What is the best way to remove facial hair?

Going all the way back to the Egyptians, people have been using wax to remove facial hair. Little pots of dried wax and accompanying instruments have been found in pyramids. It’s hard to believe that 3,000 years later, wax is still one of our main weapons in the fight against unwanted facial hair.

Permanent hair removal is still a little out of our reach. The two closest options are electrolysis and laser hair removal. Both have their risks, benefits and drawbacks. First, let’s start with the bad news — there are risks involved. Electrolysis is a process by which electrical current is zapped into the hair follicle killing it. Sounds straightforward, but if it is done improperly, the skin around the area can become permanently discolored and irritated. The oversight for electrolysis is done at state level so your results can vary widely depending on the state you live in. Your state could have stringent requirements for licensing technicians or…. it could not. Do some research before you sit down in that chair! Laser hair removal is, for my money, still too new. We don’t know what risks there are. The FDA has approved it, certainly, but I would rather wait a few years and see.

There are some very concrete benefits to either electrolysis or laser. Most obvious, if it works, then you can throw away the tweezers or the waxing kit. With both procedures, the follicles are pinpointed so only the hair you want to remove is removed. This is especially important with a place like your eyebrows. If you have a serious unibrow, then this might be perfect.

The biggest drawback I can see is the money it costs for either electrolysis or laser removal. You have to have several sessions over the course of 12 months. This isn’t a way for the spa to make more money, hair really does grow in different stages. So in your first session they will get a lot of the hair, but 3 months later, you go back and they can zap the hairs that were not grown in the first session. Repeat a few more times and then, all the hair is gone.

Permanent hair removal…. it sounds great and maybe when you weigh the cost of a couple of electrolysis sessions versus a lifetime supply of wax, it comes out cheaper. For me, I’m not ready to throw out the wax just yet.

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