What's the best form of hair removal?

With these lovely summer months coming everyone is going to be freeing their legs from the confines of thick wooly socks and trousers and letting them breath, I can't wait to start wearing more of my summery skirts and dresses! But with this comes having to make sure that your legs are defuzzed and smooth, and this becomes high maintenance in summer. During the winter you can get away with neglecting it a little bit as you are so covered up with layers all the time, but having furry legs out in the sun is just not attractive...

So this got me thinking, what's the best form of hair removal? I've tried a few of them and not been overly wow-ed by any yet so suggestions are very much welcome!

I got introduced to hair removal through shaving (as do most people probably) and this is still my go to method. It's just quick and easy to do, whack a bit of shaving foam on, shave the hair off, rinse - done! Ok it can be a bit fiddly around your knees and ankles but with a bit of practice you learn how to do them areas without injuring yourself. The downsides though - it thickens the hairs so they grow back looking worse, it grows back really quickly (as in a matter of days) and blades can get quite pricey for decent ones. 

I tried having my legs and underarms waxed in a proper salon back before Christmas (for the holidays) and it just wasn't for me. That agony went on for one hour and it seemed to snap a lot of my hairs near the skin rather than actually remove the root, which meant that it grew back in pretty much the same length of time as when I shave. Plus it had the added extra of being quite painful when it grew back, I had ingrown hairs EVERYWHERE, especially down my shins. I tried exfoliating, moisturising, soaking and everything else that was suggested but it didn't really help. To be honest, this only happened on my legs so I would happily continue having my armpits waxed but I felt in mild amounts of pain for weeks whilst the hairs on my legs grew and managed to break through the skin. So never again with the leg waxing!

I've also tried those hair removal creams that you can buy. I found the smell pretty repulsive and kind of hung around on your skin for a day or 2 afterwards (yes, I did wash). It was also slightly awkward having to paste them on your skin carefully so that it doesn't burn a hole through your bathroom tiles and stand around for the required time period. That said though, I loved the results from these creams and it did seem to take longer for the hair to grow back after using. So I did quite like this method, it would just be quite expensive having to keep purchasing bottles of hair removal cream, it could end up getting quite pricey.

So I'm still on the fence about what is best to use. I'll stick with shaving for now as that seems to be working out ok but I'd just rather find something a bit longer lasting that works for me. So if you have any suggestions/ recommendations for me that would be brilliant! All comments are very much welcomed and appreciated :)