Everything you need to know about HAIR REMOVAL!

Today’s post is all about hair removal. If you are a guy reading this, don’t freak out haha this topic is most certainly not reserved only for the ladies, as more and more male representatives also choose to undergo this “horrifically  painful procedure”. :D I feel like this topic is still some sort of a taboo (at least in my environment), so not many people talk about it publicly....I seriously don’t know what’s the reason behind it since that’s not exactly something we should be ashamed of or keep as a secret. Therefore, my current mission is to break this ridiculous taboo and tell you everything you need to know about hair removal. Now let us get down to business. :)

Depilation was a huge part of many ancient cultures, especially Ancient Egyptian. They were using different procedures of hair removal out of hygienic or cultural reasons...for example most of their residents completely shaved their heads, so they could wear wigs (even women!) – they believed this was the most hygienic thing to do (I think about shaving my head every summer when it’s 30°C outside haha ). Also popular were so-called sugar paste and resin for epilation on other parts of the body, usually out of aesthetic reasons. As times were changing so was popularity of “clean” and smooth skin. It was not until late 1980’s and 90’s when it become popular again. All though the big drama around hair removal began with the new era – 21^st century. Hair all of a sudden became unacceptable, disgusting and “a thing that must be removed”. But my latest information tell me that fashion is changing again, “natural” look is coming back, it’s no longer such a bad thing not to have smooth legs or shaved armpits, but yet some people still find it ugly and yucky. I don’t know...you can’t exactly say to someone he’s disgusting and not hygienic just because of his hair, I mean we are all born with it and there is nothing more natural than body hair! And I am sure we should be more concerned with some other stupid and actually dangerous trends of modern society than unwanted but completely natural body hair. :)

We see different expressions for hair removal procedures. Two most commonly used are depilation and epilation. And yes, there is a difference between them :)

*Depilation: it’s a procedure of any kind of hair removal...from shaving, waxing, plucking, chemical cream usage, sugaring and any other type. It is kind of a general term for removing unwanted hair off our bodies.

*Epilation: defines all procedures that include removal of hair by the roots. So we use this word only for waxing, sugaring, plucking and some other methods where hair are removed together with their roots.

Ok we all know where on our body we usually practice depilation...but the thing that is very important to consider here is which product/tools we use and where. I will expose the most common methods and explain how and where you should use them for the best effect.

1. Shaving: this is the no. 1 method for hair removal around the world. It’s the easiest, fastest and cheapest way to get your desired smooth skin. But as we all know hair grow back even before we get to leave our house for an evening party...well thanks a lot! Nevertheless it is still the one method for people who tend to have busy schedule and don’t find time to visit a beautician for a hair removal session. We use razors to shave our legs, armpits and even on our “special” parts. :D

I know many of you experience dark sides of shaving daily – by dark sides I mean red dots, itching, inflammation, sensitivity, stronger/darker hair and the darkest one – ingrown hair. These are a few side effects that come together with shaving...however, this is still very convenient method for “grooming” legs (lower part) and armpits...I would strongly recommend you to use other methods on your sensitive areas (upper legs, bikini and brazilian) to avoid all those negative consequences. It’s worth buying good quality razors, be sure to change them regularly (at least once a month) and don’t use the same one for legs, armpits and special parts, because of germ transmission.

Make sure you always use razors on wet skin, even better after a couple of minutes in the shower, so your skin softens and pores open. It’s also convenient to coat the wanted area with mild soap or shaving cream/foam before shaving (helps to protect the skin from damaging).

2. Waxing: second most popular method of hair removal. It’s incomparable more painful than shaving, but in my opinion definitely has more advantages...one in particular – it lasts longer, because we extract the whole hair with its root. However, there are still some negative effects of waxing such as painful procedure, ingrown hair, red dots and sensitive skin, but all of that can be prevented by using the right products and taking good care of the skin afterwards. It’s also very important to know the right waxing technique. If you don’t have that knowledge I suggest you to get some professional advice from a beautician/beauty therapist, or simply book a waxing session in a salon.

Another question here is, if those drugstore-bought waxing strips give you the same results as the ones used in beauty parlours. The answer is simple – NO. Those strips (such as Veet) contain only a small amount of wax that is supposed to be preheated whit your palms (we all know this doesn’t exactly work...better use a hairdryer ;)) and it only gives you maximum of two or three (if you’re lucky) pulls. This wax doesn’t even stick to the skin and hair, so when you pull it off several hair stay untouched (they really are strong little bitches :D) and many other tore apart, which later causes ingrown hair. So I would say this is just a product with an amazing promotion, but actually doesn’t have that much effect (except on people with sooooo little hair which are gone with 4 pulls, lucky bastards!). However, the wax used in beauty salons is packed in a container or so called a cassette, which is preheated, so we get completely liquid wax that is later spread on the skin, immediately covered with special waxing paper sheet, strongly rubbed over and pulled off.

Where to use wax? Absolutely on legs and arms (even on face – eyebrows and hair under your nose, but guys do not wax your beards! :D). It’s also used for bikini and brazilian epilation, but I personally don’t like it and do not recommend it...too invasive and painful, and very difficult to execute. The reason I don’t like it is because wax sticks to your skin and when you pull it off, you pull the hair and a couple of upper layers of the skin (not cool) which can easily lead to inflammations and sensitivity, even burns (imagine how would you walk with burned bikini area...auch! :D). And the other thing is, direction of spreading the wax...wax is spread in the same direction as the hair grow and pulled off in the opposite direction, so it hurts even more and there’s more chance to torn hair apart which can later ingrown.

3. Chemical creams for depilation: well these were so popular a couple of years ago, but I noticed that they’re getting out of fashion. Wonder why? Probably because their harsh chemical structure causes many allergic reactions, inflammation, even burns. If you don’t know yet how these creams function here is a brief summary – they contain such rough chemicals that actually melt your hair so you can scrape them off easily with spatula. But the questionable thing here is...if these chemicals are so strong that have the power to melt hair, what else can they melt?! :o I don’t want to know, let alone try that haha Therefore my advice to you is, if you really want to use so called chemical depilation products, use them on lower part of your legs, maybe arms, but do not use them on your private parts or face. Seriously :D And another thing, before you apply cream around the whole area make sure you do a test for any odd reaction they can cause on your skin. Apply a small amount of cream on a small area first...this will show if your skin can handle the product, and in case of any reaction you are only left with a small damaged part instead of both legs covered with infected bladders :)

OK. In this first part, I shared some tips about using most common and popular, but not so good for your well-being methods of hair removal. If you are interested in hearing something more about different, more natural and pleasant methods stay tuned and return for part 2, which will also contain some tips for skin care after depilation and how to make your own epilation paste at home! :)

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