Unwanted hair is a common problem affecting most women to varying degrees throughout their lives and prompting the usage of various temporary methods of hair reduction or hair management systems. It causes great distress, in fact it is often accompanied by feelings of poor self-confidence, a sense of isolation and low self worth.
Since Browse around this site when bearded women in Victorian travelling fairs were displayed for entertainment and ridicule, Western society has nurtured a stigma about excess hair. Many women are pressured into tremendous lengths to remove any trace of hair from any and all of their body as they feel it to be unattractive and unappealing. Nonetheless it isn't just women that are now affected... increasingly the male gender is subject to pressure from the 'fashion' and celebrity world and unwanted hair can be just as vilified by the male population nowadays because the female.
Different Methods of Hair Removal
Superfluous hair growth can be due to many factors, such as, hormone imbalance, (during puberty, pregnancy and menopause), genetics and ethnicity, hereditary, medication or topical stimulation e.g. waxing or tweezing. Therefore, electrolysis - the only permanent method of hair removal, is really a treatment that is in great demand by female and transsexual clients and more recently, because of society's attitudes, the amount of male clients is increasing.
To meet this need there as been many hair removal measures a few of which go back centuries ever sold. Hair removal has been around since caveman times but interestingly the parts of the body we are removing hair from have differed on the ages. Removing hair from the head and face of men was originally not for vanity purposes but for survival. There is evidence that cavemen did this but additionally the ancient Egyptians and it was undertaken, we imagine, for protection, as scraping off the beard and hair on the head would take away the benefit of an adversary having anything to grab onto as well as having less mites!
In ancient Egypt, Greece, and Middle Eastern countries, removing body hair was important. In fact these women removed most of their body hair, aside from eyebrows. Egyptian women removed their head hair and pubic hair was considered uncivilized by both sexes! It had been also considered uncivilized for men to possess hair on their face. Undesired facial hair was the mark of a slave or servant, or of an individual of lower class. The ancient Egyptians used a kind of razors made of flint or bronze because the razor was not invented till the 1760's by French barber, Jean Jacques Perret.
They also used a method of temporary hair removal called sugaring. A sticky paste (bees wax was sometimes used) would be applied to your skin, a strip of cloth was pressed onto the wax and yanked off - the same as waxing today. Wealthy women of the Roman Empire would remove their body hair with pumice stones, razors, tweezing and pastes. There is also another technique used called threading that is recently seeing a resurgence in popularity. Thin string or yarn will be placed through the fingers of both hands, and quickly stroked over the area. This repetitive process captured the hair and effectively tweezed, ripped or pulled the unwanted hair out. Through the Elizabethan times the practice of hair removal, (not of leg, armpit or pubic hair), of their eyebrows and the hair from their foreheads in order to supply the appearance of an extended brow and forehead was fashionable. It is startling to note the most obvious influence 'fashion' has played in hair removal from the very beginning.
Waxing, sugaring, depilatory creams, bleaching, shaving, sugaring, plucking, threading and even battery-powered tweezers multiple-plucking systems, are temporary methods that many people try today. In fact new hair removal devices seem to appear like buses - every 20 minutes roughly! However, technology has shifted and with it, it appears that there are some restricted and doubtful ways of hair removal. X-ray and photodynamic methods come in a restricted category as the former has been banned in some countries like the USA and the latter are just in experimental stages. Electric tweezers, transdermal electrolysis, and microwaves are some of the doubtful methods in that there is absolutely no established data on their effectiveness.
Electrolysis is still the only proven permanent method of hair removal and several women and indeed many men, have benefited out of this tried and trusted treatment. It is often the case that electrologists are privileged to witness a dramatic transformation in their clients, from the shy, introverted personality at the beginning of a course of treatments, to a confident and happy individual once treatment is underway and results become apparent.
Whatever laser hair removal buckhead of hair, 'removing it' inside our Western society is really a multi million pound industry. Such a huge money making machine though will have more than its fair share of misconceptions, misunderstandings, myths and legends none of which relate much to the hard reality truth. The huge profit led hair removal industry has its fair share of charlatans and scams all attracted by the huge profit led opportunities.
Hair Removal methods are both permanent and temporary. The English dictionary definition of 'permanent' states: perpetual, everlasting. With this in mind there is only one system on the market today that can totally prove 'permanent' hair removal primarily because of its longevity, client testimony and satisfaction and that is electrolysis. Invented in 1875 electrolysis offers permanent removal of hair for all hair types and colours and all skin types and colours. It continues to be utilised in hospitals by surgeons and ophthalmologists for trichaisis and other distortions of the eyelashes aswell supporting the hospital laser hair removal departments. Additionally it is considered a significant tool in the work of veterinary surgeons for animals (primarily horses and dogs) for the permanent removal of distorted and in-growing eyelashes. It provides cosmetic relief for the buyer with mild hirsute problems to the individual with seriously hirsute problems and for the transgender patient who may require several hours of treatment.
Apparently there's been confusing messages coming from the regulatory bodies on definitions of what what 'permanent', 'removal' or 'reduction' in the hair removal industry actually mean. Agreement was reached that when the hairs which were removed do not grow back for an interval of one year after the last treatment, permanent reduction can be claimed. Electrolysis, invented in 1875 remains to this day, the one method legally allowed to claim 'permanent removal'.
The newer technologies such as LASER (Light Amplification Stimulated Emission of Radiation) and IPL (Intense Pulse Light) were initially launched as competitors of electrolysis and initially marketed as THE answer for several permanent hair removal. This, it really is now realised, is at best, somewhat nave and at worst, certainly misleading. The reality is that was wishful thinking and nowadays 'claims' are far more realistic. The simple truth is that whilst they have their successes they also have their limitations - they cannot treat all hair colours and types and all skin colours successfully and they now accept their limitations and embrace electrolysis and electrologists as their back up.
Laser and IPL are allowed by the FDA to claim permanent 'reduction' but not permanent 'removal' of hair. The simple truth is that newer technology is brilliant for large areas and for dark hair. For grey or white hair it just simply doesn't work. Laser and IPL target the melanin in the hair and when the hair is grey or white there is no melanin remaining in the hair for it to target. In addition to this, for unknown reason(s) not all of the hair reacts to treatment and results change from 85% - 95% success. The remaining 5% - 15% hair will undoubtedly be stripped of its melanin (thus appearing white) but still stubbornly is growing. This then leaves the only real option of 'permanent hair removal' right down to additional electrolysis treatment to complete the work. Laser and IPL are now recognised to become a hair 'management' system and clients are advised that regrowth may occur.
Photoepilator light energy premiered in 1969 and originated from research into laser hair removal. Photoepilators work with a burst of filtered light targeted at one hair at a time. After the focus of the light, the hair is tweezed. Like any laser and light instrument, the light found in these devices is targeted against the blood and melanin pigments in the hair and heats them up. To enable this process, fibre-optic probes were inserted into the hair follicle by which the light was flashed. There is absolutely no clinical data published up to now to aid any permanency claims and there is no established data on its effectiveness.
The tweezer method with its unsubstantiated claim of 'permanent hair removal' was initially patented in 1959. This system works by passing an electric current through the tweezers, which holds the ha
