Healthy Skin: What Are the Impacts of Body Hair Removal on the Skin?

Whether purely for beauty reasons, because it provides a confidence boost, or perhaps because of health conditions such as hirsutism, body hair removal is commonplace among women and, increasingly, many men. If you walk into a supermarket or pharmacy, there are endless options to remove your body hair. Let’s consider some of those options and the impacts of body hair removal on your skin.

Hair removal is often considered safe and does not pose a risk to your health. Some methods, however, are better for your skin than others. In this article, we’ll look at the options and also consider skincare tips that can help keep your skin healthy when using any of these methods.

Waxing

There was a time when waxing was a service performed only by professionals, but there are now many options enabling people to wax at home.

Waxing is a safe way to remove body hair, and it will also remove dry and dead skin cells in the process thus providing gentle exfoliation. Nonetheless, there can be some irritation afterwards, especially if waxing sensitive areas.

Unlike some other methods, waxing has long-lasting results as the hairs are pulled out from the root rather than just cutting the hair at the surface of the skin. As the hairs grow back, they will also be finer and sparser.

Getting professionally waxed can be expensive, so there are options to wax yourself. It is important to remember to check the temperature at which the wax should be heated to in order to avoid burning yourself. Practice does make perfect and that can be applied to learning the correct technique for the spatula. It is worth investing in high-quality wax strips to avoid any unnecessary issues.

Shaving

Shaving is the most popular hair removal technique and has a lot of positives. Shaving works by cutting the hair close to the skin with a razor or electric shaver.

Depending on the device you use, you may be able to shave with wet, soapy skin. If you are using an electric device then dry skin is usually optimal – although some devices can be used on wet skin.

Shaving is generally the quickest hair removal method and is great for larger areas of skin such as your legs or underarms.

However, as with using any sort of blade, there is a risk of cuts and abrasions which can lead to infections if not cared for properly. To keep your skin healthy, you could try using a shaving cream which includes a moisturiser to help your skin stay hydrated.

The other disadvantage of shaving is that hair tends to grow back thicker.

Depilatory Creams

Depilatory creams are more commonly known as hair removal creams. These creams work by weakening the hair strands so that when you wipe the cream off, the hair comes away painlessly too.

Depilatory creams are full of chemicals so if you have sensitive skin there is a high potential for irritation. It is best to stick to known, trusted brands to avoid any issues as these are more likely to be high-quality products.

Laser Hair Removal

Laser hair removal can be very expensive, but the results can be amazing and permanent. The laser targets the hair follicle and slows down the growth of the hair until it eventually stops.

As this treatment is a gradual process you will require multiple sessions with a trained professional which means it can be expensive and not as convenient as the methods you can do at home. Laser treatments can also cause some irritation and burning, but they tend to be the more extreme cases. You must follow the technician’s advice when it comes to caring for your skin after the treatment.

Laser treatment options continue to improve and minimise the negative impacts of body hair removal. For example, Soprano Laser Ice Treatment is said to be the most efficient and pain-free option available.