Hair is this kind of emotive subject and with human nature being human nature, what we wish we can’t have and what we’ve we don’t want! Frizzy hair and we wish straight, straight hair and we wish curly, brunette and we wish blonde, blonde and we wish red. Likewise upper lip hair on women, so valued as a sign of exquisite beauty in certain parts of the world, is vilified by our Western society.

Unwanted hair is really a common problem affecting most women to varying degrees throughout their lives and prompting the utilization of various temporary types of hair reduction or hair management systems. It causes great distress, and it’s often followed by feelings of poor self esteem, a feeling of isolation and low self worth.

Because the instances when bearded feamales 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 eliminate any trace of hair from any and all of these body as they feel it to be unattractive and unappealing. However it’s not only women that are now affected… increasingly the male gender is at the mercy of pressure from the ‘fashion’ and celebrity world and unwanted hair can be just as vilified by the male population nowadays since the female.

Different Types of Hair Removal

Superfluous hair growth can be caused by 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 approach to hair removal, is remedy that is in great demand by female and transsexual clients and more recently, as a result of society’s attitudes, how many male clients is increasing.

To meet this need there as been many hair removal measures some of which return back centuries in history. Hair removal ‘s been around since caveman times but interestingly the parts of your body we’re removing hair from have differed over the ages. Removing hair from the pinnacle and face of men was originally not for vanity purposes however for survival. There’s evidence that cavemen did this but in addition the ancient Egyptians and it had been undertaken, we imagine, for protection, as scraping off the beard and hair on the pinnacle would remove the benefit of an adversary having anything to seize onto along with having less mites!

In ancient Egypt, Greece, and Middle Eastern countries, removing body hair was important. Actually these women removed most of these body hair, with the exception of eyebrows. Egyptian women removed their head hair and pubic hair was considered uncivilized by both sexes! It absolutely was also considered uncivilized for guys to possess hair on their face. Undesired facial hair was the mark of a slave or servant, or of a person of lower class. The ancient Egyptians used a questionnaire of razors made from flint or bronze since the razor was not invented till the 1760’s by French barber, Jean Jacques Perret.

Additionally they used a way of temporary hair removal called sugaring. A sticky paste (bees wax was sometimes used) will be placed on your skin, a strip of cloth was pressed onto the wax and yanked off – the equivalent of waxing today. Wealthy women of the Roman Empire would remove their body hair with pumice stones, razors, tweezing and pastes. There clearly was also another technique used called threading which can be recently seeing a resurgence in popularity. Thin string or yarn will be placed through the fingers of your hands, and quickly stroked over the area. This repetitive process captured the hair and effectively tweezed, ripped or pulled the unwanted hair out. Throughout the Elizabethan times the practice of hair removal, (not of leg, armpit or pubic hair), of these eyebrows and the hair from their foreheads to be able to give the looks of a lengthier brow and forehead was fashionable. It’s startling to see the most obvious influence ‘fashion’ has played in hair removal from ab muscles beginning.

Waxing, sugaring, depilatory creams, bleaching, shaving, sugaring, plucking, threading and even battery-powered tweezers multiple-plucking systems, are typical temporary methods that numerous people try today. Actually new hair removal devices seem to look like buses – every 20 minutes or so! However, technology has moved on and with it, it seems there are some restricted and doubtful types of hair removal. X-ray and photodynamic methods are in a restricted category since the former has been banned in a few 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’s no established data on their effectiveness.

Electrolysis remains the only proven permanent approach to hair removal and many women and indeed many men, have benefited from this tried and trusted treatment. It’s usually the case that electrologists are privileged to witness a remarkable transformation inside their clients, from a timid, introverted personality at the beginning of a program of treatments, to a comfortable and happy individual once treatment is underway and results become apparent.

Whatever your opinion of hair, ‘removing it’ in our Western society is a multiple million pound industry. Such a huge money making machine though could have a lot more than its great amount 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 great amount 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 particular in mind there’s only 1 system available on the market today that may totally prove ‘permanent’ hair removal primarily due to 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 as well supporting the hospital laser hair removal departments. It is also considered an essential tool in the job 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 customer with mild hirsute problems to the individual with seriously hirsute problems and for the transgender patient who may require much time of treatment.

