Thursday, 19 February 2009

Day 66 - Ah for feck's sake

Day 66, Week 10, Session 21

Wednesday evening.

I tried. I really did.

Too muggy, no!no! kept sticking. Had a shower. Tried again. Still sticking. Gr,
Managed to bend the wire of the long blade totally out of the casing. How the hell did that happen? As in, you'd need a latch to go in, grab the wire and then pull it out to hook it over the little plastic claws of the casing. MY LEG HAIRS ARE NOT LATCH-HOOKS!

Totally convinced that the stubble blades aren't doing ANYTHING. Buff or no buff, stubble or longer - nothing is going zap there. WTF.

Eventually, fuck this and the horse it rode in on, and I gave up. Having wasted yet another hour of my life trying to exercise patience and hope.

I shaved.

It is now a day and a half later and it feels like freshly no!no! stubble.
Screw this.
I am OVER it.
They never guaranteed success and in fact went to great lengths to state that they had no idea how it worked. I guess i'm just one of the failures.

Monday, 16 February 2009

Day 63

Day 63, Week 9, Session 20

Last thing on a Sunday night.

Time: 40 min
Long blade, buff with 1200 grade, stubble blade, buff with 1200 grade

Results: Not the best. I'm not sure the stubble blades are doing anything! It is as if the hairs are only effectively cut when they are all long enough to be melted by the long blade.

Notes: Patience... patience...

Wednesday, 11 February 2009

Day 60

Day 60, Week 9, Session 19

Four days since previous session - a bit longer than i had planned. Eh.

Time: 30 min!
That's for long blade, buff with 1200 grade, stubble blade, buff with 1200 grade. Super quick.

Results: Fine, i think. Sure i missed some. And i'm not sure the stubble blade had much of an effect... I need spare long blades.

Loving that 1200 grade wet-and-dry.

Saturday, 7 February 2009

Day 56 - Sandpaper!

Day 56, Week 8, Session 18

There are so many better things i could be doing with my time...

Well, I had a full four days to grow my bristle-brush since last time and, armed with a couple of pieces of wet-and-dry sandpaper, the results are good!

Time: About an hour - i forgot to look at the clock
Only did one thorough go, and a couple of touch up passes on specific sites, with the long hair hotblade.

Results: Good! Long hairs are easy to see when you miss them, so i was quite thorough, although the soft flat-lying hairs on my thighs are irritating to the core. The stubble blade can't get them either, so i didn't bother even trying it today.
And the wet-and-dry sandpaper worked a treat! 1200 grade on the softer skin of my thighs, 800 grade on my lower legs where the skin is tougher and needs buffing off anyway. $2.25 for each sheet from Mitre10.

Notes:
- had shower before, after, and between the first full go and the touch-ups. This heatwave gives vrey little time between clean and sweaty.
- still no obvious reduction of hair density.
- resenting the time taken to do this. Work is about to go mental - i just don't know if i will have the time to do this.

Tuesday, 3 February 2009

Day 52

Day 52, Week 8, Session 17

The top-up from yesterday's effort.

Time: 25 min
One pass only with the stubble blade.
But then, after showering, i saw patches in which hairs had been missed both by yesterday's long blade and by this morning's stubble blade. A couple of extra minutes going over a few specific areas made some improvement.

Results: Still not perfect. The main problems are the long soft hairs that are lying flat and are impervious to both blades. That, and my defunct buffer makes it harder to see missed hairs at the time.

Notes:
- Well, i know it works now. Not once last week did i shave my big toe hair, and it hasn't grown. There is hope!
- I need to do a full, thorough session to get back on the no!no! horse. About 80 minutes of thoroughly zapping my legs and buffing the hell out of them, the full four step process, should get all the hairs back onto a schedule of being zapped. Gee, i wonder what i'm going to be doing on sunday morning...
Must buy some form of buffer, if i can't find a replacement no!no! buffer at Myer. Maybe a sheet of 1200 grade sandpaper...

Monday, 2 February 2009

Day 51

Day 51, Week 8, session 16

The first no!no! session in 12 days after a holiday during which i shaved twice.
There was a good four days worth of shaving regrowth there this morning - a bit too long perhaps.

Time: 45 min
As opposed to the full four step process, I only did one run with the long blade before buffing. It took quite a while to mow down all those hairs and i realised that doing the stubble blade step as well would make me abysmally late for work.
I reaped the reward of taking short cuts - my shower revealed to me all the hairs that had been missed.

Results: So many hairs missed that should have been zapped. And so SO many long soft hairs that are lying too flat to my skin to come within reach of the long blade's wire on the sides of my knees, my inner thigh and back of thigh.

Notes:
I am going to have to do it again tomorrow. With the stubble blade. And any hairs that remain after that are going to have to be cut back short enough to stick out again.
Oh, and my buffer is dead. It is ultra-fine sandpaper on a foam block, essentially, and the paper has given up the ghost.
Why did i decide to keep doing this? Someone remind me.

Sunday, 1 February 2009

Post-holiday catchup

There was a Day 39 session:
Day 39, Week 6, Session 15

I just didn't get around to posting it.

It took about an hour that thursday evening, I guess. I was sick, i wasn't really paying attention.
And then we went on holidays for a week and a bit.
And I forgot to pack the damn no!no! so i was forced to shave instead. Which i did, twice on (i'm guessing here) Days 43 and 47.

