TIPS & TRICKS : HAIR REMOVAL 101

Hello peeeeeppssssss ~

For some reason, there are a lot of people asked me about hari removal. The differences, the process, the after effect and which one is less painful. Well, it is alright to ask, I love it when you ask me something beauty related and trust me, when it comes to hair removal, I did my part of asking :P

Here I am going to help you and hopefully answer some of your questions on hair removal. I did my fair share back to the olden days when I was young and carefree *!?* with hair removal. Yeap, I did tried a few process and treatment so in this very post, I am going to share the types of hair removing treatment or process that I went through. There might be a lot out there but here are the ones i have tried until now. 

I started exposing myself to hair removal was when I was in high school. It began when I started to shave my lower legs and thought it was cool but then, hair grew thicker and darker. I didnt like it.

So, THE RAZOR was my very first friend when it comes to the hair removing world.

There are a lot of different types of razor, actually the one in this picture isnt the one I used to use but I cant find the one i used :( well i mean that was like almost ten years ago? but i am sure they still have it.

The razor I used to have was from the brand called Venus, not sure if you can find it in Indonesia though, but yeah that razor was made specially for women and shaving. Shaving is basically cutting and trimming down the hair, it doesnt pull out the hair from its root.

The goods:

- Easy and saves up a lot of time

- Always available as you are shaving at home

- Pain-less

- Leaves skin silky smooth

The bads:

- Hair grew thicker and darker and harsh

- Depending on everyone's hormones, hair growth varies, as for me, it grew like within 3-4 days and I had to shave it again.

-If you are not careful, you can ripped your own skin

*yeap personal experience just because i was so excited to swim and a crush of mine was there, long story short, I didnt swim because of this hahah EPIC FAIL*

Next, I decided to try a new way, just to see how it goes. I did try a shaving cream. It is a cream where you put on the area where you want to get your unwanted hair remove. All you need to do is to apply it with the spatula that comes with it, spread it evenly, wait until 15 minutes then removed it. I didnt use this for a very long time. Here is why:

The bads:

- It has this chemical scent of that curling hair liquid, *you know the liquid old people use to curl their hair*so I was so afraid that it is going to be absorb into the body and affected my inner organ body system :P

- I personally think it is kinda a waste, with the cream that you have to keep on purchasing, used it only once then throw it away. 

The goods:

- leaves skin smooth

- you still can do your daily activity while waiting for the cream to work.

Here is how the cream looks like, it looks like any other normal cream but with a strong chemical scent that I didnt like. 

Then, for a very long time, I stick back to the razor until one day I was exposed with waxing by my sister, yeap my sister and I alike but different. She is more into skincare and you know all about skin while me is more into makeup. We complete each other? Perhaps. 

Waxing comes in 2 basic types:

HARD WAX

SOFT WAX

Now, waxing is different compare to shaving, waxing is more to the process and treatment where the roots is pulled out. 

Soft wax is where you need a strip of clothe material to remove the wax while the hard wax, you just apply it onto the area and leave it for a few seconds and lift it up when it is hard. Which one is better to use? well it is depending on you, but mostly, Hard wax is used to the more sensitive area like your bikini line but I dont think there is a strict rule on waxing. But again, come and take a look at my experience.

Soft wax also comes in handy. This is the very first wax I have tried and I think I did it wrong when I started to use this. The soft wax in strips *picture below* are sold in various drugstore, in Indonesia they are guardian, watson and century but I think some supermarket also sell this. This is a strip with a wax on it, perfect if you are going to remove unwanted hair on a large scale, e.g legs or hands, but if you want to use this for a smaller scale, e.g, underarm or eyebrow, you can always cut it. 

The first time i used this, it hurt so bad! but I did it wrong hahah

All you need to do it, if you put this in the fridge, leave it for 30 minutes so the wax is not that hard. If you leave it in the room temperature, then separate the strip, clean the area that you want to wax, apply it and rub it FOLLOWING THE DIRECTION OF THE HAIR and to remove it, PEEL IT TO THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION (this applies to all types of waxing)

The goods:

- handy and practical

- easy to use, you dont need to buy other tools

- comes with the after usage towelettes to remove unwanted wax and to cool down the skin

- it takes the hair grows longer than razor but for me it was a tiny difference only.

The bads:

- pretty expensive for a one time use

- not reusable

- it comes only a few strips in one box

- not enough after usage towelettes  *this you can substitute it with baby oil*

-ingrown hair

Another type of soft wax is this, picture below, this type of wax is pretty easy to make or you can buy online. There are a lot of online shop who sell this type of wax in a very affordable prices. I use this type of wax too whenever I go to the hair removing place. They use this type of soft wax for legs. 

To be honest, and to make this clear, the area that I always remove the hair are:

underarm, lower legs and sometimes bikini line because i swim *not brazilian*

With this type of wax, you need a strip of clothes or strips that are made specialized for waxing. 

To use this wax or if you own this wax but you dont know how to use it, here is how:

With a spatula (usually ice cream stick, which I am sure you can get this anywhere) take some of the wax, apply it onto the area and make sure you apply the wax FOLLOWING THE DIRECTION of the hair.

