Hair Removal Techniques

Temporary Hair Removal - Epilation
Epilation is a term used to describe mass plucking of hairs. Whilst it would be a marathon of a task to remove hairs individually with tweezers, there are ways of doing it much faster.

Probably the first form of epilation ever is known as threading. Like colonic hydrotherapy, this orginated in the ancient Middle East, another sign of how highly developed the Egyptians were. They called it fatlah. It's basically a way of using a coil of string to trap and pull out unwanted hairs, and although it's considered less painful than plucking by many, it is pretty obscure these days and you may find it very hard to come by someone who can do it to you.

In the modern age epilation is relatively easy to come by thanks to electricity! Most epilators take the form of a row of rotating tweezers, although a few use vibrating wire coils. Simply plug in, run over the skin and hairs are removed by the root.

Epilation machines can remove hairs relatively quickly and being that they remove them by the roots, they offer some advantages:

Hair regrowth is slow, typically it'll be a couple of weeks

Hairs get softer the more you remove them through epilation much as with waxing

It's clean and you only ever have to buy an epilator once which means that it gets cheaper and cheaper the longer you stick with it

It's one of the easiest ways of removing hair solo as waxing can be difficult in certain areas and requires a fair amount of determination to pull the hair out, making it easier if you can get someone to help you

On the flip side, epilation doesn't suit everyone because:

If you have thick hair you may find it too painful at first to persevere with

It can be uncomfortable on sensitive areas and some places are hard to reach, like the backs of the legs

You need the hair to be of a certain length before you can epilate of else the tweezers can't grab it to pluck

Very fine hair is hard to treat effectively
If you do decide to epilate, make sure that you pull the skin tight. This prevents snagging and makes the hair removal treatment less painful. You may also find it best when you've had a hot bath and then dried off. Make the room warm while you are epilating as cold air will draw the skin tighter making the epilation less comfortable.

Personally my hair was too dense and thick when I tried to epilate and within minutes I my eyes were watering and I was quivering like I was having a fit. However I do know some people who've had good results through them, so it is a case of horses for courses. If you find that the sensation of having hairs rapidly plucked is tolerable to you, epilation can be a cheap, quick and effective way of removing your hair that can easily be performed solo.