Buying an epilator is a great way to avoid the expense of waxing and the hassle of shaving, but it’s an option that some women find kind of intimidating. If you’ve never wielded an epilator before, they sort of seem like medieval torture devices, but with motors.

But they’re not! They’re simple and convenient to use, and if you follow these steps, you’re well on your way to never shaving your legs and getting a wax again.

1. Let your hair grow out a bit. It doesn’t need to be long, but the epilator needs something to grab. Give it at least a quarter of an inch.

2. Take a shower. Don’t shave! But having clean skin, free of oils and grime, will give you the best results.

3. Exfoliate! Before you get out of the shower, scrub your legs down. Removing dead skin makes it easier for the epilator to grip hairs and pull them out cleanly. Breakage just leads to ingrown hairs and itchy skin, so this part is important.

4. Take that little guard cap off the epilator. The guards are only there for people that are afraid of their epilators. Yours is not going to hurt you any more than getting waxed, and it’s more effective and less time-consuming without the guard.

5. Do it in the bathroom. Particularly if it’s your first time, hair is going to go everywhere. With repeated use, epilators will decrease the overall amount of hair and how coarse it is, but that first time? Hair, hair everywhere.

6. Go against the grain of the hair, repeat as necessary. Epilators aren’t going to get all the hair in one swipe, but give it a second, it’ll get almost all of it.

7. Follow up with Tend Skin or hydrocortisone cream.