Hair is such an emotive subject and with human nature being human nature, what we want we can’t have and what we have we don’t want! Wild hair and we want straight, straight hair and we want curly, brunette and we want blonde, blonde and we want red. Likewise upper lip hair on a lady, so valued as an indicator of exquisite beauty in certain areas of the world, is vilified by our Western society.
Unwanted hair is just a common problem affecting the majority of 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’s often combined with feelings of poor self-confidence, a feeling of isolation and low self worth.
Considering that the instances when bearded ladies 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 every part of these body as they feel it to be unattractive and unappealing. However it’s not just women which can be now affected… increasingly the male gender is subject to pressure from the ‘fashion’ and celebrity world and unwanted hair could be in the same way vilified by the male population nowadays while the female.
Different Methods of Hair Removal
Superfluous hair growth could be due to many factors, such as for instance, 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 method of hair removal, is cure that’s in great demand by female and transsexual clients and now, because of society’s attitudes, the amount of male clients is increasing.
To generally meet this need there as always been many hair removal measures some which return centuries in history. Hair removal has existed since caveman times but interestingly the areas of your body we’re removing hair from have differed within the ages. Removing hair from the top and face of men was originally not for vanity purposes however for survival. There’s evidence that cavemen did this but also the ancient Egyptians and it was undertaken, we imagine, for protection, as scraping off the beard and hair on the top would remove the benefit of an adversary having anything to seize onto in addition to having less mites!
In ancient Egypt, Greece, and Middle Eastern countries, removing body hair was important. In reality these women removed most of these body hair, except for eyebrows. Egyptian women removed their head hair and pubic hair was considered uncivilized by both sexes! It was also considered uncivilized for men to own hair on their face. 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 manufactured from flint or bronze while the razor wasn’t 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) would be applied to skin, a reel 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 is also another technique used called threading that is recently seeing a resurgence in popularity. Thin string or yarn would be placed through the fingers 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. 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 in order to give the looks of an extended brow and forehead was fashionable. It is startling to note 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. In reality new hair removal devices seem to seem like buses – every 20 minutes approximately! However, technology has shifted 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 since the former has been banned in certain countries just like the USA and the latter are only in experimental stages. Electric tweezers, transdermal electrolysis, and microwaves are a number of the doubtful methods in that there’s no established data on their effectiveness.
Electrolysis is still the only real proven permanent method 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 timid, introverted personality at the start of a program of treatments, to a confident 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. Such a huge money making machine though could have significantly more than its fair share of misconceptions, misunderstandings, myths and legends none which relate much to the hard reality truth. The huge profit led hair removal industry has its fair share 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 your mind there’s just one system in the marketplace today that could 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 many 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 can also be considered an essential tool in the task 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 buyer with mild hirsute problems to the individual with seriously hirsute problems and for the transgender patient who may require many hours of treatment.
Apparently there’s been confusing messages coming 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 don’t grow back for an amount of twelve months after the past treatment, permanent reduction could be claimed. Electrolysis, invented in 1875 remains even today, the one method legally permitted to claim ‘permanent removal’ ;.
The newer technologies such as for instance 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 many permanent hair removal. This, it’s now realised, are at best, somewhat nave and at worst, certainly misleading. The truth is that this is wishful thinking and nowadays ‘claims’ are more realistic. The fact remains that whilst they have 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 fact remains 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. As well as this, for unknown reason(s) not every one of the hair reacts to treatment and results vary from 85% – 95% success. The remaining 5% – 15% hair is likely to 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’ down to additional electrolysis treatment to complete the job. Laser and IPL are 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. Following the focus of the light, the hair is tweezed. Like any laser and light instrument, the light used in the device is targeted against the blood and melanin pigments in the hair and heats them up. Allow this method, fibre-optic probes were inserted to the hair follicle through that the 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 with its unsubstantiated claim of ‘permanent hair removal’ was initially patented in 1959. This method works by passing an household current through the tweezers, which holds the hair on top of 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 while the claim of electricity destroying the main of the hair does not have any scientific backup.
Transcutaneous and Transdermal offers ‘permanent Hair Removal’ but no clinical data has been published up to now to determine 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 in place of cotton swabs were introduced and a title change into transcutaneous hair removal. It uses the idea of direct current (DC) for transdermal delivery of drugs (iontophoresis) without the use of a needle. A DC household current is passed by way of a conductive gel on top of skin via an adhesive patch positioned on the skin. The hair root is claimed to be damaged permanently by the household current that travels down to the hair follicle.
Up to now no clinical data is available and the laws of physics don’t 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 surface of skin rather than passing through the hair. 脫毛價錢 Therefore, just like the tweezer method, the argument so it will reach the main 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 is stated that the waves are bound to the hair shaft and don’t dissipate into 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 exact same follicle proving that this is a long-term treatment’ ;.The FDA hasn’t given the outcomes up to now regarding a software to promote in April 2010 of the newest device.