Just done my shoulders, but...

Hi,

Just to let you know my problem: I have hairy shoulders which I absolutely hate. I have hair on my chest too, but I don’t mind that so much because it stays flat, but the hair on the shoulders stands up “to attention” like soldiers :frowning: and is generally really unattractive.

I’ve shaved it off before, but I decided to try something more long-lasting, so I’ve just gone and used Veet/Immac waxing strips (first time I’ve used wax) on my shoulders, according to the instructions. I’ve moisturised the skin now with oil (mentha piperita I think) and it seems to calmed down a little.

To give it credit, it’s worked quite well and didn’t hurt much. My only problem now is: where do I stop? I don’t mind a kind of “vest” distribution of chest hair but where do I stop on the arms? I don’t want to remove the hair on my arms but there is quite a demarcation line between the hairy and non-hairy zones along the front of my arm and especially at the back. Most of the hair on my arms is the rather innocent downy stuff not the big black hairs that I hate.

Is there a way of “blending” the two zones together or do I have to put up with it?

Also, what’s the best way now of maintaining it? Do I just wait for it to grow again, then re-wax, or should I shave it (kind of defeats the purpose)?

Thanks!

That, I think, is the eternal question. And I don’t think there’s really much of an answer. I suppose you could tweeze part of the hairs so that they’re fewer, in the area where the two meet, but that’d be decidedly time-consuming.

It’s hard to know where to start and end… I do my whole arm… so i don’t have that issue anymore… but I know where you are coming from… I think the elbow is probably the natural point to try to blend the two together… what I used to do before I did the whole arm was to wax shoulders and upper arms, then with a dry (even blunt) razor, just kind of loosely glide it over the area around the elbow joint to ‘feather’ the length of the hairs… some hairs got short, some half cut… try to tilt the razor up and not rub it along the skin…you can get a half decent look where the hairs are not so much noticeable… it really depends on the hairiness of your forearms as to how natural it looks…

HTH,

David

[ February 01, 2003, 08:21 PM: Message edited by: IHH ]

Another good option is an electric razor or beard trimmer with an attachment that’s about 1/2 inch long. You can shorten hairs from the tops of your arms and taper them like a fade haircut into the smooth area. This take a little practice to do right, but I know guys who are really good at it.

If the density still looks weird after you taper the hair, I was also suggest thinning the hair a bit at the demarcation with tweezers or a rotary epilator.

Be sure to exfoliate and mostiurize to avooid ingrowns!