Apparently there’s been confusing messages from the regulatory bodies on definitions of what the words ‘permanent’, ‘removal’ or ‘reduction’ in the hair removal industry actually mean. Agreement was reached that if the hairs that have been removed do not grow back for an amount of 12 months after the final treatment, permanent reduction can be claimed. Electrolysis, invented in 1875 remains even today, usually 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 all permanent hair removal. This, it’s now realised, reaches best, somewhat nave and at worst, certainly misleading. The truth is that this was wishful thinking and nowadays ‘claims’ tend to be more realistic. The truth is that whilst they’ve their successes there is also their limitations – they can’t 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’ however, not permanent ‘removal’ of hair. The truth is this newer technology is brilliant for big areas and for dark hair. For grey or white hair it really simply doesn’t work. Laser and IPL target the melanin in the hair and if the hair is grey or white there’s no melanin remaining in the hair for it to target. In addition to this, for unknown reason(s) not all the hair reacts to treatment and results vary from 85% – 95% success. The rest of the 5% – 15% hair will undoubtedly be stripped of its melanin (thus appearing white) but still stubbornly continues to grow. This then leaves the only option of ‘permanent hair removal’ down to additional electrolysis treatment to complete the job. Laser and IPL are now recognised to become a hair ‘management’ system and clients are advised that regrowth may occur.

Photoepilator light energy was launched in 1969 and was developed from research into laser hair removal. Photoepilators use a burst of filtered light directed at one hair at a time. Following the focus of the light, the hair is tweezed. Like any laser and light instrument, the light utilized in the device is targeted contrary to the blood and melanin pigments in the hair and heats them up. To enable this process, fibre-optic probes were inserted in to the hair follicle through that your light was flashed. There’s no clinical data published so far to guide any permanency claims and there’s no established data on its effectiveness.

The tweezer method having its unsubstantiated claim of ‘permanent hair removal’ was initially patented in 1959. This method functions passing an electric energy through the tweezers, which holds the hair on the surface of your skin by grasping them for several minutes. Electricity enters through the hair to its root and claims to permanently damage it. The scientific community has reservations since the claim of electricity destroying the basis of the hair does not have any scientific backup.

Transcutaneous and Transdermal offers ‘permanent Hair Removal’ but no clinical data has been published currently to ascertain the claim that permanent hair removal is possible using these methods. In 1985 when the utilization of AC electric tweezers was stopped, the manufacturers made some modifications in the apparatus. Adhesive patches in place of cotton swabs were introduced and a name change into transcutaneous hair removal. It uses the thought of direct current (DC) 永久脫毛 for transdermal delivery of drugs (iontophoresis) without the utilization of a needle. A DC electric energy is passed via a conductive gel on the surface of your skin via an adhesive patch positioned on the skin. The hair root is claimed to be damaged permanently by the electric energy that travels down to the hair follicle.

Up to now no clinical data is available and the laws of physics do not support the claims produced by the manufacturers. Hair doesn’t conduct electricity but skin does. As electricity passes through the medium of poor resistance, it will spread along the outer lining of your skin rather than passing through the hair. Therefore, as with the tweezer method, the argument so it will reach the basis of the hair to destroy it does not have any scientific backup.

Ultrasound hair removal claims that ultrasound waves are channelled precisely down the hair shaft and in the act they transform to thermal energy that super heats the hair growth areas and inhibits regrowth. It’s stated that the waves are bound to the hair shaft and do not dissipate into your skin prevents any side effects.

Ultrasound hair removal offers ‘total hair removal’ and claims to function as the ‘next generation of longterm hair removal devices’ ;.It states in its marketing material it is ‘The hair removal solution’ and that ‘no additional hair appears in the same follicle proving that this is a long-term treatment’ ;.The FDA has not given the results currently regarding an application to advertise in April 2010 of the latest device.