Tweezing and Shaving

Tweezing works for about three weeks. Tweezers vary in price from about $2.60 for Revlon's Deluxe Slant Tip Tweezer and $6.50 for Revlon's Micro-Fine version, to $22 for Tweezerman Tweezers.

Shaving results in the reappearance of facial hair on men in one day but lasts about 4 days on body hair. Some of the new razors, like the new triple blade Gillette razor, cut the hair shaft closer to the skin and can add about one day to traditional shaving effects.

Shaving for women wasn't popular until the early part of the century, when the safety razor was invented by the Gillette company, which advertised supposed sanitary benefits to women by shaving their underarms. Leg shaving for women became popular with the advent of sheer nylon stockings during World War II.

Body shaving is more difficult than facial shaving because the skin is more tender in certain areas of the body, such as the bikini area or the legs. Generally, shaving is done against the direction of hair growth. For sensitive areas, shaving in the direction of hair growth often works better and gives fewer skin cuts, but can be slower. It also helps to lather up and soak the body areas for a while prior to shaving.

Stop shaving body areas that become red or get bumps after shaving until the skin heals and the redness vanishes. You risk infection if you shave while your skin is still healing. Some people feel that gel shaving creams work better on the body than foam creams.

Men, particularly, competitive body builders, often pretrim body hair with an electric mustache trimmer. The resultant short stubble is soaked in water, covered with a shaving gel, and shaved with a “ladies” body razor such as "Lady Sensor" or the Schick equivalent.

The cost of shaving is about $4.50 for Schick Silk Effects Refillable Razor for Women or the Gillette SensorExcel, and about $4 to $5 for a package of four replacement blades, which are enough to shave your underarms and legs about 20 times. Shaving cream runs at about $2.35 for 10 oz. of Skintimate Shave Cream for women, which should last about two months.