>>11357122
I've only tried a few things, shaving, epilating, nair, and IPL. Shaving is fine if I go with the grain, otherwise I get bad razorburn, and it's not super smooth that way. Epilating fucked up my skin and gave me very bad razor burn and ingrown hairs, but for someone with thinner, wispier hair and less delicate skin, it might work. Nair also worked okay, but it was a bit of a hassle to apply it evenly to my legs. I also think the cost in the long run would work out to be pretty steep, since I would need a pretty significant amount to actually coat my legs. IPL is what I use now, it was pretty expensive to invest in the IPL machine (Braun), but it has lasted a while and I'm pleased with the side-effect of thinning my hairs somewhat on top of keeping me smoother longer.
If you really really want completely permanent hair removal (as in, physiologically incapable of growing more body hair), then I think you need to look at electrolysis. It'll probably be more expensive than laser, but as far as I know, it's the only thing that will completely destroy the follicles, rather than knocking down the growth or removing only the hair.