I Hate Pain, and This $20 Electric Hair Remover Is the Only Thing That Doesn’t Hurt

Sometimes while browsing the Internet for new beauty releases, I come across a warren of people talking about the best ways to bleach or wax their facial hair. When that happens, I shudder at the thought of the pain and begin furiously typing, eager to spread the good word of what I see as the future of facial hair removal. Sure, our healthcare system may lie in ruins while the government begrudges to do a single thing, but dang it, there’s an easy way to remove an unwanted ‘stache with no pain whatsoever. For me, that future comes in the form of the Finishing Touch Flawless Women's Painless Hair Remover, and it’s second only to indoor plumbing and modern antibiotics as the best invention of the last two centuries.

That might sound like hyperbole, but trust me — as a child, I was so pain-sensitive that my pediatrician had to give me shots with the needle for babies (in my defense, I had a spinal tap in the womb, and I’ve always been told that makes you extra pain susceptible). When I needed to get stitches in my chin at seven years old, the doctors put me in a straitjacket and made my dad pin me down. When they let me out, I came out in a blind rage and accidentally kicked my grandma.

So when it comes to hair removal, anything that requires some level of pain tolerance is a no-go. Hence my delight upon discovering a way to remove hair that doesn’t try to justify ripping hair out by the root or burning it off as “manageable pain.” Instead, you flick the switch on the Finishing Touch, glide it over your skin, and it erases hair as easily and painlessly as if you were wiping off eyeshadow with micellar water.

And there, the Finishing Touch’s 34,073 five-star Amazon reviewers and I are in agreement. Time and again, shoppers reviewing the product call it a lifesaver. One woman with PCOS wrote that she’s tried countless products to deal with the excessive hair growth that comes with the condition, and nothing worked well until the hand-held hair remover, which left her face soft in about two minutes.

Because it’s a shaver, not an epilator, there’s none of the latter’s painful hair-yanking sensation. Shoppers write that it “had my jaw literally dropping while I watched all the peach fuzz disappear with ease,” and not to dwell on the painless aspect, but it’s an important one — and no less than 481 reviews pledge that the pain factor is “an amazing zero.”

Shop now: $20; amazon.com

The word “miracle” is also brought up, specifically by one person who wasn’t ever able to face waxing her upper lip (I can relate). She tweezed it for years, she wrote, yet it was always painful and left her with small infections — but in less than a minute, she says her routine was revolutionized. “No pain, red skin, cuts or infections, and no gray shadow,” the shopper enthused. “The sensitive skin around my mouth looks hair-free, and there isn't a chin hair in sight either! I'm going to order another just in case.”

Even those in their sixties mention they changed long-set routines because of the Finishing Touch’s excellence, saying that after one use, their wiry, coarse chin hairs were replaced with ultra smooth skin. And for one woman who was getting ready for her son’s wedding, a lifetime of shame over her black lip hair was finally put to rest. Wedding photos are forever, and it left her upper lip feeling lovely, she said (and immediately after, her spouse said that she looked younger).

At a certain point the reviews begin to sound like a broken record, repeating sentiments like, “What an incredible little gadget,” and “I've tried all sorts of facial hair removal products and gadgets, [but] this is THE VERY BEST. Pain-free, removes hair completely, super simple and quick to use.” The takeaway, in both my and over 34,000 other people’s experience: Hair removal shouldn’t have to hurt, and with the Finishing Touch, it simply doesn’t get easier. As one shopper writes, “I’ll never have to get my Italian lip waxed again! I am highly allergic to even the wax that is made for sensitive skin and I always break out. This thing will now save me that discomfort.” Join us in 2020; it’s our one nice thing.