Unwanted Hair: Let Us Count the Ways (to Remove It)
As we approach the slow, but steady seasonal shift and the inevitable start of summer, now is the perfect time to revisit a favorite subject: The eradication of unwanted hair!
Yes, we humans are either trying to grow more, longer, thicker hair, or we’re trying to get rid of it altogether! And this pursuit is certainly not a new fad. As early as 3000 BCE humans were trying to remove hair from their bodies! Smooth skin has long been considered a sign of purity, status, and good hygiene. Even figures like Cleopatra practiced hair removal, with albeit more primitive tools. Pumice stones, or mixtures of sugary water and beeswax were used to pull hair from the legs of Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. And by the time the Renaissance rolled around grooming professionals had developed even more interesting concoctions. By using ingredients like arsenic, quicklime, cat feces, and vinegar, they would essentially singe the hair from the skin. We do not recommend trying these at home!
Fortunately, by the 20th century we’d come up with less toxic approaches. The simple, physical practice of shaving has, however, become the most prevalent method used for hair removal in our modern age. Indeed, I must repeat a statistic I’ve shared with you in the past because I simply can’t resist: Women spend an estimated 1,728 hours shaving their legs over the course of a lifetime — that’s 72 days! By comparison, men only spend about 45 days shaving their facial stubble.
Understandably, it’s a task that eventually grows tedious for both genders, and while men’s faces don’t lend themselves to much more than a standard blade, there are options for practically every other part of the body.
Waxing is the next most common approach, and it’s one that offers smoother skin, and longer lasting results. But for a truly modern technique, we must turn to the laser.
Lasers work by emitting a concentrated beam of light toward the hair follicle. This intense light is converted to heat, which damages the follicle, thereby inhibiting its ability to produce new hair.
While many lasers in use these days target the pigment (melanin) of the follicle, we prefer to use a more advanced type of laser that penetrates fractionally deeper in the epidermis. The former approach is ideal for people with dark hair and light skin, but the damage to the melanin can cause hyperpigmentation and other forms of skin damage in people with darker skin tones. By going deeper, and targeting the blood supply of the hair follicle, we avoid this problem. I’m proud to say that, at Kintsu, we use the kind of laser that is safe for all skin tones.
The process certainly takes longer than shaving, but the benefits are worth it. Aside from leaving the skin incredibly smooth, it provides permanent hair reduction, which means that over time, less and less hair will grow back, and even when it does, it’s finer and softer that before. No more stubble!
So if you’re looking forward to smooth, poolside skin this summer, now is the perfect time to investigate the LHR option. As always, we’re here to help advise, and guide you for any of your beauty needs.
