Laser Hair Removal Electrolysis Guide

Hair removal treatment is the best way to solve the problem of unwanted body hair. Some people do this for cosmetic purposes on a regular basis in order to look more physically attractive. For these people, especially women, waxing, shaving, laser hair removal, and electrolysis are simply part of their beauty routine.

For others who suffer from excessive hair growth, the problem is much deeper. Excessive growth in any area where men and women have differing amounts of hair is known as hirsutism. These areas include the upper lip, the sides of the face where men’s sideburns grow, the chin, the chest, the neck, the belly, the pubic area, and the thighs, especially where they join the trunk. Hirsutism calls for aggressive hair removal treatment strategies.

Hirsutism can be devastating to anyone’s self-image, but the problem is devastating for many women. The social norm in most societies is that women aren’t supposed to have body hair at all. This is largely a fantasy, but women with unwanted body hair often feel ill at ease because it’s the problem that nobody talks about. Many hirsute women go to extraordinary lengths to hide their condition, so it’s easy for them to believe the problem doesn’t exist in others.

Left untreated, hirsutism can even stunt one’s social life due to embarrassment and ridicule from insensitive people who don’t understand that it is a biological condition. Teenagers and young adults are especially vulnerable to social ostracism, because appearance is so important to young people living in a commercial society. Bombarded with advertisements full of images of beautiful, cosmetically flawless models, young and men with hirsutism can become insecure and withdrawn. Even later in life, social pressure to conform can make people with excess hair want to cover it up with clothing and hide their problem. These people have the right to use effective hair removal technology and should expect to receive help when they consult their doctor or other treatment specialist.

Nor is this phenomenon limited to women. While society is less judgmental of women than men, men as a rule are more susceptible to heavy hair growth than women. Society judges men with hirsutism harshly if they exceed the social norm. Increasingly, body hair treatment for men is becoming more common.

The bottom line is that almost everyone has more body hair than they want. For some, it’s a mild inconvenience. For others, treatment is more than a cosmetic strategy—it’s a necessity.

Fortunately, modern technology has evolved to the point where there are many options. The trend for several years now has been toward more simplicity, less pain, and greater effectiveness than ever before. Permanent hair removal technology like laser and electrolysis, as well as temporary methods like body waxing, shaving, chemical treatments, and mechanical depilatories, are available to everyone, whether their hair growth is normal or excessive. The temporary methods are most effective for people with normal growth, but the permanent methods are extremely effective for anyone who wants to solve the problem for good.

Unwanted body hair can grow almost anywhere, but is most common in the areas of sexual differentiation. These include the upper thighs, pubic area, face, nipples, and abdomen. Other sites of excess hair growth are the calves, forearms, underarms, back, and feet.

Hormone imbalances are a common trigger. Androgens, which serve as catalysts for the sex hormones, including testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone, also promote growth. Testosterone is present in the bloodstream of both males and females as soon as they reach puberty. Too little testosterone can turn off sexual desire in both men and women, but too much testosterone makes hair grow faster and thicker.

Where does unwanted but normal growth leave off and abnormal hair growth begin? Medically, women can be considered normal if they have light hair growth between the nose and mouth, on the chin, in the nipple area, on the lower belly, or on the upper thighs. If the growth in these areas is thicker, or if more areas than just these are covered, then it might be abnormal. If you have irregular menstruation or are gaining weight, these would be additional reasons to consult your doctor. If you feel that the situation is excessive, ask your doctor about having your testosterone levels tested.

Hair removal treatments for both normal and abnormal growth are basically the same. Nonpermanent methods can be done at home or by a salon technician and are within most people’s budget. Permanent removal involves alteration of the skin tissue and should be done by trained medical personnel. The cost of permanent removal is much higher than the temporary methods, but since it doesn’t need to be repeated, it may average out to be cheaper over time.

Plucking or tweezing unwanted hair is probably the most common way of removing it. This is not a permanent method, and if done in sensitive areas like the upper lip, it can cause ingrown hairs and give the skin a bumpy appearance. Some dermatologists advise against plucking, but as a practical matter, for small areas or for cleaning up after waxing, it’s easy to do and almost all women do it.

