For thousands of years, people have been removing hair from their bodies.  As women, especially, we’ve been made to feel that it’s necessary to remove all unwanted hair, and for those who do it, it makes them feel better about themselves.

So, the most popular ways to remove hair are:

Depilation and Epilation

As a teenager this seemed to be the holy grail of hair removal for me.  It was either take pot luck shaving or go all out with hair removal cream.   I’d sneak razors or the smelly cream from my mother’s bedroom and hide away in the bathroom to get rid of my emerging leg hair.  The fact that I hardly ever had any was neither here nor there.

The depilation cream removed hair on the surface of the skin, but did nothing much to keep my legs hair free.  A couple of days later, there it was, back to bother me.

Epilation I tried in the form of a little gadget which pulled out the hair by the roots.  Did I mention painful?   It does remove hair from beneath the surface, but it’s painful.

Shaving

Shaving is the one method that always seems to be the last resort, as it’s quick, usually painless and can be done at home, very simply.  It helps that throw away razors are so cheap, but it lasts for such a short time and the growth is sharp and uncomfortable, so although it’s a speedy and painless method, it’s certainly not the most efficient or skin friendly.

Gloves

Bags on your hands with a rough surface I did try once, but they did nothing for me.  I still can’t see the advantage, or work out who they work for.   I imagine some floaty little lady with delicate skin and very thin, willowy leg hairs would be only people these would work for.  For me, not so much.  I tried rubbing away at my legs, with nothing happening.  I ended up with red and rough skin with the rubbing, and a friction burn to fear you the next morning.  I never tried them again.  I would imagine they are much improved these days.

Plucking or Tweezing

I spent 20 years doing this to my eyebrows.  For so long, that my once healthy eyebrows with a pointy arch almost disappeared into oblivion.  I’ve lost count of all the hours I’ve spent plucking and pulling at stray and straggly hairs, with little consideration for the shape.  That’s a big regret of mine.  It’s great for small areas like eyebrows, or the odd straggle chin hair that crops up over the age of 30, but for large areas, it would be very time-consuming indeed.  It is cheap, and lasts for a month or more, but practical as a full hair removal system, it is not.

Waxing

For me, this is it.  A short spell with hot wax, and the excess hair is obliterated for a good few weeks, and the more I do it, the less hair I end up with under my oxters and on my legs.  These days, there are waxes that remove hair as short as 1mm, and they do it fairly painlessly too when there is a preparation oil beforehand.

So, that’s it in a nutshell.  What’s your favourite way to remove superfluous hair?