Shaving Facial Hair – Should Women Do It?
August 31, 2011 Beauty, Face, For Her
Although some women are blessed with extremely fine and barely visible hair, others are not so fortunate. One of the biggest differences in expectations for men and women is that while it is socially okay for a man to have groomed (or heck, even ungroomed) facial hair, a woman having visible facial hair is considered to be a huge faux pas. Now while it seems kind of unfair, I don’t really see many women protesting for their rights to grow a mustache or beard (not that it’s biologically possible for the most part) any time soon. So instead, I’m here to try to help you solve the problem of pesky facial hair.
Though shaving is fairly easy and painless, it’s probably not the way to get rid of unwanted facial hair. One thing to be happy about is that the concern about coarser and thicker hair after shaving is probably not true. Imagine the shape of the hair as somewhat cone like—one end is wider than the other. Now the part that you shaved off is the thinner part, and hence, you are stuck with the wider base. When stubbles appear, what you see is the size of the wider part of your hair. Wait for it to grow out and…presto! You’ll discover that your hair didn’t get thicker; it just tapered at the end.
The problem is that you will be stuck with thicker looking hair for a little while. Is it worth the extra embarrassment if people notice it? You also have to think about the possibility of ingrown hair. Because ingrown hair can appear wherever you shave, this is definitely something worth considering. Not only can ingrown hair can be cosmetically disfiguring, they can also begin scarring, form skin discoloration, causes skin infection, and worst-case scenario—lead to keloid scar formation (just imagine scars that does not stop enlarging), according to MedicineNet.com. It’s probably better to think twice before you decide to shave your facial hair.
Don’t worry! You still have other options! Bleaching darker facial hair so they won’t be as easy to notice is a nice way to conceal them. The problem some women have is that they think their facial hair get in the way of applying foundations and concealers (just imagine an artist with a clean canvas).
Hair removal seems to be a good alternative to shaving. You can try to dissolve the hair away by using depilatory creams. It seems to cause irritations quite easily though so I’m not sure whether you’d want to risk that. There is also facial waxing that many people opt for. But the skin on your legs is a lot thicker and tougher than the skin on your face, so it will definitely hurt a whole lot more.
Plucking the individual hairs out seems to be a good option, but honestly, how long would that take? It’s best you put away your tweezers because it’s kind of a mission impossible.
I don’t know if you’ve heard of something called an “epi stick” but they became a popular tool to remove hair in the recent years. It works similar to threading and let me tell you, it hurts just as much as it sounds. But the good thing is that it definitely works and you are not applying anything that might irritate your skin. After you bend the stick into an inverted U, you put it next to where you want to remove hair. The coils on the stick get a good grip on your hair and proceed to pull them out when you twist the ends. I would say that while this might hurt, it is very effective. And it’s worth a try. The popular saying definitely comes into mind: no pain, no gain!
I advise against shaving, but what are your thoughts on it? And what do you usually do about unwanted facial hair? Visit http://beauteclaire.com to get more beauty tips.