So ladies – my advice to you is: don’t get any treatment involving pain just before or during your menstrual cycle!

Learn more about: IPL, Epilator, Laser, Electrolysis on fullysmooth.com.

We spend many hours and lots of dosh trying to make our skin fully smooth, only to have ingrown hairs appear a week later and mar our beautiful, smooth skin! Not fair!

What causes ingrown hairs?

When a hair begins its growth cycle, it is still under the skin. Normally, as the hair grows it would push up against and through the skin, and continue growing. Sometimes though, the hair doesn’t manage to break through the skin, and instead curls over and continues growing under the skin. This is an ingrown hair. If you leave it, it can continue growing for quite some time. They are often slightly raised and have a dark colouration.

Ingrown hairs are more common in areas that you have removed hair from, for two reasons:

1. the lack of hair can cause the skin to become dry, making it harder for the hair to break through, and

2. because you have removed a lot of hairs from the area, there are a lot of new replacement hairs trying to break through the skin at the same time.

So, what can you do to prevent ingrown hairs?

• exfoliate regularly in between treatments. This removes the dead skin build-up, reducing the amount of skin that the hair has to push through.

• moisturise the skin. This softens the skin, making it easier for the hair to push through. Just use your normal moisturiser.

• you can buy creams that claim to reduce ingrown hairs. I tried one that cost $64, I used it for 4 or 5 waxes and still got ingrown hairs. Did it reduce them? It’s hard to say. The only way to tell would be to use the cream on half the area, and on the other half just use a combination of exfoliation and moisturising, then see which area had the least ingrown hairs. But I haven’t tried that experiment myself. If any of you have tried it I’d love to hear from you?

Learn more about: IPL, Epilator, Laser, Electrolysis on fullysmooth.com.

The following web links have been included for your benefit, the sites linked here contain further useful information about laser hair removal. We are not affiliated with these websites and offer no guarantees as to their accuracy.

• The Epilator: Article on epilator hair removal

• HairFacts.com: Great website on all things hair

• Don’t get burned: CBC article on the risks of using a poorly trained laser technician.

• Laser Hair Removal Guide: From the UK

• EllipseIPL.co.uk: Ellipse supply IPL Laser hair removal, skin and beauty treatments for the UK consumer, professionals and selected partners.

• Laser hair Removal Parmaspa offers laser hair & spider vein removal treatment Services virginia.

• Silicone Cream Skin Protectant Chimal Skin Shield is like an invisible pair of gloves guarding your skin from harmful substances. It is water resistant but does not affect the grip or dexterity of the hands and does not clog pores or interfere with the skin’s normal functions.

We also participate in link exchange with the following web sites.

• Seo friendly web directory

• Link Exchange - Webmasters helping webmasters develop high value relevant links. Promoting ethical web-marketing using the time trusted pillars of relevance and popularity.

Similar to IPL, except the light emitted is a laser light, and the laser can be tuned to focus all its energy at a specific depth of the skin. This means that more of the light is targeted at the hair follicle, and less is distributed in the surrounding skin - making for better results and less side-effects. At least, that is the theory!

Pros:

• It is actually permanent - for some people.

• Very quick - similar session times as with IPL.

Cons:

• Doesn’t work so well for people with naturally dark or tanned skin.

• Cost - this is on a par with IPL.
• Requires a salon visit.
• This is a relatively new treatment, and so the existence (or otherwise) of long-term side-effects has not been established.

Pain rating:

High - I’ve tried 2 different types of laser and 1 of IPL, and found them all to be of a similar level.

This works by destroying the hair follicles so that they don’t create any more hairs.

The area to be treated is first shaved, then an electrical device is run over the area, and emits a light on a certain frequency. You know when you pluck a hair out, and at the root of the hair there’s a small dark ball? Well, that darkness is what the light is attracted to. The darker the ball, the better it will work. And, because the light is also attracted to colouration on your skin, the lighter the skin, the better it will work.

The hair follicle is only destroyed if the hair is still attached to the follicle at the time of treatment. As hairs go through their growth cycle, they start off attached to the hair follicle, then as they mature they separate from the follicle and eventually fall out, to be replaced by a new hair. So, not all hairs will be attached to the hair follicle at the time of treatment. This means that 4-6 (or more) treatments will be required to clear all hairs from the area.

Pros:

• It is actually permanent - for some people.

