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Beauty›Epilators

The Best Epilators

By The Consumer's Guide Research Team·Updated September 10, 2026

Shaving buys you a day, maybe two. Then the stubble's back and you're standing in the shower again with a razor. An epilator pulls hair out at the root instead of cutting it, so smooth skin sticks around for weeks rather than days. That's the whole appeal. What separates a good one from a frustrating one is how well the head hugs your knees and ankles, how many hairs it catches per pass, and whether you can use it wet.

Here's the part no marketing copy leads with: epilation hurts. Every device here yanks dozens of hairs at once, and the first few sessions sting, especially on underarms and the bikini line. Massage rollers, flexible heads and low speed settings take the edge off, but none of them make it painless. Ingrown hairs are common too, and coarse chin hair is beyond what any facial attachment handles well. If you want zero discomfort, this isn't the category for you. The trade is a few uncomfortable minutes for a few smooth weeks.

We read manufacturer spec sheets, beauty-publication buying guides and owner feedback across this lineup, and the pattern was consistent. The features that matter most are a head that flexes with your leg, wet-and-dry use so you can epilate in the shower, and a shaver attachment for the days you don't want to pull anything. Price mostly buys you comfort, not closeness. We think that the Braun Silk-épil 9 Flex is the best epilator for most people, and that the Braun Silk-épil 5 is the one to buy if you'd rather not spend at the top of the range.

At a glance

Product	Tweezers or discs	Wet or dry	Price
Braun Silk-épil 9 Flex EpilatorTop pick	—	Wet and dry	$209.99
Braun Silk-épil 5 EpilatorRunner-up	—	Wet and dry	$109.99
Emjoi Epi Slim Epilator - Battery OperatedAlso in lineup	18 discs	—	$39.95
Remington Smooth & Silky Total Coverage EpilatorAlso great	40 tweezers	Dry skin	$42.95
Epilady Legend 4 Rechargeable EpilatorAlso consider	20 pairs	—	$59.99
Braun Silk-épil 3 3-270Budget pick	20 tweezers	—	$49.94

How we picked

Skin contact. We favored heads that flex or pivot, because spec sheets and published buying guides both point at knees and ankles as the spots where a rigid epilator misses hair. Flat shins are easy. Curves are the test.

Wet and dry use. Beauty publications consistently recommend epilating in a warm shower to blunt the sting, so we treated a wet-and-dry rating as a real advantage for anyone new to this.

Tweezer count. We compared stated tweezer and disc counts across every listing, reading a higher count as fewer passes rather than less pain. Anything under 20 looked too slow for full legs.

What's in the box. Shaver heads, trimmer combs and massage caps decide whether one device covers legs, underarms and the bikini line. We read the included-accessory list on every model.

Owner complaints. We looked for repeated themes in owner feedback rather than one-off gripes, and weighted durability and ingrown-hair reports most heavily.

Top pick

Better skin contact and less missed hair, if you can pay for it

Braun Silk-épil 9 Flex Epilator

The 9 Flex has a head that pivots and bends in every direction, so it stays flat against your shin, knee and ankle instead of skipping. You also get a shaver head, a trimmer comb and full wet-and-dry use, which makes shower sessions a lot less unpleasant.

$209.99fromAmazon

The flexing head is the reason to buy this one. Braun calls it a fully flex head, and the point is simple: your leg isn't flat. Knees and ankles are the spots where a rigid epilator rides up and leaves a stripe of hair behind. A head that bends with the curve keeps more tweezers touching skin, which means fewer passes over the same sore patch.

Braun says the tweezers grab hairs as short as half a millimeter. That's shorter than wax can lift, and it matters more than it sounds. You don't have to let your legs grow out for a week before a session, which is the main reason people quit waxing. Owners switching over tend to mention this first: you can epilate whenever, not on a schedule the hair sets.

