Temporary and Permanent Hair Removal

Surveys indicate that 80% of women and over 50% of men have unwanted hair in various body areas. Much of this unwanted hair is genetic, but sometimes it is the result of other causes, for example, testosterone treatments. Humans have lost most of their body fur over the past few millions of years. Today, many still seek the "longest-lasting," "least painful," and "least expensive" methods for getting rid of unwanted hair. Hair removal salons report that men are increasingly interested in hair removal and that their male clientele ranges between 35% and 60% today.

Despite changes in the past 20 years in attitudes toward many other types of body changes, attitudes toward body hair remain rigid. A recent study asked college students to view videotapes of a woman emerging from a swimming pool and drying herself. In one videotape, the woman had more body hair. In the other, she had shaved. Both male and female students considered the woman with more body hair as less intelligent, less sociable, and less happy than the same woman as she appeared after shaving. The students also thought of the unshaven woman as more aggressive and strong, and, in essence, they saw her as less feminine.

Men commonly want hair removed from between the eyebrows, around the outside of the ears, and the shoulders, and also, they sometimes want smooth bodies to cut down on wind resistance during sports. Male cyclists and swimmers want hair removed to increase their competitive speed. Women commonly want to remove facial hair on the lip, chin, eyebrows, neck, bikini line, abdomen, breasts, forearms, and underarms. Many muscle builders (a rapidly growing sport) favor hairlessness for competitions and, therefore, carefully shave, depilate, and wax their bodies to seek the perfect body image. In Northern California, a substantial group of transsexuals are highly interested in obtaining degrees of hairlessness in various body areas.

Medications such as steroid hormones and birth control pills, or the surgical removal of sex glands, may stimulate abnormal hair growth.

The cost of hair removal can range from $20 to 50 for do-it-yourself waxing kits to several thousand dollars for laser treatments. "Permanent" hair removal takes time and often requires repeated treatments. This is because hairs that are visible are in their growing phase. However, at any given time, about 11% of your hair is in a resting phase and the follicles are not growing hair, while another 4% are in the hair shedding phase, during when hair falls out. "Permanent" hair removal works only on hair in the growing phase and works best on follicles in the early part of the growing phase. So, any permanent hair removal treatment might only affect 30% to 40% of the follicles. Later treatments will be needed to treat the remaining follicles as they progress into the early phase of the hair growing cycle.