not quite what nature intended

    I bought "Smooth Away." I hate shaving, and the alternatives are either painful or they don't work.
    The verdict on this $9.99 "as seen on TV" product?

OWWWWWWW!!!

    Painful doesn't begin to describe it. The "smooth away" system is pretty much just a couple of rubbery handles upon which one attaches ultra fine-grained sandpaper. I am not kidding. And then you just squircle this thing around the area to be exfoliated, until the hair (and dry skin, if you so desire) are removed.
    My box did not come with instructions. If the others did - if it was supposed to - then perhaps I would have been saved a GREAT deal of pain in knowing when to quit. I did NOT know when to quit. I just kept going until it seemed like the hair was gone.
    Have I mentioned that I'm not the hairiest animal in the zoo? The hair on my legs grows at the rate of about 1mm/month. Seriously. It is fine and blond and flimsy, barely even noticeable. I wouldn't shave at all except that it is blond enough that it is slightly iridescent. It REALLY didn't take much to get the hair off. Or for it to seem as if the hair was all removed.
    But by that time I had an extremely nasty case of what can only be described as sandpaper burn, all the way up my left leg. I really cannot describe the way that felt, except to say that I do not recommend it. And it was exponentially worse once the water hit it in the shower...and even worse than that when I touched it (very gingerly!) with the washcloth and gentle body wash. That was a very quick shower.
    Just for fun, I decided to give it a whirl (bad choice of words, considering) on my underarm. It didn't work at all. The hair just laughed at that measly grain of sandpaper, and the skin felt wretched right away so I just stopped.
    In sum: I will probably use it (VERY carefully!) around my ankles and knees - where I cut myself 3/4 of the time - but never on any expanses of skin. Is it worth $9.99? Probably, if only because the "starter kit" (with the replacement pads) will last for freakin' ever at the rate that I can apply this thing to my skin.
GRADE: D

UPDATE: In the interest of accuracy and disclosure, I am correcting an error that was drawn to my attention by an assiduous (albeit inaccurate in her own right) commenter. I used a web photo of a slightly different product in my initial post; the actual Smooth Away product is pictured at right.