Take it into the shower. Braun designed the 9 Flex for wet and dry use, and beauty editors have long recommended warm-water epilation as the gentlest way to start. Warm skin is looser, hair comes out easier, and the water gives you something else to think about. It's still not comfortable the first time. It's noticeably less bad than dry epilating cold legs on a bathmat.

The extras turn it into one device instead of three. It comes with a shaver head, a trimmer comb, a skin contact cap, a cleaning brush and a pouch. So the week before a beach day, you epilate. The morning of, when there's stubble in one spot and no time, you clip on the shaver. The Smart Touch pressure control also lets you dial down to a gentler mode on underarms just by easing off.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It's the most expensive epilator here, and the flexing head is most of what you're paying for. If you only ever do your lower legs, a cheaper rigid head gets you most of the way there.

Owner feedback is more mixed on this model than on Braun's simpler ones. Some buyers report the flex mechanism loosening or the unit quitting sooner than they expected. That's the risk of a moving part that older epilators don't have. Braun's service network is solid, but it's worth knowing before you commit.

You'll need to clean the head after every use. Hair and skin build up in the tweezer discs quickly, and the little brush is the only tool for it.

Runner-up

Nearly the same result for a lot less, with a stiffer head

Braun Silk-épil 5 Epilator

The Silk-épil 5 does the important things the 9 Flex does. It works wet or dry, its MicroGrip tweezers catch half-millimeter hair, and it ships with a shaver head and a bikini trimmer. You give up the pivoting head, which mostly costs you on knees and ankles.

$109.99fromAmazon

Line the Silk-épil 5 up against the 9 Flex and the spec gap is smaller than the price gap. Both grab hair at 0.5mm. Both work in the shower. Both come with a shaver head and a trimmer comb for the days you'd rather not epilate. The 5 adds bikini trimmer attachments that the 9 doesn't include in the box.

The massage roller cap is the beginner-friendly touch here. It rolls over the skin ahead of the tweezers, and the idea is that the extra sensation crowds out some of the sting. The 9 Flex ships with a skin contact cap instead. If you're nervous about the first session, that roller plus a warm shower is the gentlest setup in this lineup.

It's also the Braun that owners seem steadiest on. Feedback across the range runs calmer on the 5 line than on the newer flex models, and the likely reason is that there's less to go wrong. One head, one motor, no hinge. If you want something that still works three years from now, simple helps.

The bikini trimmer attachments are the practical addition. The bikini line is where most people give up on epilating, and shortening the hair first makes the pull less brutal. You can also just use the trimmer alone and skip epilating that area entirely, which is what plenty of owners end up doing.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The head doesn't flex. On a shin that's fine. On the back of a knee or around an ankle bone, you'll go over the same spot two or three times, and each pass on already-tender skin is worse than the last.

It has no light. Braun's cheaper Silk-épil 3 does, and a light genuinely helps you catch the fine, pale hairs you'd otherwise miss in a dim bathroom.

Budget pick

Slower and dry-only, but the least intimidating start

Braun Silk-épil 3 3-270

The Silk-épil 3 has 20 tweezers, massage rollers and a Smartlight that reveals fine hair, and it still comes with a shaver and trimmer head. It's slower than the pricier Brauns and costs a fraction of the flagship, which is a fair trade when you're learning whether you can stand epilating.

$49.94fromAmazon

Plenty of people buy an epilator, try it twice and leave it in a drawer. That's the real risk, not whether you got 20 tweezers or 40. The Silk-épil 3 is the cheap way to find out which camp you're in, and it's a proper Braun rather than a no-name device that rips hair badly enough to put you off for good.

The Smartlight is the feature you'll actually notice. It throws light onto the skin right where the head sits, and fine, pale hair suddenly shows up. On the back of a calf, in ordinary bathroom lighting, that's the difference between one careful pass and three annoyed ones. Braun puts this on the entry model and leaves it off the mid-range one, which is odd but good news for you.

