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There’s nothing more visually unpleasant than unsightly body hair. Shaving it all off isn’t necessarily a pleasant experience either. It’s time-consuming and uncomfortable—even painful at times—and there’s always that one patch or strip of hair that seems to evade the razor.
Even worse, shaved hair grows back very fast. It’s also very blunt thanks to being shaved, which can make it seem coarser or darker than it was before.
Luckily, there are several other ways to get rid of unsightly body hair. In fact, some of them are far more permanent than shaving, meaning you can go longer without having to worry about it. Below are five other options for getting rid of unwanted body hair.
Waxing
The most commonly used alternative to shaving for removing body hair is waxing. This, of course, involves the application of a sticky wax to the body hair. The wax strips are then removed, taking the hair with them. Because the entire hair is removed, including the hair root, it will take a lot longer for the hair to grow back. Waxing can be done in a salon or at home via a kit.
There are two types of waxes used to remove body hair. For soft wax, only a very thin layer of the wax is applied to the hair. Then a strip of paper or cloth is pressed on top of that, and the wax is peeled away taking the hair with it. It’s good for larger areas.
Hard wax doesn’t require paper or cloth strips to go on top of it. You can peel it up on it’s own. Additionally, it doesn’t leave a sticky residue like soft wax will. It’s best to use hard wax on smaller areas.
Laser Treatments
A second option to consider is laser hair removal. This is a more permanent hair removal solution. Laser treatments target the hair follicle to reduce future hair growth. While it won’t completely destroy the follicles, you should be able to stop shaving after a few sessions. It works best for people with lighter colored hair.
Laser treatments are usually far less painful than waxing, and technicians will usually numb the area before they start. It will also get less painful after a few treatments because the hair will get thinner.
Electrolysis
Another alternative is electrolysis. This is permanent hair removal treatment. It involves the insertion of a very thin needle into the skin and into a hair follicle.
An electric current is then sent down the needle, and that current kills the root of the hair follicle so it won’t grow back. The remaining dead hair is then plucked out with tweezers.
Electrolysis can be used anywhere on the body to completely get rid of hair. You can even have it done on your eyebrows. While it will require a few treatments, once those are done, the hair will never grow back. While you can expect some minor skin irritation after a treatment, it usually goes away quickly.
Threading
Another hair removal treatment is threading. Threading is performed by a practitioner that twists a very thin thread around a single hair. The hair is then pulled up out of the skin by the root.
While removing a lot of hair with this method wouldn’t be very efficient, it is a good strategy for removing a smaller amount of hair on the face. It’s particularly good for shaping eyebrows, because it tends to be more precise than waxing and it several hairs at once unlike tweezing.
Epilator
Lastly, another alternative you could employ is using an epilator to remove unwanted body hair. An epilator is a mechanical device that contains a plethora of moving tweezers. You run the epilator over the skin, and it pulls the hair right out.
It can grab multiple hairs at once, pulling them up by the root, much like waxing would. Using an epilator can be somewhat painful, but the hair should be gone for two weeks. Some epilators are made to be used on wet skin, so you can use creams and gels to soothe the skin.
No one likes unsightly body hair. Whether you are participating in No-Shave November or not, you may want an alternative to shaving that is a bit more permanent. Try one the alternatives listed above.
