Whether man or woman, people have hair on their bodies. Some of them are annoying, others are ignored. Where and whether you want to remove your hair is and remains a matter of taste. There are plenty of hair removal methods. Some of these promise long-term results, while others last shorter but cause less pain when used. If you remove your hair regularly and are curious about the methods available, you will find what you are looking for below.
Shaving is the most common and certainly one of the most popular ways to remove annoying hair. Razors have sharp blades that glide over the skin and cut off the hair superficially, leaving the skin smooth and hair-free. In combination with a shaving gel, the blades glide gently over the skin and achieve reliable results both dry and wet in the shower. A clear disadvantage of shaving is the fact that the hair grows back after about one to three days. If you want to have permanently smooth skin, you have to shave again and again. It is also important to take good care of the skin after shaving to avoid razor burn. Rich aftershave creams are best suited for this.
In contrast to ordinary shaving, practical hair removal creams have a chemical basis. Such creams work because the active ingredients they contain react with the skin. First, the skin’s natural acid mantle is broken through to open the pores. The sodium hydroxide (thioglycolic acid) contained then attacks the protein structure, called keratin, of the hair. In this way, the hairs dissolve and remain on the skin as a gel-like mass. Using a spatula and lukewarm water, the loosened hair can then be removed.
The clear advantage of depilatory cream is that the application is completely painless. In addition, the method is particularly simple and hair regrowth takes a little longer than shaving, so you don’t have to remove hair for longer. The disadvantage, however, is that skin irritation can occur due to the chemicals it contains. To find out if your body is allergic, you should test the cream on a small area of your body before using it for the first time. If your skin becomes sensitive quickly, hair removal creams are probably not the right choice for you, or at least you can’t use the cream on every area.
Hair removal using warm or cold wax takes some effort, but it ensures smooth skin for two to four weeks. The method is certainly not painless, but the pain only lasts as long as the wax strip is removed. In order to successfully remove hair with wax, it must be at least five millimeters long. Only then can you pull them out of the root with a strong tug.
Warm wax is intended to provide more thorough results and is therefore preferred by many users. However, it requires a little more preparation, because the crucible with wax has to be heated first. If you don’t want to do this in a water bath, you can also use electric heaters with warm wax, which saves a few work steps. The wax is then applied in the direction of hair growth, then the enclosed fabric or plastic strip is placed over it and pressed on. It is best to loosen the wax strip with a quick pull against the direction of growth, and as flatly as possible along the skin surface.
Of course, this process also works with cold wax, but it can happen that not all hair is reliably removed, so there is no need to heat it up and you can place practical strips of cold wax directly on the skin. The skin can be dry after using wax, so always use a good skin care product, such as cooling and rich aloe vera gel.
Removing the hair using sugar paste is called sugaring and is a natural and effective alternative to waxing. Instead of cold or hot wax, it uses a sticky paste made from three ingredients: sugar, lemon juice, and water. The sugar paste is supposed to make the skin supple and protect it from drying out. Like wax, you can apply the sugar paste precisely and depilate different areas from the face to the armpits and the bikini zone to the legs. The application is similar to waxing, because the sugar mass is applied warm and against the direction of hair growth on legs, armpits, intimate areas or even on the face. The difference, however, is that the sugar paste is immediately plucked off in the direction of growth. This is how the hair and its roots come loose. Sugaring is said to be gentler on the skin than waxing and is therefore also suitable for more sensitive skin. It is best to test the method with a beautician so that you can then carry out the application yourself and know how your skin reacts to it.
As with waxing and sugaring, the hair is also removed directly at the root during epilation. When epilating, however, this is done with the help of rotating mini tweezers that glide over the skin at variable speeds. In order for the epilator’s tweezers to be able to grab the hair, it should be between two and five millimeters long. The treatment is not painless and therefore not suitable for everyone. The clear advantage, however, is that the hair stays away longer because it is removed directly at the root. Epilators can be used anywhere, newer models often have an extra attachment to remove unwanted hair in certain areas, such as the face.
IPL (Intense Pulsed Light) is one of the newer hair removal methods and is mainly offered in beauty salons. In the meantime, however, there are also IPL devices for self-treatment at home. They work with flashes of light that are said to influence hair growth on the body. A thin beam of concentrated light is directed at small areas of skin, below the skin’s surface the light is absorbed by the pigments of the hair follicles, heating them. Depending on the growth cycle, this prevents the hair from growing back.
However, the method is not suitable for everyone, because the greater the contrast between skin and hair color, the better the treatment works. The best results are seen with light skin and dark hair. It is important to know that home IPL devices are weaker than devices used by dermatologists and beauticians, so self-treatment is not as effective as at a specialist and hair grows back after a while. If you want to be on the safe side, you can get detailed advice from a dermatologist as to whether the skin is suitable for the method.
Laser hair removal also promises permanent results. However, this treatment can only be done by a specialist. The hair root is destroyed with the help of a laser. The darker the hair and the lighter the skin, the better this method works. In any case, several appointments are necessary for an optimal result, which is why the method is one of the more expensive ones. On average, depending on the part of the body, costs can range from around 100 to 400 euros per session. In addition, depending on the individual hair structure and skin area, the hair can come back after about one to two years.
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