It handles contours better than its position in the range suggests. Braun says the head adapts to tricky areas like the knee and underarm, and the massage rollers work the skin while the tweezers pull. You'll still take more passes than you would with the 9 Flex. But you're doing this maybe once every three weeks, and an extra minute per leg isn't much when the device costs a fraction as much.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Braun doesn't market this one for wet use the way it does the 5 and the 9, so plan on epilating dry. That's the harder way to start, and warm-water sessions are exactly what most beginners are told to try first.

Twenty tweezers is half what some rivals pack, and you'll feel it as extra passes on thick leg hair. It's a beginner's tool. If you already know you'll epilate every few weeks for years, the Silk-épil 5 is the better buy.

Also great

Forty tweezers and no battery to die, but you're tethered

Remington Smooth & Silky Total Coverage Epilator

The Remington runs 40 automatic tweezers off a wall outlet, so it never fades the way a half-charged epilator does. Two speeds cover fine and coarse hair, and an angled cap holds the head at the right tweezing angle. You're tied to a cord and dry skin, though.

$42.95fromAmazon

A cord solves a problem people underrate. Rechargeable epilators are great until the one time you reach for it with ten minutes before you leave and find it dead. The Remington plugs in and runs at full power, every time, for as long as you want. If you do both legs in one sitting, that consistency is worth more than the freedom to wander around the bathroom.

Forty automatic tweezers is among the highest counts stated in this lineup. Remington says the rotary tweezers catch hairs down to 0.5mm, matching what the premium Brauns claim, and it recommends small circular motions rather than long sweeps. Follow that advice. Circles are how you get tweezers onto hairs lying flat against the skin, which is where most missed hair hides.

It also has a safety cutout worth knowing about. Press too hard and the device stops. That's irritating at first, and it's also the point: pressing hard is exactly what beginners do when a hair won't come out, and it's how you end up with a red, sore patch. Let it stop you. Light contact and a slow pass work better anyway.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The cord is a real constraint. You can't throw it in a bag and use it in a hotel without hunting for an outlet near a mirror, and you can't take it into the shower at all.

Remington tells you to epilate clean, dry skin, so the warm-water trick that makes the first sessions tolerable is off the table. If that first session is what worries you, one of the wet-and-dry Brauns is a kinder start.

There's no shaver head or trimmer comb in the box. This one does a single job.

The research

Who this is for

Buy an epilator if you're tired of shaving every other day and you'd trade a few uncomfortable minutes for three or four weeks of smooth skin. It suits people who already wax and want to stop booking appointments, travelers who'd rather not pack razors and cream, and anyone whose hair grows back fast and dark. Men use these on legs, chests and backs too, and nothing about the mechanism cares who's holding it.

Skip it if you have very sensitive skin that reacts to any pulling, if you're prone to ingrown hairs and haven't found a routine that controls them, or if you have varicose veins, moles or a skin condition in the area you'd be treating. Ask a doctor first in those cases. This guide covers handheld mechanical epilators for home use. It doesn't cover IPL devices, salon laser, waxing kits or depilatory creams, which work in completely different ways.

How we picked

Skin contact: we favored flexible or pivoting heads, since curved areas are where epilators leave hair behind. Wet and dry use: shower epilation is the standard advice for easing the sting, so wet-rated models got credit. Tweezer count: we compared stated disc and tweezer numbers as a proxy for how many passes a leg takes, not for comfort. What's in the box: shaver heads, trimmer combs and massage caps decide whether one device handles legs, underarms and the bikini line. Owner complaints: we looked for repeated durability and ingrown-hair themes rather than isolated gripes.

Other epilators worth considering

If you want a cordless epilator that fits in a toiletry bag: The Epilady Legend 4 Rechargeable Epilator ($59.99) — The Epilady Legend 4 is small, rechargeable and simple, with 20 pairs of tweezers running at 31,000 tweezes per minute and two levels. Epilady points the gentle one at the face and bikini line and the stronger one at legs. It ships with an attachment that holds the head near 80 degrees, which is the angle that actually pulls hair instead of bending it. What you give up is the shaver head, the trimmer and any wet-use rating, so it's a one-job device. For travel, that's often the right trade.