If you decide to tweeze, a good pair of tweezers is a must. Use slant tweezers, which have angled jaws, and buy a good quality instrument to avoid frustration when gripping small, fine hairs. Tweezing lasts from three to six weeks, depending on the area and how heavy the hairs are.

Shaving, like tweezing, is a fact of life for most women. Done properly, shaving produces a smooth finish and won’t harm your skin. The down side is that the hair grows back and produces stubble, which makes shaving unsuitable for visible areas like the face. Legs and underarms are the areas that most women shave. Like tweezing, shaving can cause ingrown hairs, but there are ways to avoid this problem. Shaving lasts about 24 hours before the stubble returns, so it has to be done regularly.

Shaving works best on warm, clean skin. Take a hot shower so your pores are open. Use a shaving cream or lotion; there are formulas made especially for women that don’t make you smell like a guy. Make sure you have a good razor and change the blade often. Rinse off the shaving cream after use, and apply a good moisturizer to your skin after drying off to keep it feeling smooth and silky. Some women prefer battery operated electric shavers, which have gone through many improvements. Some now give as close a shave as a blade razor.

Waxing is more difficult than shaving, but results last longer. A strip of hot or cold wax is applied to the skin and then pulled off, taking the hairs out by the roots. Favorite places for waxing are the legs, thighs, and bikini area. The main disadvantage of waxing is that some places are hard to reach yourself, which means you have to pay a salon technician to do it for you. Waxing, like tweezing, can cause ingrown hairs, but good technique can minimize this problem. A good wax job will last from three to six weeks, with no pesky stubble like shaving produces.

Over the years, various hair removal appliances have come onto the market, disappeared, and have been replaced by others. The early epilators were very painful to use because they pinched the skin while grasping the hair and pulling it out. Today’s epilators are much more precise and only grab the hair, not the skin. Manufacturers claim that today’s epilators are painless, and they have gotten good reviews by the majority of women who use them. Like other tweezing-based methods, results last or three to six weeks.

Bleaching unwanted hair has been the method of choice for women with dark colored facial hair since the 1950s. The technology hasn’t changed much—the bleach is applied in paste form and has to be left on for 15 minutes to lighten the hair. Many women report burning and discoloration of the skin from this method, but the results are satisfactory, and it’s inexpensive.

Hair removal cream goes several steps beyond bleach—it dissolves the hair just below the skin. The chemicals in these preparations are very harsh and can burn the skin. It definitely shouldn’t be used on delicate areas such as the face, underarms, nipples, and perianal area. No matter how much perfume is added to the formula, these products have a strong chemical smell. Although nobody seems to like them, their persistence in the marketplace over the years makes them worth considering. They’re inexpensive, and results last one to two weeks.

If none of the above temporary methods for removing unwanted hair is to your liking, you might want to consider permanent or semi-permanent hair removal. These methods work by altering the structure of your skin tissue to destroy the hair follicle so the hair doesn’t come back.

Laser hair removal has shown great promise since the technology was developed. Laser directs light energy into the hair shaft, which travels down into the follicle and destroys it. It is said to work on just about any area of the body where treatment is desired, except for around the eyes. The beauty of laser hair treatment is that it works on large areas at a time and destroys many hair follicles at once.

Laser hair removal won’t work for everyone. Because it uses the hair pigment to transmit light energy, the best candidates for the treatment are people with light skin and dark hair. Also, the treatment is only effective on hair at a certain point in its life cycle. Since hair growth is continuous, it may take several treatments before laser removal can be considered permanent. Laser treatments are expensive because they must be administered by a dermatologist, who is a licensed physician. Since laser hair removal is considered cosmetic, health insurance doesn’t cover it.

Electrolysis is the more traditional method of eliminating unwanted hair growth. A probe or set of electric tweezers is applied to each individual hair follicle to cauterize and destroy it. This process is very time consuming and therefore unsuitable for large areas of hair growth such as the legs, back, or bikini area. However, it has some advantages. It can be done by a licensed technician, instead of a doctor. And it doesn’t matter what color your hair is, making it available to light-haired, light-skinned, or dark-skinned individuals who are not good candidates for laser hair removal.