Guestpost: Summer hair removal methods

Rough legs are a thing of the past with hair removal methods aplenty at your disposal

Accompanying the thought of summer fast approaching and plans to wear skirts, dresses and bikinis comes perhaps one of the biggest headaches of the year: removing that unwanted body hair!

While every girl certainly has her own unique areas that need attention, the bikini line and the legs are undoubtedly two of the areas that most girls want to do something about. Luckily, there are many different hair removal methods to choose from for those of us who want to prepare ourselves for the hotter months.

Hair removal can be divided into two categories – temporary removal and permanent/prolonged reduction methods.

Temporary hair removal

The most popular temporary methods are shaving and waxing. The trick to a good shave is investing in the best razor one can find, and pairing it with shaving cream or soap that lathers well. Gently pressing the razor against the skin while moving it upwards against the direction of hair growth and rinsing the razor between strokes is key, but no shave in the world leaves skin smooth for more than a day.

That is where waxing comes in, serving to remove hair and keep re-growth at bay for up to two weeks. However, even waxing has its fair share of inconveniences: getting waxed professionally once a month can prove expensive, while doing it yourself can turn into a tricky, and sticky, mess. Yet the biggest disadvantage of waxing by far is that hair needs to be a certain length before it can be removed, which means putting up with not-so-smooth body parts for a week or two. Therefore, before a special event or occasion, waxing can be quite a convenient solution, but in the summer time, when more of your body is on show on a regular basis, this isn’t the best option. So what’s a girl to do? For me personally, prolonged reduction is very helpful!

Permanent hair removal

While a lifelong absence of hair cannot be guaranteed, with repeated treatments hair can be drastically diminished, or

Brave it and bare it with a hair-free bikini bod

even disappear altogether, and for a long period of time. Hair removal methods that come close to offering permanency are minimal (there are only three) but readily available: laser hair removal, IPL (Intense Pulsed Light) and electrolysis. Out of the three, IPL and laser hair removal are the most comparable, and are the only two considered a realistic solution for the legs and bikini line. In contrast, Electrolysis treats one hair at a time and is thus considered impractical for areas other than the face.

Laser hair removal and IPL can certainly be efficient for hair removal on the legs and bikini line, yet a single treatment is never enough, and learning about the hair growth cycle can help you to understand this. The number of sessions needed is always unique, depending on size of the area, coarseness of the hair and progress, but about six to eight sessions is average. Exact results are hard to predict in advance, but in the hands of an experienced practitioner, laser hair removal should take care of most growth and leave skin feeling smoother for much longer than both shaving and waxing.

Guest post by hair removal enthusiast Maria Bastet, who has undergone numerous temporary and prolonged hair reduction treatments