Hair Removal Methods

Many products on the market have proven fraudulent. Many other products exaggerate the results or ease of use.

Given below are some popular hair removal methods:

Shaving or Trimming

Image from Affordable-laser-hair-removal.com

Shaving is one of the best & easiest hair removal methods. Shaving is the removal of hair, by using a razor or any other kind of bladed implement, to slice it down to the level of the skin. Shaving is most commonly practiced by men to remove their facial hair and by women to remove their leg and underarm hair. A man is called clean-shaven if he has had his beard entirely removed.

Both men and women sometimes shave their under-cheek hair, chest hair, abdominal hair, leg hair, underarm hair, pubic hair or any other bodily hair. Head shaving is much more common among men. It is often associated with religious practice, the armed forces and some competitive sports such as swimming, running and extreme sports. Head shaving has also been used to humiliate, punish and show submission to an authority, and also as part of a fund-raising effort. The shaving of head hair is also sometimes done by cancer patients when their treatment may result in partial hair loss. It has become common for men with partial male pattern baldness.

Chemical Depilatory

A chemical depilatory is a cosmetic preparation used to remove the hair from the skin on the human body. Currently, a common active ingredient is calcium thioglycolate, which breaks down the disulphide bonds in keratin and weakens the hair so that it is easily scraped off where it emerges from the hair follicle.

This break down reaction is affected by the calcium hydroxide (an alkali). The resulting combination of calcium hydroxide and thioglycolic acid is calcium thioglycolate(CaTG). The calcium hydroxide is present in excess to enable the thioglycolic acid to react with the cystine present in hair protein.

As the epidermis is also rich in keratin, the skin may become irritated and sensitive if the preparation is left on for too long. Chemical depilatories are used primarily for the arms and legs. They should not be used on the face unless specifically listed for that purpose on the product's label.

Chemical depilatories are available in gel, cream, lotion, aerosol, roll-on, and powder forms. Common brands include Nair, Magic Shave and Veet.

Tweezing

Plucking or tweezing can mean the process of removing human hair, animal hair or a bird's feathers by mechanically pulling the item from the owner's body.

In humans, this is done for personal grooming purposes, usually with tweezers. An epilator is a motorised hair plucker.

In birds and animals, plucking is usually carried out by humans, sometimes called pluckers, to the carcass of the subject as part of food preparation.

Waxing

Image form Facialandbotox.com

Waxing is a semi-permanent hair removal method which removes the hair from the root. New hair will not grow back in the previously waxed area for two to eight weeks, although some people will start to see regrowth in only a week. Almost any area of the body can be waxed, including eyebrows, face, bikini area, legs, arms, back, abdomen and feet. There are many types of waxing suitable for removing unwanted hair.

Waxing is accomplished by spreading a wax combination thinly over the skin. A cloth or paper strip is then pressed on the top and ripped off with a quick movement against the direction of hair growth. This removes the wax along with the hair.

Another method utilizes hard wax (as opposed to strip wax). In this case, the wax is applied somewhat thickly and with no cloth or paper strips. The wax then hardens when it cools, thus allowing the easy removal by a therapist without the aid of cloths. This waxing method is very beneficial to people who have sensitive skin.

Sugaring (Epilation)

Image from Members.shaw.ca

Sugaring, sugar waxing or Persian waxing is also one of the popular hair removal methods.

It has been in use since 1900 BC.

Sugaring can be less painful than waxing, because the substrate sticks to the hair without attaching to the skin, may be applied at room temperature or heated to a lukewarm temperature, preventing burning. Nevertheless, there is some risk of skin irritation, sensitivity, and reaction. The Simply Hair Removal website advises, "Of course it hurts to pull out hair however you do it, but many find sugaring less painful than waxing."

Threading (Epilation)

Image from Chanceplus1.com

Threading is an ancient method of hair removal originating in the Eastern world. In more recent times it has gained popularity in Western countries.

Practitioners use a pure, thin, twisted cotton thread which is rolled over usually untidy hairlines, moustaches and other areas of unwanted hair, plucking the hair at the follicle level. Unlike tweezing, where single hairs are pulled out one at a time, threading can remove an entire row of hair, resulting in a straighter line. As a larger area of hair is removed at once, however, it can be relatively painful.

Epilator

Image from Amazon.co.uk

An epilator is an electrical device used to remove hair by mechanically grasping multiple hairs simultaneously and pulling them out. The way in which epilators pull out hair is similar to waxing, although unlike waxing, they do not remove cells from the epithelium of the epidermis. Aside from the spring in early spring-type epilators, there are no parts in epilators that require regular replacement. Epilators come in corded, rechargeable and battery operated designs.

Epilation can be painful to some people because, as with waxing, it involves pulling hair out of the roots. Because of the pain involved being particularly bad on the first epilation of an area, some people prefer to have the area professionally waxed first, then use epilation to remove regrowth.