Hair Removal: Three Alternatives to Shaving
Every summer we must face the hard truth that hairy legs are socially unacceptable. We've talked about home hair removal methods before but shaving and taking care of the hair at home can add a lot of time to your morning prep routine. It turns out hair removal doesn't have to be a daily chore. If you have that situation taken care of at a spa, you’re hair removal woes are narrowed down to once a month. Here’s a look at three alternatives to shaving. Waxing
The most common, and fairly painful, method of hair removal is relatively straightforward. Hot wax is spread on the parts of your body you'd like to be hair-free, the esthetician applies the strip, smoothes it out and then rips it off. Everything about that experience sounds painful, but it’s also effective for both large areas like legs, arms and stomachs, and small areas like eyebrows and your bikini line. And after a few trips to the salon, I'm assured you get used to it.
This treatment is available at Ritual Spa and Lily of the Valley in Toronto and Eveline Charles Salons out West.
Body Sugaring
This treatment, sometimes called Persian waxing, is less painful than the traditional wax. The practice started in Egypt hundreds of years ago. The sugar, lemon and water mixture attaches to the hair alone, rather than the skin. It’s heated to a lukewarm temperature to prevent any burning. The esthetician then rips the sugar off in the direction the hair grows in so there’s no need to worry about nasty-red ingrown hair.
Body sugar has the consistency of Silly Putty, so that the esthetician can get a very precise application and remove hair with or without strips. Here’s a bonus, sugaring also exfoliates your skin, removing the dead cells and leaving your skin super soft and hair free. Think of it as a two-for-one deal.
This treatment is available at Esthetics by Gilla in Ottawa, Gimme Some Sugar Body Sugaring in Calgary and Sugar Moon Salon in Toronto.
Laser Hair Removal
According to The Skin Care Guide, laser hair removal aims a high concentration of light at the root of the hair. It targets the melanin, but doesn’t affect the surrounding skin. While most laser clinic claim it feels like tiny elastics constantly flicking at your skin, I know from experience it hurts much much less than waxing. I personally couldn’t keep myself from laughing, the overly ticklish person that I am.
This treatment is effective, but you have to be willing to shell out for it, it takes 4-8 treatments every four weeks to finally remain hair free. The strange thing is, some clinics request you shave the area you want to remove first. Skeptics will think “won’t that make it grow in thicker?” but the truth is, that hair will fall out in a matter of days so there’s nothing to worry about.
This treatment is available at Sanctuary Day Spas across the GTA, Electra Laser in Vancouver and Advanced Laser in Ottawa.
We told you how to get rid of it, but do you have any tips for pre- and post- hair removal care?
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 | Amazon.com is a great place for many products, and that's where I bought my epilator (I think it was also around $50). I know that more and more of the Amazon retailers are shipping to Canada now so you could always check it out! |
 | I use the epilator for legs, at home wax for under arms and go to a professional for the bikini area. It really depends on your comfort level and what your hair situation is like. If you have courser hair, waxing the delicate bikini area yourself will likely lead to injury unless you really know what you're doing. The epilator can be used there but I'd worry about ingrowns. If you have lighter hair, you can probably wax or epilate it all. |
 | Have you ladies noticed that something that cost $120 at the Bay cost about $50 elsewhere? I literally saw a Pyrex storage set that I bought for $25 (from Walmart) for $99 at Bay. It was the same thing. Same exact thing. Same number of containers, lids, sizes, etc. No joke. |
 | I love sugaring! The first time you do it (depending on what parts you get done) will hurt and you may get a little bit of redness, but after that you get used to it and I hardly get any irritation from it. Plus it hurts but not because its ripping at your skin (just getting all the nasty hairs). |
| On the topic of Epilators: Ali and I are big epilator fans and both own Braun epilators. |
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| I'm totally hair free for at least 2 weeks, and I start getting some wispy bits around the end of the 3rd week. It does hurt, but it's more scary than painful. The hardest part is to put all those whirring blades near your skin, but once you get over the first bit and put it on and get the first few hairs out, you'll find it hurts less (and gets less scary). What I usually do is use those veet wax strips on a little bit of my leg just to get a smack of pain going on, and then use the epilator so it's less scary and seems to hurt less. |
| I was wondering if it is possible to make your own sugaring stuff. It |
 | I hate waxing and shaving gets annoying so I'm starting my treatments of laser hair removal. I've only had one treatment so far so I don't really notice any difference but I'm excited to see how it'll turn out. |
 | @Becky, how long does the epilator keep you hair free? I've always wanted to try one. Also, I've tried all three of the above and honest to goodness sugaring is my favourite. No ingrowns :) |
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