Man in need of help.

Hair Removal Methods Waxing and Sugaring
#1

In short…I need lots of help.

I am taking a vitamin supplement to increase hair growth (for the hair on my head) and I’m not even sure that its actually doing anything, but I don’t like all the hair over the rest of my body and I need some input on what to do about it.

I am fed up with shaving my entire body every single day, but I don’t have the income to support a professional hair removal regime, so I was thinking about waxing. However, 4 years ago, my 1st experiance with waxing was horrific. I bathed and then patted myself dry to exfoliate my skin, then I used some of the “Nads” wax on my legs and aside from the intense pain, after the waxing (on the lower leg near the ankles) I could see little specks of blood where my hair used to be and several days after I developed dark brown spots on my legs where I had pulled the hair out. So NOW, my hair has returned AND I still have the stupid brown spots on my legs, so I’m more than a little leary of trying waxing again.

My hair is blond all over my body and is not especially thick, but the few dark hairs on my body seem to come out MUCH easier than the blonde ones. If I tweez on my face I really notice the difference in how much easier the darker, thicker hair comes out. This seems to contradict what most people post about dark hairs being more difficult to remove.

Also whenever I shave, I tend to have unsightly red bumps when the hair starts growing back (especially around the bikini area and my backside). Is there a remedy for this? I have tried just keeping the area clean, using alcohol to dry up the affected areas (at the recommendation of my local pharmacist), and/or slathering myself in lotion. Nothing seems to be working. Any good suggestions?

I have tried Nair but it is smelly, sometimes painfull (if you discover an open sore you didn’t know you had), and only lasts about 2 days. :frowning:

I haven’t tried an epilator yet, sounds worse than the wax. :S

Thanks for taking the time to read this post and any help you can provide.

#2

One of the things that you need to consider here is what you are spending on the OTC items and products that you’ve listed and then break this down into what you can afford to spend on a weekly basis. This will give you some idea of what you can afford in the way of professional treatment.

Be advised that things like waxing and epilators all remove hair by the same process, yanking the entire hair follicles out of the dermis and damaging the surrounding tissues to the degree that the body will repair the areas by increasing the blood supply to the areas of the damaged dermis. With the increase of blood supply comes an increase in androgen which stimulates new hair growth, actually making the problem worse with time.

The only things that you’ve mentioned that will not stimulate new hair growth are the shaving and the things like Nair. These only affect the non-living part of the hair (the hair shaft) and will not create conditions that stimulate new hair growth.

Let’s face it. If you want to become hair free, the only way is through professional hair removal via electrolysis or by becoming an avid DIY with a used professional or other electrolysis device. Even then, at some point you will still need to get professional help as there are some areas that one should not DIY and some that you are not going to be able to see, let alone reach effectively.

As far as the red spots, the best way to get these down quickly is by means of daily sitz baths with epsom salts in combination with ceasing hair removal by methods like tweezing, waxing, epilators and sugaring.

With permanent hair removal, there just are not any simple solutions. Believe me I know, I’ve tried a lot of things that I am ashamed to even mention. That’s why I am now having extensive amounts of electrology done. Nothing else works for me.

Finally, in regards to your statement,

This seems to contradict what most people post about dark hairs being more difficult to remove.

Darker hairs are not necessarily deeper or thicker by any know standard and are not usually any more difficult to remove than any other. Usually, the thickest and deepest hairs are generally the gray or unpigmented hairs.

I’m sorry, but there just are not any simple fixes for what you want.

Hope this helps and my best wishes for you.
Joanie

#3

generally speaking, what you want doesn’t exist. so what’s the next best thing? i would say for you it would be trimming with a body trimmer which produces the appearance of less hair and shaving (properly to avoid bumps as much as possible - soaking in warm water for 10 mins, using shaving GEL, shaving against the grain, etc).

like Joanie said, dark hairs are not harder to remove. Deep-rooted coarse hairs are. But that only applies to electrolysis (permanent removal) in terms of harder to kill the follicle.

The problem with your waxing method is that it’s not meant to do on full grown hair. The hair should be trimmed to 1/4 inch. Home waxing kits like that are also not very good for large areas. You should be using hot wax for that, and not on pre-applied strips.