• Very quick - each visit takes half as long (or less) as waxing.

Cons:

• Doesn’t work so well for people with naturally dark or tanned skin.

• Cost –this is expensive.
• Requires a salon visit.
• This is a relatively new treatment, and so the existence (or otherwise) of long-term side-effects has not been established.

Pain rating:

High –depending on the area being treated, this can hurt a lot! Try taking painkillers half an hour beforehand.

Sticking a needle down the hole the hair comes out and, when the point of the needle reaches the hair follicle, giving it a jolt of electricity. This should damage the follicle and so prevent future hair growth. The trick is to insert the needle correctly; if it is at the wrong angle or wrong depth or wrong place it will not work and may cause side effects.

Pros:

• It is actually permanent - for some people.

• You don’t have to wait for the hair to grow before getting repeat treatments (the gap between treatments is designed to catch all hairs at the right stage in their growth cycle).
• Cheaper per session than IPL or laser (but probably not by the time all hair is permanently removed).

Cons:

• Requires a highly skilled practitioner for it to work properly (and many are not!).

• Can take a lot of sessions to clear an area (I did 15+ sessions on my bikini line before I gave up, and there was no noticeable improvement - meaning that either the practitioner I went to wasn’t doing it right, it was never going to work for me, or I would have to suffer through many, many more hours of being jabbed with a needle for it to work!)
• Can damage skin if not done correctly.

Pain rating:

High - it depends on the skill of the person treating you. It’s not so bad when the needle goes in, but it stings when they electrify the hair follicle.

Using an electrical device to remove the hairs. You run the device over the area to be treated, and it grabs the hairs and pulls them out at the roots.

Pros:

• You can do it yourself, once you’ve bought yourself an epilator device.

Cons:

• This doesn’t work for everyone. If you’re thinking of buying one of these, see if you can borrow one first to make sure it will work for you.

• The hair has to be a certain length for this to work, which means that you will have a hairy period every 4-6 weeks.

Pain rating:

Very high - this is extremely painful, especially the first time. Apparently it’s easier if you wax first, but I must admit I got scared off them and haven’t tried one since!

Lathering strips of wax onto the area to be treated, letting the wax set, then ripping the wax off - with hairs attached. Most waxes are applied hot, then left to cool a bit before being ripped off. Some waxes are applied cold. There is a huge range of different techniques, and of waxes, and this can have a massive bearing on the amount of pain you feel. I find the older method of using fabric strips to be much more painful than using hot wax -but everyone is different.

Pros:

Rips hairs out at the root, so it lasts a lot longer than shaving or using hair removal creams.
Regrowth is finer and lessens over time, because of the damage to the root of the hair with repeated treatments.

Cons:

Fairly time-consuming, as many areas need to be gone over more than once to get rid of all the hair.
Can result in some ingrown hairs, but typically less than with shaving or using hair removal creams.
The hair has to be a certain length for this to work, which means that you will have a hairy period every 4-6 weeks.

Pain rating:

Med - it’s fine on the legs where you can pull the skin tight, but those more sensitive areas really feel it!

Finding a bathroom you can have to yourself for half an hour or more, and covering the area to be treated in the hair removal cream. Then you just have to wait for the cream to do its stuff - usually around 15 minutes, but each cream is different so read the instructions. This can be quite boring so make sure you have a magazine handy. Then you wash the cream - and the hair - off with warm water.

Pros:

• Depending on the cream, this can have a slightly smoother finish than with shaving.
• Some people find that it is less likely to result in ingrown hairs than shaving.

Cons:

• Takes longer than shaving, so not as useful for those spur-of-the-moment occasions.
  Can be a bit of a messy process.
• I hate to think what chemicals are in the cream to make it eat the hair away like that!

Pain rating:

Low - you won’t feel a thing.

Using a razor to remove hairs where they leave the pore.

Lather the area with soap (does the trick) or shaving gel (smoother finish), then run the razor over the area. Wash the area with warm water.

Pros:

• It’s cheap - you can buy a razor from the supermarket and just use your normal shower soap or gel.
• It’s easy. Just be careful not to cut yourself!
• You can do it yourself.
• It’s quick - because you don’t need to go into a salon.

Cons:

• Probably the least long lasting of the options - with some people it lasts for less than a day!
• A rash can develop.
• Often results in ingrown hairs.

Pain rating:

Low - this doesn’t hurt a bit.