Distinct Strategies to Hair Removal
Hair is such an 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 an indicator of exquisite beauty in certain areas of the entire world, is vilified by our Western society.
Unwanted hair is really a common problem affecting nearly all women to varying degrees throughout their lives and prompting the usage of various temporary ways of hair reduction or hair management systems. It causes great distress, and it is often associated with feelings of poor self confidence, a feeling of isolation and low self worth.
Since the instances when bearded women 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 all of the body as they feel it to be unattractive and unappealing. However it is not merely women which are now affected… increasingly the male gender is subject to pressure from the ‘fashion’ and celebrity world and unwanted hair can be in the same way vilified by the male population nowadays as the female.
Different Methods of Hair Removal
Superfluous hair growth can be brought on 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 method of hair removal, is remedy that’s in great demand by female and transsexual clients and recently, because of society’s attitudes, the number of male clients is increasing.
To meet up this need there as been many hair removal measures some which go back 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 head and face of men was originally not for vanity purposes but for survival. There is 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 head would remove 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 fact 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 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 an application of razors manufactured from flint or bronze as the razor was not invented till the 1760’s by French barber, Jean Jacques Perret.
Additionally they used a technique of temporary hair removal called sugaring. A sticky paste (bees wax was sometimes used) could 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 clearly was also another technique used called threading that is recently seeing a resurgence in popularity. Thin string or yarn could be placed through the fingers of both hands, and quickly stroked within the area. This repetitive process captured the hair and effectively tweezed, ripped or pulled the unwanted hair out. Through 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 an extended brow and forehead was fashionable. It’s startling to see well-known 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 many people try today. In fact new hair removal devices seem to appear like buses – every 20 minutes approximately! However, technology has moved on and with it, it seems there are some restricted and doubtful ways of hair removal. X-ray and photodynamic methods are in a restricted category as the former has been banned in some 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 surely is no established data on their effectiveness.
Electrolysis remains the only real proven permanent method of hair removal and many women and indeed many men, have benefited from this tried and trusted treatment. It’s often the case that electrologists are privileged to witness a remarkable transformation within their clients, from a shy, introverted personality at the start of a class of treatments, to a confident and happy individual once treatment is underway and results become apparent.
Whatever your opinion of hair, ‘removing it’ inside our Western society is a multiple million pound industry. Such a huge money making machine though will have significantly more than its great amount of misconceptions, misunderstandings, myths and legends none 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 generally permanent and temporary. The English dictionary definition of ‘permanent’ states: perpetual, everlasting. With this specific at heart there is only 1 system 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 medical facility laser hair removal departments. It is also considered a significant 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 consumer 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 has been confusing messages coming from the regulatory bodies on definitions of what what ‘permanent’, ‘removal’ or ‘reduction’ in the hair removal industry actually mean. Agreement was reached that if the hairs which have been removed don’t grow back for a period of twelve months after the final treatment, permanent reduction can be claimed. Electrolysis, invented in 1875 remains to this day, 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 is now realised, is at best, somewhat nave and at worst, certainly misleading. The stark reality is that this was wishful thinking and nowadays ‘claims’ are far more realistic. The stark reality is that whilst they’ve their successes they likewise have 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’ although not permanent ‘removal’ of hair. The stark reality is that this newer technology is brilliant for big areas and for dark hair. For grey or white hair it just 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 this to target. Along with this, for unknown reason(s) not most of 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 nonetheless 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 actually recognised to be 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 aimed 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 against the blood and melanin pigments in the hair and heats them up. Allow this process, fibre-optic probes were inserted in to the hair follicle through that the light was flashed. There is 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 method works by passing an electric current through the tweezers, which holds the hair on the surface of 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 as the claim of electricity destroying the main of the hair doesn’t have scientific backup.
Transcutaneous and Transdermal offers ‘permanent Hair Removal’ but no clinical data has been published up to now to establish the declare that permanent hair removal is possible using these methods. In 1985 when the usage of AC electric tweezers was stopped, the manufacturers made some modifications in the apparatus. Adhesive patches instead of cotton swabs were introduced and a name change into transcutaneous hair removal. It uses the thought of direct current (DC) for transdermal delivery of drugs (iontophoresis) without the usage of a needle. A DC electric current is passed by way of a conductive gel on the surface of skin via an adhesive patch positioned on the skin. The hair root is claimed to 香港脫毛 be damaged permanently by the electric current that travels right down to the hair follicle.
Up to now no clinical data can be acquired and the laws of physics don’t support the claims produced by the manufacturers. Hair does not conduct electricity but skin does. As electricity passes through the medium of poor resistance, it’ll spread along the top of skin as opposed to passing through the hair. Therefore, as with the tweezer method, the argument that it will reach the main of the hair to destroy it doesn’t have scientific backup.
Ultrasound hair removal claims that ultrasound waves are channelled precisely down the hair shaft and along the way 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 don’t dissipate into skin prevents any side effects.
Ultrasound hair removal offers ‘total hair removal’ and claims to be the ‘next generation of long haul hair removal devices’ ;.It states in its marketing material it is ‘The hair removal solution’ and that ‘no additional hair appears in exactly the same follicle proving that this can be a long-term treatment’ ;.The FDA hasn’t given the outcomes up to now regarding a credit card applicatoin to promote in April 2010 of the newest device.