How to Remove Unwanted Body Hair

We have seemingly all heard the saying that tells us pain is beauty. Whoever coined that phrase must have been specifically thinking of hair removal; one of the most tedious, painful and frustrating aspects of any woman's beauty regimen. While there aren't many feasible methods to permanently send your unwanted body hair packing, there are plenty of ways to keep that unwanted hair growth at bay. We'll explore a few of those methods, as well as their respective benefits and drawbacks.

Instructions

1. Shave your unwanted hair away. Shaving is the most popular method for removing unwanted hair from any part of the body, but particularly from the legs, armpits and sometimes arms and pelvic region. The benefits to shaving are that it's quick, mostly painless, nonpermanent and most women have a lot of practice doing it. The drawback is the risk of ingrown hairs, razor burn and accidental cuts. For most women, the benefit of shaving outweighs the drawbacks. Sure, you may get an ingrown hair every now and again, but specially-formulated shaving creams and lotions help reduce razor burn, and you can avoid seriously cutting yourself with some common-sense safety practices.

2. Waxing is another popular method for removing unwanted body hair, and it is traditionally used to remove hair from the legs, arms, back, face and pelvic region. Because waxing removes hair from the root, rather than just from the surface of the skin, many women enjoy from two to eight weeks before the hair grows back. But waxing also has several drawbacks. Certain types of waxing should only be done by a professional and can be expensive. Also, some women experience a lot of discomfort when the strips of fabric and wax are pulled away from the body, and you're just as likely to get ingrown hairs with waxing as you are with shaving.

3. Dissolve your unwanted body hair with a depilatory. Depilatories employee a chemical, usually calcium thioglycolate, to dissolve unwanted body hair at the surface of your skin, allowing the hair to be easily wiped away. Depilatories are available in many forms and chemical strengths specially formulated for the different areas of your body. The benefits of using a depilatory are that it is inexpensive, fast and you can do it yourself. The drawbacks to using a depilatory are that hair grows back in two to five days, depilatory creams, gels and lotions tend to be smelly and messy, and some people develop skin irritation or an allergic reaction from the chemicals used.

4. Another popular hair removal method is the plucking method. Plucking uses tweezers to pull individual hairs from the body. This method is usually too tedious and painful to be used on large areas of the body but works well for removing unwanted hair from body parts like the face and hands. Plucking is known to cause temporary redness and discomfort, which can be lessened with the use of ice or a topical anesthetic.

5. Talk to a doctor about laser hair removal. Laser hair removal is, by far, the most permanent method available for removing unwanted body hair. Doctors use beams of high-energy light to cause hair follicles to become dormant, permanently reducing new hair growth. The results are satisfying, but the key drawback to laser hair removal is the cost. Laser hair removal is usually done by an experienced plastic surgeon in three to five treatments, at four- to eight-week intervals. So while the results will eventually be long-lasting, laser hair removal will not be able to get rid of your unwanted body hair in time for that big party next weekend.

Tips & Warnings

• Cleanse your skin with an antibacterial soap before using any hair removal method to reduce the risk of ingrown hairs.

• Depilatories can cause chemical burns, skin irritation and allergic reactions. Always use a depilatory according to its instructions and only on the body part the particular depilatory was made for.

Resources

• Hair Removal Journal
• Waxing for Hair Removal
• Depilatory Hair Removal Creams