Hair is this emotive subject and with human nature being human nature, what we want we can’t have and what we have we don’t want! Frizzy hair and we want straight, straight hair and we want curly, brunette and we want blonde, blonde and we want red. Likewise upper lip hair on a female, so valued as a sign of exquisite beauty in certain parts of the entire world, is vilified by our Western society.
Unwanted hair is just a common problem affecting nearly all women to varying degrees throughout their lives and prompting the utilization of various temporary methods of hair reduction or hair management systems. It causes great distress, and it is often associated with feelings of poor self esteem, a feeling of isolation and low self worth.
Considering that the occasions when bearded ladies in Victorian travelling fairs were displayed for entertainment and ridicule, Western society has nurtured a stigma about excess hair. Many women are pressured into tremendous lengths to remove any trace of hair from any and all of the body as they feel it to be unattractive and unappealing. However it is not only women which are now affected… increasingly the male gender is at the mercy of pressure from the ‘fashion’ and celebrity world and unwanted hair can be just as vilified by the male population nowadays whilst the female.
Different Ways of Hair Removal
Superfluous hair growth can be caused by many factors, such as for example, hormone imbalance, (during puberty, pregnancy and menopause), genetics and ethnicity, hereditary, medication or topical stimulation e.g. waxing or tweezing. Therefore, electrolysis – the only real permanent way of hair removal, is cure that is in great demand by female and transsexual clients and more recently, because of society’s attitudes, the number of male clients is increasing.
To meet up this need there as been many hair removal measures some of which go back centuries in history. Hair removal ‘s been around since caveman times but interestingly the parts of your body we are removing hair from have differed within the ages. Removing hair from the head and face of men was originally not for vanity purposes however for survival. There’s evidence that cavemen did this but additionally the ancient Egyptians and it was undertaken, we imagine, for protection, as scraping off the beard and hair on the head would take away the advantage of an adversary having anything to grab onto as well as having less mites!
In ancient Egypt, Greece, and Middle Eastern countries, removing body hair was important. In fact these women removed most of the body hair, except for eyebrows. Egyptian women removed their head hair and pubic hair was considered uncivilized by both sexes! It was also considered uncivilized for guys to possess hair on the face. Facial hair was the mark of a slave or servant, or of a person of lower class. The ancient Egyptians used an application of razors manufactured from flint or bronze whilst the razor wasn’t invented till the 1760’s by French barber, Jean Jacques Perret.
Additionally they used a way of temporary hair removal called sugaring. A sticky paste (bees wax was sometimes used) will be put on the skin, a reel of cloth was pressed onto the wax and yanked off – the same of waxing today. Wealthy women of the Roman Empire would remove their body hair with pumice stones, razors, tweezing and pastes. There was also another technique used called threading that is recently seeing a resurgence in popularity. Thin string or yarn will be placed through the fingers of both of your hands, and quickly stroked within the area. This repetitive process captured the hair and effectively tweezed, ripped or pulled the unwanted hair out. Throughout the Elizabethan times the practice of hair removal, (not of leg, armpit or pubic hair), of the eyebrows and the hair from their foreheads in order to give the looks of a longer brow and forehead was fashionable. It is startling to notice well-known influence ‘fashion’ has played in hair removal from the beginning.
Waxing, sugaring, depilatory creams, bleaching, shaving, sugaring, plucking, threading and even battery-powered tweezers multiple-plucking systems, are typical temporary methods that many people try today. In fact new hair removal devices seem to look like buses – every 20 minutes approximately! However, technology has shifted and with it, it appears that there are some restricted and doubtful methods of hair removal. X-ray and photodynamic methods have been in a restricted category as the former has been banned in a few countries like the USA and the latter are just in experimental stages. Electric tweezers, transdermal electrolysis, and microwaves are a few of the doubtful methods in that there is no established data on the effectiveness.
Electrolysis continues to be the only real proven permanent way of hair removal and many women and indeed many men, have benefited using this tried and trusted treatment. It is often the case that electrologists are privileged to witness a remarkable transformation inside their clients, from a shy, introverted personality in the beginning of a course of treatments, to a comfortable and happy individual once treatment is underway and results become apparent.
Whatever your opinion of hair, ‘removing it’ within our Western society is a multi million pound industry. This kind of huge money making machine though may have a lot more than its great amount of misconceptions, misunderstandings, myths and legends none of which relate much to the hard reality truth. The huge profit led hair removal industry has its great amount of charlatans and scams all attracted by the huge profit led opportunities.
