How to choose

Women have two main choices when it comes to electric hair-removal devices: Foil shavers and epilators. In foil shavers, cutters on a floating head vibrate behind a screen, chopping off the hairs at skin level. Epilators use hundreds of tiny tweezers to pull hairs out, similar to the way hot wax treatments remove hair. Overall, the epilators in our tests scored higher than the razors, but the devices have somewhat different uses and appeal to different women. Most notably, the shavers can be used anywhere on the body blade razors can--and must be used as often as a blades as well. Epilators remove hair only from the legs or forearms and some women find them painful, but they need to be used just once every three weeks or so.