can begin your research."

I think if he looked into all the struggling we go through here, he might just decide it's not such a big deal after all!

Maybe after he gives up, you could suggest trimming and dying a cool red color?

That would be a lot less hassle and more creative! (Prettier too, I think, actually)

Tend Skin can really help with the red bumps, pustules and ingrowns.

If your man is so gung-ho for you to be smooth down there, tell him you'd like him to cough up the dough for some laser or electrolysis.

If you want to get into too much more detail about intimate hair removal, please start a new thread in the Mature Topics Forum. We talk about it a lot there, but some consumers don't want to read about all that.

great guys, thanks! yes, well, i want to do this for him, and actually, i liked it the first time i had it waxed, but now the upkeep is hard! i'll go post on the mature topics forum. didn't realize there was one.

in the meantime, i found this...

"Finally, if you are a bumpy bikini person, there is one hair-removal technique you should probably avoid. Stay away from those machines that rip out hairs at the root, such as the Epilator, says Madfes. "They can bend hairs in odd directions and damage hair follicles, both of which can cause hairs to grow at a weird angle, in a weird way and become ingrown."

http://www.prematuree.com/qa/qa.php3?qa_id=149

Any type of epilation (removing hair at the root) can cause this side effect.

And although the "distorted follicles" concept is a pretty common piece of conventional wisdom, there hasn't been much in the way of quantified data as to how often this occurs.

so, you mean waxing won't improve the ingrowns?

I get way fewer ingrowns with waxing, personally. Your mileage may vary.

Andrea:

THe mature topics is password protected, and I'd like to discuss some hair removal information on it. How do I get the pasword?

someone on a different web site also posted to me that epilators may not actually get the root out... that the little "bulb" at the end may be sebum instead, and the hairs are breaking off far below the surface, and that's why they get ingrown. interesting hypothesis, anyway...

KatieKat, email me at forum@hairtell.com and state you are over 18 for the passwrod to the mature Forum.

Goodgirl101, it is possible that the end of a broken hair looks like a root, especially since many hairs have a clear sheath around them, which can sometimes bunch up and look like a root.