The competition

This is what our research surfaced, not a survey of everything on the market. Epilators appear and vanish on Amazon under names nobody recognizes, and we stuck to devices with real manufacturer documentation behind them. Here's the one that didn't make the cut.

The Emjoi Epi Slim Epilator - Battery Operated ($39.95) — The Emjoi Epi Slim is a pen-shaped, battery-powered epilator with 18 tweezer discs, and Emjoi pitches it for gliding back and forth over small areas. As a touch-up tool for a few stray hairs, it's fine. As your main epilator, it isn't. Eighteen discs means a lot of passes on a full leg, it runs on two AA batteries you have to supply yourself, and battery power fades as the cells drain, which is exactly when epilating hurts most. The Silk-épil 3 costs more and does far more. Buy this only if you want something tiny for eyebrows and stragglers.

Care and technique

Clean the head after every session. Hair and skin cells pack into the tweezer discs fast, and a clogged head grips worse and drags more. Use the brush that came in the box, and if your model is rated for wet use, rinse the head under the tap and let it dry fully before it goes back in the pouch. Exfoliate a couple of days after epilating and again before your next session, because ingrown hairs are the complaint owners raise most. Start on the low speed. Go slowly, hold the skin taut with your free hand, and move against the direction the hair grows. Give yourself two or three sessions before you judge it, since the first one is always the worst.

Questions we get

Do epilators hurt more than waxing?

The first few sessions sting, and on underarms and the bikini line they sting a lot. Waxing rips a whole strip at once, while an epilator pulls a smaller number of hairs continuously, so the pain is lower in intensity but drags on longer. Most people find it eases considerably after two or three rounds. Epilating on warm, wet skin at a low speed is the standard advice for surviving the first time.

How long does epilating last compared with shaving?

Because the hair comes out at the root, skin usually stays smooth for three to four weeks. Shaving cuts at the surface, so stubble shows up within one to three days. That gap is the entire reason to put up with the discomfort.

Can you use an epilator on your face?

On fine facial hair, yes, and several models sell gentle settings or caps for exactly that. On coarse chin or upper-lip hair, buying guides from Byrdie and Marie Claire agree that facial attachments aren't the right tool. If that's your main concern, look at a dedicated facial device or talk to a dermatologist rather than buying a body epilator for the job.

Can you use an epilator in the shower?

Only if it's rated for wet use. The Braun Silk-épil 9 Flex and the Silk-épil 5 both are. Warm water softens skin and relaxes the follicle, and beauty editors routinely recommend it as the gentlest way to start. Never bring a corded epilator like the Remington near water.

How many tweezers should a good epilator have?

More tweezers means more hairs caught per pass, so you clear a leg faster. It doesn't mean less pain. Twenty is enough to work, forty is comfortably quick, and beyond that you're mostly buying speed. Head design and how well the head stays on your skin matter more than the raw number.

Do epilators cause ingrown hairs?

They can, and it's the theme that comes up most often in owner feedback. Pulling hair from the root means the new hair has to push back through the skin, and a layer of dead skin on top makes that harder. Exfoliating a couple of days after each session and moisturizing regularly keeps most of it under control.

Why you should trust us

For this guide:

We read manufacturer specification sheets and the full product listings for every epilator in this guide.
We compared published buying guides from beauty publications including Good Housekeeping, Byrdie and Marie Claire for their consensus on pain management, wet epilation and facial use.
We reviewed recurring themes in owner feedback, particularly around durability, ingrown hairs and how the first few sessions feel.
We read owner reviews on every listing, weighted toward the critical ones, because that is where the recurring failures show up.
We have a systematic way of automatically fetching the latest prices, so the numbers on this page stay current.
This is a research-focused guide, so the team may not own every product listed — though we often do own the top winners, which gives us extra context for the recommendations.
We don't accept free products, and the retailer commission never changes which product we recommend.