Then take the strip, put it on top of the wax and rub it for a few seconds.

Then, pull the skin tight and pull the strip to the OPPOSITE DIRECTION of the hair.

The goods:

- if you own one this at home, it saves up a lot of money

- if you do this in the beauty spot, this type of wax is cheaper

- you can diy this wax

- you can adjust to the pain level of yourself

- you can always enjoy waxing while watching tv :P

- my lower legs took at least 2-3 weeks to grow compare to razor or cream

The bads:

- it is painful especially on the legs * i never try any other areas except for the legs*

- if you didnt do this right, you might ripped the skin

- you need to stock with the tools such as: ice cream stick and strips

- can be messy

- ingrown hair

The hard wax is actually not that different compare to the soft wax. It still does its job of waxing but it is much practical where it doesnt use the strip. Hard wax characteristic is, it gets dry and hard when it is applied to the area. To remove it, is very easy, lift the wax a bit and pull. The only tools that you need is just the spatula/ice cream stick.

However, if you would like to own one of this, you probably need to do a good research for a much more affordable one. If you want to get this type of wax at a beauty spot, the price is higher than the soft wax. This type of wax is recommended if you want to do bikini line waxing or perhaps brazilian? 

*If you didnt know what is a brazilian wax is, well it is the removing of the hair on the down south below and they remove it goood!!! with no hair left :P i never try it though*

I owned both waxes at home just because it is much cheaper if i calculate it. Yes, I did had to pay a certain amount of money but for a long term use, it is super cheap.

Before you want to use this wax, you need to heat the wax up and once it is liquify like this, apply it onto your area just make sure, before you put it onto the skin, swing the wax first so it wont be boiling hot.

This is how it looks like while hardens. Remove the hair by doing the same process, PULL THE WAX TO THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION OF THE HAIR and make sure to pull your skin tight!

The goods:

- LESS PAINFUL than soft wax

- slightly faster than soft wax

- easy to apply and control the wax

- takes 3-4 weeks to grow 

The bads:

- if you have sensitive skin, you will get redness *applies to soft wax too*

- ingrown hair

Now, I realized ONE BIG DOWN SIDE from waxing after I tried both soft and hard wax.

INGROWN HAIR! Well if you are okay having in grown hair then waxing is fine but I hated it!

I used to try to pick in grown hair with tweezers. 

Aside from ingrown hair, you will also get red bumps and sometimes minor bleeding. 

One day, I realized that I actually spend a lot of money on waxing only to find that the hair will still be growing but only weaker hence the ingrown hair. I want to go and find a treatment of hair removal that can remove my hair forever! if it is possible though.

Then I guess i got lucky because one day i received an invitation from zap to try a one time underarm laser hair removal treatment. It was shocking but I realized the hair takes even longer to grow compare from waxing like 1 month ish?

To read more on zap and laser hair removal, click here

This is an old post and I have been doing laser hair removal since.

This is the machine that they use to remove the hair. Taken from my old post.

I wont blabber much about laser light removal because you can read it on the link above. If you are a beginner, you might get shock because that was what happened to me. Before starting the laser removal, the beautician will shave the hair, then applied this cooling gel which I am sure to numb the area then the laser-ing began. Laser removal works well if you have a darker color hair. 

The feeling of having the laser light is like having that prickling fire droplets onto your skin.

Yeap I personally think it wasnt a pleasant process but I realized that my hair grows softer and softer.

I did this laser removal onto the underarm, and it took me like 5 treatments to finally get my hair super soft and light and you can barely see it. I still however want to go to maintain it but I havent gotten the time yet. 

I also do one on my lower leg and boy!!!! it was painful hahaa as for the lower leg, I think i have a much thicker hair due to shaving and waxing, it took me like 7-8 treatments and I am currently still going. 

I realized that, if I calculate everything, yes Laser is much more expensive at the beginning compare to waxing and shaving but with laser removal, it is actually much cheaper if you think about it. You spend a certain amount of money and you get the result where you dont need to go back for a while while waxing it would be a monthly and forever kinda process of hair removal and the hair wont be gone.

So why not spend a good amount of money at first and get the result of invisible and probably gone hair rather than spending a tiny amount of money every month for the rest of your life? well unless you do waxing at home but it is a forever process.

I have a tip if you are considering laser light but you dont want to spend a lot of money, keep on checking the promo website such as: groupon or livingsocial, sometimes they have a good promo on laser hair removal. 

The goods:

- visible result

-cheaper for a long term use

- quick

- hair growth takes longer than waxing or shaving

- it select specific target only

- permanent hair loss

The bads:

- painful process *at least for me*

- pretty costly at the beginning

Just to add some extra information, THREADING, I did this to my eyebrow before, love the result and it lasted longer compare to shaving but not that long compare to waxing. You need to get a good beautician to do this otherwise it hurts super badly. I do recommend to go to browhouse because I used to get mine done there.

Alright, so sorry for the long post, I tried to explained as detail as possible based on my own experience. If you have any other question, ask me away via comments, fb, twitter, ig :D

make sure to find me at:

twitter: @museswonderland

instagram @museswonderland 

like my FB page: Muses Wonderland

Youtube channel: Muses Wonderland