Loo Academy

Should You Epilate Before or After a Shower?

Are you new to epilating? Best practices when it comes to epilation can be tricky to figure out if you’re new to this hair removal regime. One of the most intriguing topics is whether you should epilate before or after a shower.

Generally, it’s usually best for you to epilate after showering as it comes with many advantages. But what if you can’t take a shower before you need to epilate?

In that case, you should still be fine, given that you take the proper precautions. And epilating before a shower has a few benefits.

leg epilation

When Is the Best Time to Epilate?

It’s all in your preparation. A little forward planning is always wise, such as deciding when to epilate. So, before tackling whether to epilate before or after a shower, here are some extra tips to help you decide the best time to epilate.

  • Epilate 24 hours or the night before you bust out your little black dress. It will let your skin breathe and heal if any irritation occurs.

  • Don’t forget to exfoliate before you epilate. It’s the secret to smoother, hairless skin and fights against ingrown hair. You can use a loofah, exfoliating gloves, or your favorite body scrub in the shower. But exfoliate before you epilate to prevent any irritation.

Why You Should Epilate After a Shower

Whether you are using a dry or wet epilator, the most ideal time to epilate is after taking a shower. However, if you’ve been epilating before your shower, it might be time to switch up your hair removal routine.

You Can Prevent Ingrown Hair

Epilating is an effective way to remove unwanted hair and works better than shaving. But like any hair removal regimen, epilating also makes you prone to ingrown hairs. That’s why exfoliating is necessary when you epilate.

But you can’t exfoliate after you epilate because by then your skin will be irritated. Not to mention that exfoliating will require you to use water, which you should avoid doing after epilating to prevent bacteria from entering your hair follicles.

So, it makes sense to just shower before you epilate, so you can also exfoliate.

There’s Less Risk of Infection

One of the top reasons why it’s better to epilate after you’ve taken a shower is it makes your skin less prone to infection.

Remember that after you use the epilator, your hair follicles will get damaged, leaving the skin irritated. Hence, you will be more prone to infection when germs and bacteria can get into your damaged follicles. Before epilating, taking a shower helps cleanse the skin from any dust, dirt, and sweat, making skin infections less likely to happen afterward.

You Epilate After Your Skin and Nerves Have Relaxed in the Shower

Using an epilator is slightly painful for some people, but showering beforehand can help alleviate this symptom. Warm water will not only cleanse your skin but also help your body relax. It will calm the skin, and the less stress you feel after the shower, the less pain you will feel while using the epilator. 

The clamminess of your skin after a shower will also help minimize the irritation you will experience during the entire process.

It’s Easier to Epilate with Open Hair Follicles

Taking a shower, especially a hot one, makes it easier to epilate. Warm water, along with the steam from your hot shower, helps to open all your closed hair follicles. Once they are open, hair easily slips out of the pore as you epilate. 

It all means that there’s less hair breakage and fewer missed hairs. Ultimately, it will make hair removal more effective.

Why You Should Epilate Before a Shower

Although it’s best to take a shower before you epilate, there are a few reasons why epilating before a shower can be fine. 

Less Friction on the Skin

Epilating on dry skin causes little to no friction between the epilator and the skin. This means that the epilator will glide smoothly on your skin, doing what it needs to do with ease and comfort. This way you can avoid any discomfort and rug burn that may happen when the epilator catches your skin, which can happen when your skin is damp or moist, creating friction.

Although this problem is rare, it still happens. When it does, it can be painful. 

Less Risk of Hair Breakage

Like shaving, epilating dry hair is much more convenient and effective. There is no risk of hair breakage compared to epilating wet or damp hair. Without a lot of water, dry hair is much stronger and elastic compared to damp hair. Not to mention, damp hair is generally weaker and easier to break.

More Convenient

In some cases, showering before you decide to epilate can be a real inconvenience. For instance, you’ve already done your makeup and hairdo for the day and forgot to do your hair removal regime the previous night.

In this case, it’s more convenient just to skip the shower and epilate. It also saves you effort and time when you’re already in a rush.

Things to Consider When Showering After Epilating

While it’s not ideal, you can still epilate before a shower. But as previously mentioned, take a few precautions. 

  • Take cleanliness seriously. While you don’t have to take a shower beforehand, make sure to clean your body, especially the parts you are going to epilate as well as your hands. In short, a shower is optional, but cleaning your body before epilating is not.

  • As previously mentioned, exfoliation helps prevent ingrown hairs after epilating. So, if you can’t shower and exfoliate afterward, due to irritated skin, make sure that you exfoliated the previous day. If you are less prone to ingrown hairs, skipping exfoliating once in a while won’t have grave consequences.

Is It Good to Epilate in the Shower?

We’ve established that you can epilate in the shower, whether it’s before or after, but do you have the right tool for the job?

You have probably heard that there are two types of epilators: dry and wet epilators. So, before you entertain the thought of using your epilator in the shower, make sure that you’ve got one designed for such settings.

If you have a wet epilator, you can use it in the shower. But if you have a dry epilator, it is risky to use this device in a highly humid and damp setting like the shower.

Besides that, also consider the condition of your shower. Does it have ample lighting to make sure you can see everything you need to epilate? You don’t want to end up with patches that you missed while epilating. 

Additionally, if the pain is a primary concern for you, epilating in the shower can help make the entire process less painful.

Final Thoughts 

As a general rule, you should epilate after taking a shower, whether you are epilating your legs, underarms, bikini line, or any part of your body. But there’s always an exception to the rule. For example, if you can’t shower before epilating, you should at least wash up to clean your body.

Before epilating, your skin should be free of dirt, sweat, or any skin products. However, you should also thoroughly dry your skin before using the epilator, so there’s less risk of your hair breaking.

Chantelle Farrell

Chantelle is a professional cosmetologist who runs her own skin care clinic Amaranthine Aesthetics. She specializes in anti-aging treatment and natural skin care procedures that restore skin beauty and keep it healthy over time.

As a skin care expert, Chantelle enjoys sharing her advice about reliable skin care products, techniques, and aftercare procedures. She believes that everyone should take care of their body and skin and can do that effectively when armed with proper knowledge.