My Spring It.... for bearded ladies like me.

Recently I was approached by the owner of Beauty By Rachel to see if I wanted to try out the My Spring It facial hair removal device... I'm a hairy beast- I could probably get hired as a body double for Cousin Itt- so of course I said I'd try it out. I'd heard of this type of device before and admittedly I've been curious. I've been using it over the past month and thought I'd share my experience.

What this 'device' is is a spring. A long, skinny, loose but densely coiled spring with a weighty plastic knob handle on either end.

I've included a familiar object alongside it to give you a general idea of how big it is. It's not that big- it's really skinny and about the length of two OPI bottles. Or, for more reference, around the size of a Fender whammy bar.

The one I received is red, but they come in other colors like pink and black. Actually... now that I'm looking it really only comes in red, pink and black. So, you have a choice! I would have preferred a black one but the color really shouldn't matter too much because I won't be using this in front of anyone... heh.

There's an instructional video on the product's website, but I couldn't quite get the hang of their technique. They instruct you to bend the MySpringIt into a U shape and rotate the handles. I couldn't get it to work that way, so I used a different technique.

I bend the spring into a soft curve or up to a deep U bend depending on what feels right. I touch it to my skin while it's curved, get a feel for how much hair it's going to grip and then I straighten the spring and roll it while still against the skin. This technique works better for me.

You can feel it grip every tiny little hair. I am really quite impressed with how well it works. It's extremely goofy looking when you're doing it, but it is effective. It can grip a lot of hairs at once, but you'll need to do it a couple times for complete removal.

I find it to be most effective on the upper lip, but it also worked on the side of my face, the tiny fine blonde hairs below my lower lip (which I probably shouldn't have removed but I was curious) and under the chin.

I normally wax or use an epilator on my upper lip, so I can compare the MySpringIt to those methods-

Pain-wise, it's more painful than waxing but less painful than epilating.

Mess-wise, it's a million times less messy than waxing and slightly less messy than epilating- when I use an epilator the hairs it pulls out can stay on my face and make a mess- the MySpringIt traps the hairs in the spring coil.

Thoroughness is a little more complicated. It grabs tiny fine baby hairs much better than waxing in my experience, but it is less precise than the epilator. It takes a little longer than the epilator to get all of the hairs because of the angle and curve of the spring. I try to cover as much area as possible with the curve of the coil, but it still took 4 or 5 passes to get everything. Still, not much of a time investment.

I tried it first on full growth and again on really short fine regrowth and it worked excellent both times. It's very, very good at grabbing really short hairs. It doesn't leave redness on your face like waxing does and it doesn't leave the little red spots like epilating does.

One advantage I find it has over my epilator is that it doesn't make noise (or look as naughty). The epilator I use for my face is a crazy pink battery-operated thing that looks and sounds way more suggestive than it actually is, but the MySpringIt comes in a sleek black velvet pouch that says "Beauty By Rachel" on the front. Very unassuming, doesn't require any power to use and makes no noise. Albeit, the pouch is rather poor quality... the Velcro came off the second time I opened it, but at least it comes in one and it's discreet. Carry it around in your purse and no one will look twice. Looks like a makeup brush or something.

Cleaning is really easy too since there's no mechanical or electrical parts. I just stretched the spring over the sink and blew the hairs out and then wiped it down with alcohol.

A disadvantage to this method is that it requires both hands to use. I know it's supposed to be a facial hair removal device, but I was hoping I could use it for other areas too. I couldn't get it to work on my legs or arms or knuckles... Only on my face. An epilator will work anywhere and doesn't require both hands.

The price is reasonable compared to what I'd pay for a salon wax or to buy an epilator- they're $16 each, 2 for $27 or Buy 3 get one free. Shipping is 99 cents domestic. After having used it for a while and faced with the choice of whether or not I'd buy one- yeah, I'd totally buy one. I had good results with it. I really like this thing. It's small, it's clean, it makes no noise, it's portable and doesn't need any heat, batteries, cords, strips or electricity to use. Very convenient. Makes my eyes tear up when I use it, but still, it does a good job!

Mine was sent to me for review, but they're sold via the MySpringIt website. I have not seen these things in stores but I can see them being stocked in salons or beauty supply places...