We need to talk about hair and no I am not talking about the hair on your head. One affliction that faces many women is the hair growing all over our body. It has always struck me as unfair that men are allowed to let their hair grow on their face and body completely untamed yet society has said that women must remove it. I don’t make too much of a fuss about it though because I like hairy men and I also like not being hairy. Leaving the feminist debate to one side removing hair can be difficult. The last thing you want is stubble in the place of your hair and many treatments that claim to solve the problem are either expensive, flawed, or have serious complications. Let’s take a closer look.
If you thought hair removal was a modern problem you would be wrong. People have been removing hair from their bodies to look good for hundreds of years. In the old days when Egypt was still ruled by Pharaohs, they used razors, pumice stones, and tweezers to address their hair issues. Native Americans used lye and when European settlers came they liked the idea so much they copied it. Even in ancient Turkey (long before it was called Turkey), calcium oxide was used to get rid of the hair.
In 1905 Albert Geyser created an X-Ray machine that would remove hairs. Today that sounds extremely unsafe and back then it was too. The radiation it caused had lethal side effects and the machine was quickly banned. Thankfully there is nothing as lethal as that on the market today but there are still some difficult choices to make. You can shave, use laser therapy, or of course waxing. Hair removal creams have become popular in recent times because they are easy to do and can be used in your home. Let’s take a closer look.
While a lot safer than Geyser’s invention hair removal creams do rely on strong chemicals to remove the hair. If you are someone who is wary of what chemical products are on your body we recommend staying away from these creams. Sodium thioglycolate, calcium thioglycolate, and strontium sulfide are the most chemical compounds found in hair removal cream and they basically break down the protein in the hair (keratin). This weakens the hair to such a degree that it can simply be wiped away.
The great thing about hair removal creams is that they get rid of the hair below the surface level. So instead of shaving every day you could use a cream once a week. It also breaks down the hair itself and that means that the hair that returns is weaker than before.
Another thing that people complain about hair cream is the strong chemical smell it produces. Manufacturers have started to add artificial scents to cover the smell but they only do an ok job of it. These strong chemicals are largely unproven on the skin but if they are strong enough to take your hair apart then you should be cautious in using them on your skin. They can’t be that good.
While people have been removing hair from their bodies for centuries we still haven’t found the perfect solution. Throughout time and civilizations, we have tried numerous approaches and all had their issues. Today we have expensive options, chemical options, or time-consuming options. The Egyptians kept things pretty basic and maybe had the right idea. In truth, most of us only care about the hair during the summer months so shaving may be the best approach after all.
