Electrolysis vs. Other Methods
Tweezing and waxing remove only the hair shaft, leaving the dermal
papilla and the matrix, which are capable of producing more hair. In
fact, the violent action of tweezing and waxing can actually stimulate
the follicle to grow a deeper, coarser, stronger hair.
Shaving and depilatories remove only surface hair, even the fine vellous
hair which should remain to give your face a soft appearance. Shaving
promotes ingrowns and cuts all vellous hair, which become stubbly. The
use of depilatories can cause a chemical burn of the skin surface
tissue, which becomes red and irritated.
SHAVING:
It is the most common method of hair removal and it is known to be very
simple, quick and cheap. It can work for almost every area, you can do
it at home by yourself and it is generally painless, apart from some
razor related nicks, but those tend to reduce a lot after gaining some
experience. Shaving does have some serious downsides. A day or two after
the shave you will see some hairs emerging again, and this is the
biggest shortcoming. Another problem is that those new hairs every time
you shave them off grow back out stronger and thicker, so shaving is
most suitable for men and mostly for their faces and definitely not the
best choice for ladies.
TWEEEZING:
Tweezing is easy to do, and inexpensive too. However hair can become
coarser from the repeated tweezing and skin problems including ingrown
hair, pigment changes, and scaring can result. Obviously it is not a
permanent solution to unwanted hair. NEVER tweeze the upper/lower lip,
chin, breasts, or abdomen! You are stimulating growth in these areas.
The hair will become thicker and darker. NEVER tweeze out ingrown hairs.
You will make the situation worse. The hair will distort further and you
will have a bigger lesion the next time it grows in.
Tweezing is the most painful method, but may be the most worthwhile for
those few hairs you want to remove to reshape your eyebrows. You do not
want to tweeze or pull out those few stray hairs that may appear on your
face, especially for a woman. You should not use this hair removal
method for large areas because it can cause ingrown hairs and permanent
scarring.
WAXING, SUGARING, EPILADY OR THREADING:
Waxing, Sugaring, and Threading will remove all of the visible hair by
ripping it out by the root. Except in the case of threading, the outer
layer of skin is often removed when the hair is removed. It can result
in skin problems including ingrown hair, scarring, pigment changes, and
bruising. To keep your skin clear, (and contrary to advertising claims)
all of these methods must be done frequently forever. You must also wait
until hair is at least 1/4" to 1/2" (about 3 weeks of growth) long for
the wax/sugar/Nads "glue" to adhere to the removal strip.
Research has shown that any method that rips hair out by the root such
as waxing and sugaring products can actually increase hair growth in
hormonally dependent areas such as the upper lip, chin, breasts, and
abdomen! This is not such an issue on areas like eyebrows and legs wax
away if you must and your skin can tolerate it.
Waxing can be messy, and may leave some hairs behind because they can
break off. Infection is one side effect to watch for. Still, many women
use this hair removal method in the bikini area, on the upper lip, and
on the eyebrows.
Threading
The cotton thread that gets twisted around the skin and pulls the hair
out of the follicle. It has many downsides, mostly due to the fact that
it works only on small and flat areas of your skin. And there is bound
to be some pain involved. The harder the hair the more it hurts, so you
might want to use this only on soft hairs. This method is also known to
cause ingrown hairs which can be a problem.
Sugaring:
The procedure is the same as waxing, but you use a mixture of sugar,
water and lemon juice. This is better than waxing for people whose skin
is too sensitive for waxing. Mind you, this method is not very effective
with coarse hair, so if this is your problem, you will need to find the
other way. It also gives results for three to six weeks, and it does
hurt, but definitely less than waxing. Since it works the same way as
waxing, you will need to let your hair grow out at least one quarter of
an inch.
Chemical Depilatories
Chemical depilatories are actually a cream or gel that contains strong
chemicals that can dissolve the hair. Essentially, it is a chemical
shave. The truth is that this kind of hair removal is fairly safe and
that it can be used anywhere except on the eyebrows due to the fact that
they are too close to eyes, which are very sensitive. Still, you need to
make sure that your skin will not get irritated by the chemicals, so you
should test the product first. If this goes well, you are safe to use
chemical depilatories. And they are usually fairly cheap ranging from
about $5 to $20. Another perk is that, provided there is no unwanted
reaction from the skin, this treatment is completely painless. So,
what’s the downside? Well, these chemicals are not as effective as one
might think. The hair grows back after only a couple of days and
treating your skin with chemicals every couple of days may not seem like
the best idea.
Hair removal creams designated for facial hair should not be used to
remove pubic hair. The chemicals in these products dissolve the hair
shaft. But there are other drawbacks - the chemicals can also cause
superficial burns. Depilatories can also cause allergic reactions.
Bleaching
Bleaching in a lot of cases coarsens the hair by making it more porous
and dry. In many cases, bleached hair can be just as or even more
noticeable due to the change in texture and contrast of color.
Vaniqa
Vaniqa is a cream that slows the growth of hair, but it is allowed for
the face only and it needs help of other methods. It also needs to be
prescribed by a doctor and insurance is most likely not to cover it.
Still, it is completely painless, pretty effective when it comes to
slowing down growth of facial hair and not very expensive. Still it only
slows the growth, it does not stop it and it takes weeks to start
working. Vaniqa has to be used every single day for it to work. As soon
as you stop using it, all the hairs come back with the vengeance.
by Marina Shtemberg