Hair is such an emotive subject and with human nature being human nature, what we wish we can’t have and what we have we don’t want! Curly 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 a lady, so valued as an indication of exquisite beauty in certain parts of the world, is vilified by our Western society.
Unwanted hair is just a common problem affecting nearly all women to varying degrees throughout their lives and prompting the use of various temporary types of hair reduction or hair management systems. It causes great distress, and it is often associated with feelings of poor self esteem, a feeling of isolation and low self worth.
Because the occasions 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 remove any trace of hair from any and every part of the body as they think it to be unattractive and unappealing. However it is not only women that are now affected… increasingly the male gender is subject to pressure from the ‘fashion’ and celebrity world and unwanted hair can be just as vilified by the male population nowadays since the female.
Different Methods 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 real permanent way of hair removal, is remedy that’s in great demand by female and transsexual clients and more recently, because of society’s attitudes, the amount of male clients is increasing.
To generally meet this need there as been many hair removal measures some that return back centuries in history. Hair removal ‘s been around since caveman times but interestingly the parts of your body we are removing hair from have differed within the ages. Removing hair from the pinnacle and face of men was originally not for vanity purposes but for survival. There’s evidence that cavemen did this but also the ancient Egyptians and it absolutely was undertaken, we imagine, for protection, as scraping off the beard and hair on the pinnacle would eliminate the advantage of an adversary having anything to grab onto as well as having less mites!
In ancient Egypt, Greece, and Middle Eastern countries, removing body hair was important. In reality these women removed most of the body hair, except for eyebrows. Egyptian women removed their head hair and pubic hair was considered uncivilized by both sexes! It had been also considered uncivilized for men to possess hair on the face. Undesired facial hair was the mark of a slave or servant, or of an individual 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.
They also used a way of temporary hair removal called sugaring. A sticky paste (bees wax was sometimes used) will be applied to your skin, a reel of cloth was pressed onto the wax and yanked off – the same 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 is recently seeing a resurgence in popularity. Thin string or yarn will be placed through the fingers of both of your hands, and quickly stroked within the area. This repetitive process captured the hair and effectively tweezed, ripped or pulled the unwanted hair out. During the Elizabethan times the practice of hair removal, (not of leg, armpit or pubic hair), of the eyebrows and the hair from their foreheads to be able to give the looks of a lengthier brow and forehead was fashionable. It is startling to note the 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 temporary methods that lots of people try today. In reality new hair removal devices seem to look like buses – every 20 minutes or so! However, technology has moved on and with it, it appears there are some restricted and doubtful types of hair removal. X-ray and photodynamic methods have been in a restricted category because the former has been banned in a few countries such as the USA and the latter are only in experimental stages. Electric tweezers, transdermal electrolysis, and microwaves are some of the doubtful methods in that there is no established data on the effectiveness.
Electrolysis is still the only real proven permanent way of hair removal and many women and indeed many men, have benefited using this tried and trusted treatment. It is usually the case that electrologists are privileged to witness a remarkable transformation within their clients, from a shy, introverted personality in 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 multi million pound industry. This type of huge money making machine though can have a lot more than its great amount of misconceptions, misunderstandings, myths and legends none that 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 generally permanent and temporary. The English dictionary definition of ‘permanent’ states: perpetual, everlasting. With this in your mind there is 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’s electrolysis. Invented in 1875 electrolysis offers permanent removal of hair for all hair types and colours and all skin types and colours. It remains utilised in hospitals by surgeons and ophthalmologists for trichaisis and other distortions of the eyelashes as well supporting a healthcare facility laser hair removal departments. It can be considered an important tool in the task of veterinary surgeons for animals (primarily horses and dogs) for the permanent removal of distorted and in-growing eyelashes. It offers cosmetic relief for the customer with mild hirsute problems to the patient with seriously hirsute problems and for the transgender patient who may require several hours of treatment.
Apparently there has been confusing messages from the regulatory bodies on definitions of what the language ‘permanent’, ‘removal’ or ‘reduction’ in the hair removal industry actually mean. Agreement was reached that if the hairs which were removed do not grow back for an amount of twelve months after the last treatment, permanent reduction can be claimed. Electrolysis, invented in 1875 remains even today, the main 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 is now realised, reaches best, somewhat nave and at worst, certainly misleading. The stark reality is that this is wishful thinking and nowadays ‘claims’ tend to be more realistic. The simple 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’ but not permanent ‘removal’ of hair. The simple truth is that newer technology is brilliant for large 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 is no melanin remaining in the hair for it to target. As well as this, for unknown reason(s) not most of the hair reacts to treatment and results vary from 85% – 95% success. The remaining 5% – 15% hair will be stripped of its melanin (thus appearing white) but nevertheless stubbornly continues to grow. This then leaves the only real option of ‘permanent hair removal’ right down to additional electrolysis treatment to accomplish the job. Laser and IPL are now actually 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 make use of a burst of filtered light targeted at one hair at a time. After the focus of the light, the hair is tweezed. Like any laser and light instrument, the light found in the unit is targeted against the blood and melanin pigments in the hair and heats them up. Allow this process, fibre-optic probes were inserted into the hair follicle through that the light was flashed. There’s no clinical data published to date to support any permanency claims and there is no established data on its effectiveness.
The tweezer method having its unsubstantiated claim of ‘permanent hair removal’ was first patented in 1959. This system functions passing an household current through the tweezers, which holds the hair at first glance of your skin by grasping them for all 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 main of the hair has no 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 use of AC electric tweezers was stopped, the manufacturers made some modifications in the apparatus. Adhesive patches rather than cotton swabs were introduced and a name change into transcutaneous hair removal. It uses the thought of direct current (DC) 脫毛邊間好 for transdermal delivery of drugs (iontophoresis) without the use of a needle. A DC household current is passed through a conductive gel at first glance of your skin via an adhesive patch placed on the skin. The hair root is claimed to be damaged permanently by the household current that travels right down to the hair follicle.
To date no clinical data can be acquired and the laws of physics do not support the claims made by the manufacturers. Hair does not 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, much like the tweezer method, the argument so it will reach the main of the hair to destroy it has no scientific backup.
Ultrasound hair removal claims that ultrasound waves are channelled precisely down the hair shaft and in the process they transform to thermal energy that super heats the hair growth areas and inhibits regrowth. It is 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 be 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 hasn’t given the results currently regarding a software to promote in April 2010 of the newest device.