In recent years, hair removal has become fashionable - but which method is best?

Men have been practicing hair removal for centuries. The ancient Egyptians were clean shaven, and still today the majority of men go through the daily ritual of shaving facial hair. However, in more recent years the trend has been to remove body hair from the chest, arms, legs and pubic area for smooth hairless skin. We seem to live in a society that excess body hair, particularly in women, is still socially unacceptable.

So, which is the best method for removing hair?

The answer depends on various factors like time, cost, skin type and desired hair free zone, but the important point to remember is that there are very few options for permanent hair removal.

Basically, methods for removing hair falls into two categories - depilatory and epilators. Depilatory involves removing the hair at the surface as in shaving or depilatory creams whereas epilators involves removing the hair from below the surface as in plucking, waxing electrolysis, etc.

Depilatories

• Shaving is probably the cheapest and most convenient way to remove unwanted hair, but is also the most temporary as it merely cuts the hair off at the skins surface and, instead of the hair growing back tapered, is more noticeable as it has been truncated by the razor. Lasts about 1 - 3 days

• Creams use a chemical that literally melts the hairs away. The lotion or cream is applied to the skin and left for between 5 and 15 minutes to dissolve the hair and then washed off. One advantage is that the cream also removes dead skin cells so the skin is left feeling very smooth. However, being a chemical, it can cause skin irritation and a small test patch should be done 48 hours before full application. Lasts about 2 weeks.

Epilators

• Plucking is an effective method of removing hair that is cheap but is time consuming for large areas. It is usually used for removing isolated facial hairs and shaping eyebrows. Electric epilators have rotating discs that pluck the hair out and can be used for larger areas such as the legs and arms. Threading is also another technique similar to plucking, where a cotton thread is twisted and rolled over the skin, catching up the hairs and pulling them out. The disadvantage to all methods is the discomfort and temporary reddening of the plucked area, but the advantage is that it can be between 3 and 8 weeks before hair reappears.

• Waxing and Sugar waxing is an effective method of removing hair over large areas and is a process where hot wax is spread over the area to be treated, allowed to cool so that the hairs are then embedded in the wax, then quickly removed in strips pulling the hairs out with it. Some waxes can affect the skin and any wax left on the skin needs to be peeled or scraped off, therefore sugar waxes are preferred by some as they are natural and are water soluble making any residue easier to clean off. Obviously caution must be used when applying the wax that it is not too hot and burns the skin. Typical hair waxing lasts between 3 to 6 weeks.

Apart from these temporary methods to removing hair, there are various so called permanent methods such electrolysis, laser treatment and use of drugs.