Looking for first- or second-hand expereinces with no!no! hair removal

December 28, 2013 6:05 PM

There's a new version of the no!no! hair removal system, so I'm taking another stab at asking the hive mind for their opinion. The question was asked back in 2008 and 2004; back then it was new and pretty unknown and now the usual online sources have as many good reviews as bad. Five years later, I'm hoping there are enough MeFites that have tried it to get a better sense of how well it works.

I'm mainly looking to use this on my chin and lady 'stache, but for the cost I'd end up using it in other places.

For the purposes of this question I'm not interested in any other methods of hair removal or speculations on its efficacy, just personal stories from you and people you know that have used it.

posted by Room 641-A to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (8 answers total)

Best answer: As many good as bad? It's for the old version, presumably, but Amazon's reviews are really bad and the few five-stars that are propping it up are mostly not really reassuring. Only had it a week, bought it for someone else, a lot of comments that note that the reviewers have never reviewed anything else on the site, even the ones that don't have comments to that effect it seems to often be true.

I did not buy one of these, but my friend did and offered it to me when she got fed up, a few months ago. I glanced at the aforementioned reviews and told her to go ahead and pitch it if she couldn't get her money back, I'm not sure if she did or not. She said that while it looked at first like it might be smoothing things a bit, it was pretty much just the exfoliation from the buffing thing, the hair all came back; she did say she thought it might be an individual thing and might work better for others. I dunno if she was using it properly or if it really does depend on the person or if it's just that bad; my avoidance mostly stemmed from thinking that I was very likely to end up burning myself if I tried it. There wasn't enough evidence that it does work for real people not being paid by the company for me to risk using something on my face that's hot enough to burn hair. But she didn't disfigure herself or anything, I'm just paranoid.
posted by Sequence at 7:18 PM on December 28, 2013

Reminds me of this side-barred comment a sensible rundown of hair removal solutions which says "Basically everything else (home laser kits, electric tweezers, over-the-counter topical stuff, that stupid "no!no!" thing, etc) is unanimously regarded as total bullshit among the people who have tried it."
posted by bleep at 7:31 PM on December 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I tried the old version. My sister and I bought it together to lower the cost. It was one of the most god-awful beauty devices I have ever bought in my life. It was so fucking painful that we ended up throwing it in the trash rather than returning the thing. Just thinking about the experience makes me kinda laugh hysterical-like to myself. It's also kinda embarrassing to admit I fell for the hype.
posted by cairnoflore at 7:40 PM on December 28, 2013 [1 favorite]

Best answer: My friend has it and said don't bother. In case you're looking at other tools as well, I got sucked into the Tria home laser and that was a huge waste of money too. I think you're better off with professional lasering or electrolysis if you're not a candidate for laser removal.
posted by cecic at 9:25 PM on December 28, 2013

Consumer Reports tried it and documented their experiments in a recent issue. The results boiled down to "lolnope."
posted by Snarl Furillo at 11:32 PM on December 28, 2013 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I have a no!no! and I never got around to using it regularly enough to test their claims that it reduces hair growth but I would say it is not suitable for use on the face - particularly the upper lip. For it to work correctly you have to run it in a smooth motion at the exact right angle (if you don't the burny part stutters and jabs up and down), on my legs I found I need a least an inch of "run up" to get it into that smooth running place where its actually working and not painful (if its painful, you're doing it wrong) - as you might imagine, the contours of your face and small working area make that very difficult to achieve. I burned myself twice trying to do my upper lip with it.

It takes a while, it smells and its not good for small/curvy parts. For the legs, *if* it does what it claims and massively reduces the amount of regrowth in 6 weeks (never used it regularly enough to test that claim), I would say its probably worth it. The smell is like popcorn and you get quicker at it but for the face - no way, it doesn't work well, its not an easy area to buff afterwards and the risk of burns is too high - just get a beauty trimmer and use it a couple of times a week.
posted by missmagenta at 12:47 AM on December 29, 2013

Response by poster: Okay, message received!

This problem isn't rising to ZZ Top levels (yet??) it's more that after 40+ years I'm not in the habit of checking and then all of a sudden it's O HAI! I have assigned someone chin-hair duty and assured him I really want to know if I've overlooked one.

Thanks.
posted by Room 641-A at 10:18 AM on December 29, 2013

I have some familiarity with this product as I used to work on infomercial compliance, and I've also worked on similar products.

The product seems to work best on dark hair on pale skin. I didn't try it myself - I have light hair and pale skin, plus I take medication that makes my skin slightly photosensitive - but it has been cleared for use on the face, for what it's worth.
posted by mippy at 3:23 AM on December 30, 2013