I saw the ads for Smooth Away Hair Removal on the television and it peaked my interest. What it is is a hair removal hand pad with a crystallized surface on it which exfoliates your skin. The price is very cheap, so I decided to head to the local corner store and buy a set of pads to try it out.
From what I had seen of it in online commercials, it looked to me like a little mitt with sandpaper on it. Looked kind of painful actually. I was a little apprehensive about using some kind of pad that was going to rip my hair out as if I where waxing.
I took it out of the box, there where two different sized pads which I assume are for treating different areas of your body. I have slightly thicker than fine hair on my arms, so I decided that this would be the litmus test — I started rubbing one of the pads on my arm as recommended, in a circular pattern. Sure enough, it certainly hurt a bit. It basically rips the hair out of your arm and exfoliates at the same time. I had tons of dead skin along with hairs that collected on the pad. YUCK! Though I can see how this would work well for people with fine hairs, if you have thicker hair, this product is a definite no-go.
Another thing that I didn’t like about these pads was that when I was done, even though I was meticulous about treating my entire arm, there where still patches of hair that remained on my arm. This was after rubbing my arm for minutes! In my opinion, it would have been a much better use of my time to simply use a razor or any other hair removal device. Yes… I said razor! The hair on my arm seemed to grow back even faster and more stubbly than if I simply let the hair grow out and shaved it with a disposable razor. Not only that, but I had a nice little red rash on my arm after I was done using the product. Even though the pressure I used was gentle to moderate, it looked as if my skin had some kind of reaction to the pads for about an hour and a half. I dont recommend using this if you are going to be going out in public directly after.
On the positive side of this, I hear that this pad works wonders for people who suffer from keratosis pilaris — you know, those red, raised bumps a lot of people get on the backs of their arms.
Smooth Away Hair Removal System would be better marketed as a skin exfoliator in my opinion. Ill stick to sugaring, waxing — even shaving!
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