I bought a battery operated epilator for the first time and I have been won over. I was forced to change from shavers because my skin has been badly damaged by the Lipitor/statin drug that caused it to become very dry/thin and bleed significantly during shaving. The first Emjoi I purchased has three batteries that makes it heavy and inconvenient with the need to buy many batteries, but it is very effective and safe when using. Had I been aware of a rechargeable one, that Amazon wasn't advertising at the time, I would have bought that instead. Not entirely happy with the first eipilator, I then bought the small Emjoi Epilator as well, that needs only two batteries, which is much smaller, lighter and far more convenient. So I use the small one on the face and use the three battery operated one less often just for the legs. The performance of both is excellent and over all I would strongly recommend an epilator over shaving.