If you’ve inherited more facial hair apparent than you’d care to share with the world, Epicare ($12.95; facialhairthreading.com) may be the one tool you’ve always needed to add to your removal arsenal. It’s genius, really, and it’s hard to believe that no one’s thought of this until now. Epicare works much like threading, except that instead of using the tautness of a few strings wound around one another, it enlists the tension of a tightly coiled spring to grab onto the hairs and pull them from their roots.

All you need to do is take the apparatus, which is no more than a ten-inch spring with handles at each end, bend it in half, and place it against your face. Then roll the handles in and out between your thumb and index finger as you feel the coils pluck out the hairs with little effort or pain (be sure to maneuver the spring swiftly so that you’re not removing the hairs in agonizing slow motion—unless, of course, you’re into that sort of thing). For the areas of your face that provide almost no purchase, such as the corners of your mouth, stretch out your skin with your tongue, giving those sections some traction.

For the best and safest results, don’t use Epicare on sunburned, broken, irritated, or otherwise damaged skin; wash and tone your face after use; invest in a new Epicare every six months; and for Godsakes keep it away from your eyebrows! So what’s the catch? Well, fine hairs are a breeze to deplete with this handy device, but if you have any thick black shorties, you may have a tougher time extracting them. However, when you consider the drawbacks of other hair-removal regimens (bleach: great, now I have a blonde mustache; waxing and electrolysis: ouch; Nair: fabulous, I’ve just permed my facial hair; laser treatments: you want me to shave my lip and chin every day and risk five o’clock shadow?!), this minor caveat seems rather insignificant. —Danielle Dowling

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