ive been to a lot of website that say stuff like… “Thick coarse hair becomes softer, smaller and finer. It will resemble hair you had as a baby” then it says you will be permanently hair free. well the people in this website say nothing completely removes hair as far as inhibitors go but i dont really care to be bald on my body… but if someone knows of a product that will actually make hair thinner, finer, less corse, or anything like that please tell me. thanks
Most of the things you are talking about are just emollients with some level of acid mixed in. What they do is make the hair above the surface softer to the touch, and dissolve just a little around the edges so that the hair above the surface is somewhat less than it would be, so that it feels softer for a longer period of time.
These things are called cosmetics, because according to the United States Food & Drug Administration (US FDA) Cosmetics need only prove that they first cause no harm when used as directed, have the primary purpose of making the customer feel good about themselves, and that they are NOT drugs. Drugs, are defined as anything that brings about a change in the body as a direct result of its application, or ingestion rather or not the change is temporary or permanent.
Clearly, anything that could be applied to the skin and leave the body forever unable to regrow hair would constitute a DRUG, and would most surely be by prescription only in the USA. (Did you know that Processed Sugar and Caffine could not be introduced as a new product in the USA now because the scientific data on the effect they have on the body would qualify them as Drugs?) The prescription only product, Vaniqua is such a cream that has shown a limited ability to thin hair with topical application, however, hair returns to normal without constant continued use. You may find disscussion on that product elswhere on this site.
Keep in mind that the actual labels on most of the products you are looking at only say, some form of “gives the appearance of thinner hair” or “When used as directed, one may extend the period of time between shaving before one feels the need for shaving again” By this, most companies mean, you won’t be feeling hard stubble on hair that you can’t see, so you won’t want to shave again until you have hairs long enough to be visible to the casual eye.
[ August 24, 2003, 06:26 AM: Message edited by: James W. Walker VII, CPE ]