After nearly 6 weeks of no!no!ing to a recommended schedule, I am now at Day 50, the beginning of Week 8, having not no!no!ed during Week 7.
I have to say that my hair is still growing luxuriously and that i haven't noticed a stark change in hair density , although i have yet to scrutinise my legs thoroughly.

Well, the trial period has elapsed and the cessation of treatment did not reveal any magical effect.
Did i really dare to hope that this would be my miracle solution? Why would hair that defies wax yield to the no!no!??

Tomorrow, i will resume. Perhaps a longer period of treatment will yield results.
Perhaps.
The Scientist in me demands a repeat of the experiment. If the result isn't reproducible, it can not be called conclusive.

Sunday, 18 January 2009

Day 36

Day 36, week 6, session 14

Welcome to Week 6!

Time: 45 min
Long blade then stubble blade on thighs, Stubble blade twice on lower leg

Results: Good, yeah, thorough. New Stubble blade is proving itself.

Notes: The stiffer hair on lower legs that pokes out sideways in bristle brush fashion is fine with the 'stubble blade only' approach. The softer flatter hairs on my thighs are resisting even the long blade again. So irritating!

Saturday, 17 January 2009

Day 34

Day 34, Week 5, Session 14

Top up because yesterday's session was done on partly too-short hair

Time 35 min
Short blade only. A NEW short blade as well

Results Good and thorough, except the thighs - the softer hair just doesn't get reached by the stubble blade, despite the metal strip which is meant to pick it up before the wire.

Notes
- To be honest, i miss the two days of shaving smoothness i had during the week..
The no!no! is a LONG game plan.
- Replacement stubble blades = $20 a pair. Total outlay = $300 so far.

Thursday, 15 January 2009

Day 33

Day 33, Week 5, Session 13

Well, i think my hair growth has slowed because, after shaving, it took three days for my hair to grow back enough to no!no! it. I had two whole days of smooth!

Using the short blade only worked. May have to do it again tomorrow as not all the hairs were long enough for the wire to reach.

Times: 35 min, short blade only

Results Good. My buffer has well and truly run out of buff though, so removing the sizzled hairs is getting tougher. Theoretically, you can buy replacements. Until then, i'll get a piece of pumice or something.

Monday, 12 January 2009

Day 30

Day 30, Week 5, Session 12

Paying the price for trying to take short cuts two days ago..

Time: 60 min
Had to use the long blade twice on the thighs. Used the long blade and then stubble blade on lower leg. So many hairs got missed last time. I tried to be really thorough without over doing it.

Results: As ye sow, so shall ye reap. The results were good.
But then i shaved afterwards, to make sure that every hair was at the same length. Hopefully, in two days, the 'stubble blade only' approach will work.

Notes:
An unexpected perk - running the stubble blade over my legs and buffing like crazy for the past 4 weeks has smoothed out my skin. I shaved without a single nick or graze. If the no!no! doesn't work for me, i can always go back to the blade.

Shaving is so much smoother than no!no! - so much smoother. But nothing lasts, and i'm not looking forward to my afternoon stubble.

Sunday, 11 January 2009

Day 28

Day 28, Week 4, Session 11

Time 30 min
Used the short blade only and didn't repeat after buffering.

Results Should have used both blades. Oops.

Thursday, 8 January 2009

Day 25

Day 25, Week 4, Session 10

This evening's session was meant to be this morning's. Still within schedule.

Time: No idea. I was pretty thorough, so i'll guess one hour.
I did look at the clock, but i kept getting distracted by things. Lesson for the kiddies: Don't drink and no!no! On the upside, that Grampians Shiraz/cab sauv was really really GOOD...

Results: Good. I got them all. Loving that new longhair hotblade.

Monday, 5 January 2009

Day 22

Day 22, Week 4, Session 9

Welcome to Week 4 - Half-way through the 6 week trial.

This evening's session was meant to be tomorrow morning's session, but work gets in the way of life... if burning one's leg hair can be referred to as 'life'.

Time: 45 min

Result: Really good! The shaved-last-night feel. Thorough as well.

Notes:
- NEW HOTBLADES! I'm not sure if they ever explained WHY they want you to throw away a blade after 3 hours use, but now I can tell you: Melting hair slowly coats the wire in gunk, making it much less effective. The long hair hotblade i've been using for three weeks is still intact and straight but, when I put the new blade in the no!no!, i could immediately feel the difference - So much more heat! And correspondingly more efficient at melting through hairs. And so, less time consuming.
A big contrast to yesterday's session that left patches of un-touched hair.

- Unfortunately, while the starter pack comes with a spare long hair hotblade, the Myer store in Sydney (city) only has replacement stubble blades.

Sunday, 4 January 2009

Day 21

Day 21, Week 3, Session 8

Time: 50 min
Time saved by only doing 1 pass with the long hair hotblade.

Results: That extra 10 minutes really shows in the number of hairs missed by the blades.

Thursday, 1 January 2009

Day 17

Day 17, Week 3, Session 7

Time: 60 min.
Still.

Results: Same same. Found a few small areas that evaded the blade 2 days earlier.

Notes: Knee pits. I can't work out how to get the no!no! to do the back of my knees. The hairs aren't dark there, but from the length of them i'd say the no!no! has never cut them.