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Hair Removal Pain Relief - Taking The "Ouch!" Out Of Touchable Skin

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Hairchick.com - Hair Removal Pain Relief
Hairchick's guide to taking the 'ouch' out of touchable skin with hair removal pain relief.

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And now for the bad news: every hair removal system hurts or at least has the potential to be painful. That means that every woman who regularly removes unwanted hair will feel pain from her hair removal method at some point. (Of course, how much pain is felt depends on your tolerance threshold for pain).

How painful can hair removal be?

On a pain scale, some hair removal methods are more painful than others:

  • Hair removal systems that rip hair out by the root (using an epilator, waxing, tweezing, sugaring, threading): As you can tell by the word "rip", these systems can hurt quite a bit because you tear not only the hairs but bits of skin as well. These methods also sometimes cause painful ingrown hairs, skin irritation, or welts.
  • Permanent hair removal systems like laser and electrolysis kill hairs by using electricity or laser beams. Both methods can irritate skin. Electrolysis hurts when electric currents surge through hair follicles.
  • Chemical and herbal hair removal methods (depilatories or hair removal creams, hair growth inhibitors) can be painful by irritating the skin with powerful chemicals. Sometimes these methods result in inflammation or itchy rashes.
  • Abrasive hair removal methods like mitts and kits that remove hair through scrubbing or rubbing the hair cause a lot of pain because they are basically fine-grain sandpapers. You rub the hairs off, but you also rub off part of your skin as well. Save your skin and use sandpaper only for re-finishing furniture.
  • Hair removal methods that cut hair like shaving and trimming are the least painful. When done properly, only the hair is cut and skin is not irritated at all. Result: no pain. However, both methods may result in painful nicks and cuts. Shaving can cause razor burn, ingrown hairs, or skin irritation. Ouch.

How can I minimize the pain?

Before you embrace the fuzzy look forever, there are a few things you can do to minimize pain during hair removal. Some women take Advil or Tylenol before painful hair removal sessions to offset pain. Drug stores carry creams that can lessen pain (you can't use them with depilatories, though). Numbing your skin with ice just before waxing or tweezing is effective, too. Professional aestheticians have many ways of minimizing pain. If you find yourself very sore after hair removal, you may like to try a different hair removal method. You may not get a pain-free experience, but you will get a bearable hair removal experience (as well as bare-able skin).

Realize that you can also minimize pain by choosing hair removal methods (like shaving) that produce less pain. With waxing and sugaring, the pain is really not that bad! In fact it only tends to be momentarily painful as the hair rips from the root. The benefits of hair removal far outweigh any pain that may be felt - and generally the more you use a method of hair removal, the less pain you feel.