Ways to Get Rid of Unwanted Hair

Plucking, shaving, waxing ... what a pain it is -- literally! -- to deal with unwanted hair. Depilatory creams may not hurt (unless you leave them on too long and your skin starts to burn, but I digress . . . ), but they're messy, they smell and, frankly, they don't do that great of a job. This is why so many of us with hair sprouting where we don't want it turn to permanent solutions.

Well, let's not get carried away. The truth is, permanent hair removal options are not really permanent for most people. However, the industry thinks a good result is being able to go a year before returning for more hair removal treatment. Before you start sulking, think of this: Given the daily routines I have to subject myself to, be it keeping my unruly eyebrows in check or my underarms ready for their close up, one year sounds pretty darn good to me.

Permanent treatments are a form of epilation -- removal of the entire hair. Plucking and waxing are in this category, but permanent procedures go further, employing some way of damaging the hair follicle so that it stops making hair. Depilation, on the other hand, just gets rid of surface fuzz; shaving and the aforementioned messy creams fall into this category.

What are My Options for Removing Hair Permanently?

Possibly the most popular method is laser hair removal. You won't be surprised to hear it involves a laser of some description, designed to target the follicles under the skin without harming the surface. The laser's intense beam does away with the cells in the follicle that produce hair. The laser treats a larger area, making it a good choice for eliminating hair on the legs, for example. On the downside, the cost of laser hair removal can be high and multiple sessions are needed for the best results. Also, it works best on people with darker hair and lighter skin.

Another option is flashlamp hair removal, also known as IPL. This is also a laser treatment (IPL, in fact, stands for intense pulsed light), and works in much the same way. But an IPL can cover even more ground, making it ideal for removing back hair, for instance. It also tends to cost less, but the same issues as with laser removal apply.

If the hair you want to get rid of is pale, lasers are not for you. Fortunately, the tried-and-true hair removal method of electrolysis works on light and very fine hair. With electrolysis, a special needle is inserted into the follicle of each and every unwanted hair. It then destroys it with heat or chemicals, or sometimes both. This method also requires multiple sessions to get the results you want. As you can imagine, this is a tedious process best suited for treating small areas, such as the underarm, upper lip, chin, eyebrows and the like.