Hair Removal methods are generally permanent and temporary. The English dictionary definition of ‘permanent’ states: perpetual, everlasting. With this specific in mind there is just one system available on the market today that may totally prove ‘permanent’ hair removal primarily due to its longevity, client testimony and satisfaction and that is electrolysis. Invented in 1875 electrolysis offers permanent removal of hair for many hair types and colours and all skin types and colours. It remains utilised in hospitals by surgeons and ophthalmologists for trichaisis and other distortions of the eyelashes as well supporting the hospital laser hair removal departments. It can be considered an essential tool in the task of veterinary surgeons for animals (primarily horses and dogs) for the permanent removal of distorted and in-growing eyelashes. It gives cosmetic relief for the customer with mild hirsute problems to the individual with seriously hirsute problems and for the transgender patient who may require several hours of treatment.
Apparently there’s been confusing messages from the regulatory bodies on definitions of what what ‘permanent’, ‘removal’ or ‘reduction’ in the hair removal industry actually mean. Agreement was reached when the hairs which have been removed do not grow back for a period of 12 months after the past treatment, permanent reduction can be claimed. Electrolysis, invented in 1875 remains to this day, the one method legally permitted to claim ‘permanent removal’ ;.
The newer technologies such as for example LASER (Light Amplification Stimulated Emission of Radiation) and IPL (Intense Pulse Light) were initially launched as competitors of electrolysis and initially marketed as THE answer for many permanent hair removal. This, it is now realised, are at best, somewhat nave and at worst, certainly misleading. The truth is that this was wishful thinking and nowadays ‘claims’ are far more realistic. The stark reality is that whilst they have their successes there is also their limitations – they can’t treat all hair colours and types and all skin colours successfully and they now accept their limitations and embrace electrolysis and electrologists as their back up.
Laser and IPL are allowed by the FDA to claim permanent ‘reduction’ however not permanent ‘removal’ of hair. The stark reality is that this newer technology is brilliant for large areas and for dark hair. For grey or white hair it just simply doesn’t work. Laser and IPL target the melanin in the hair and if the hair is grey or white there is no melanin remaining in the hair for it to target. Along with this, for unknown reason(s) not all of the hair reacts to treatment and results vary from 85% – 95% success. The rest of the 5% – 15% hair will be stripped of its melanin (thus appearing white) but nevertheless stubbornly continues to grow. This then leaves the only real option of ‘permanent hair removal’ down seriously to additional electrolysis treatment to perform the job. Laser and IPL are now recognised to become a hair ‘management’ system and clients are advised that regrowth may occur.
Photoepilator light energy was launched in 1969 and was developed from research into laser hair removal. Photoepilators make use of a burst of filtered light aimed at one hair at a time. After the focus of the light, the hair is tweezed. Like any laser and light instrument, the light used in the unit is targeted contrary to the blood and melanin pigments in the hair and heats them up. To enable this method, fibre-optic probes were inserted in to the hair follicle through that your light was flashed. There’s no clinical data published so far to support any permanency claims and there is no established data on its effectiveness.
The tweezer method having its unsubstantiated claim of ‘permanent hair removal’ was initially patented in 1959. This method functions by passing an electric energy through the tweezers, which holds the hair at first glance of the skin by grasping them for many minutes. Electricity enters through the hair to its root and claims to permanently damage it. The scientific community has reservations whilst the claim of electricity destroying the main of the hair does not have any scientific backup.
Transcutaneous and Transdermal offers ‘permanent Hair Removal’ but no clinical data has been published currently to establish the declare that permanent hair removal is possible using these methods. In 1985 when the utilization of AC electric tweezers was stopped, the manufacturers made some modifications in the apparatus. Adhesive patches as opposed to cotton swabs were introduced and a title change into transcutaneous hair removal. It uses the thought of direct current (DC) 激光脫毛邊間好 for transdermal delivery of drugs (iontophoresis) without the utilization of a needle. A DC electric energy is passed by way of a conductive gel at first glance of the skin via an adhesive patch placed on the skin. The hair root is claimed to be damaged permanently by the electric energy that travels down seriously to the hair follicle.
Currently no clinical data can be acquired and the laws of physics do not support the claims produced by the manufacturers. Hair doesn’t conduct electricity but skin does. As electricity passes through the medium of poor resistance, it’ll spread along the outer lining of the skin rather than passing through the hair. Therefore, just like the tweezer method, the argument that it will reach the main of the hair to destroy it does not have any scientific backup.
Ultrasound hair removal claims that ultrasound waves are channelled precisely down the hair shaft and in the process they transform to thermal energy that super heats the hair growth areas and inhibits regrowth. It is stated that the waves are bound to the hair shaft and do not dissipate into the skin prevents any side effects.
Ultrasound hair removal offers ‘total hair removal’ and claims to function as the ‘next generation of longterm hair removal devices’ ;.It states in its marketing material it is ‘The hair removal solution’ and that ‘no additional hair appears in exactly the same follicle proving that this can be a long-term treatment’ ;.The FDA hasn’t given the outcome currently regarding an application to promote in April 2010 of the latest device.