At home spa with easy hair removal

First off, my apologies for this blurry pic. My Canon's batteries conked out at the exact moment, so I had to use Hubby's Blackberry to snap this. It ought to have been a bit brighter.

Continuing the hair topic, I'd love to have hair on my head thick enough to make two fat plaits, but I seem to have landed with just enough to create a malnourished rat's tail. Considering I was born bald, I guess I ought to be grateful for small mercies. I'm blessed with a lot of hair where it isn't required, and not enough where it is. I was on the phone with my Mom this morning, telling her how I got nicked in the arm while lawnmowing. She suggested I just braid the strands and be done with it. Yeah right. I'm so hairy, even my mother makes fun of me.

I started using the razor to get rid of unwanted hair when I was about 15. Gosh I'm double that now!! So, hundreds of blunt blades and quite a few nicks and scars later, I have this to say:

Shaving is, hands down, THE most economical, safe, swift and convenient hair removal technique. I'll list out the disadvantages of other common methods, all of which are (not!!) applicable to shaving:

1. Waxing with hot wax causes a. burns, b. bruises (personal experience), c. hair follicle infections, d. ingrown hairs, e. embarrassing intervals of tolerating unsightly stubby growth until it's long enough to wax again and f. intense itching when the hair first starts growing back.
2. Waxing with cold wax causes all the above except a.
3. An epilator is safer than waxing, in that it doesn't cause burns and bruises and fewer infections (because the hair isn't yanked out that forcefully; less trauma, lower chance of infection), but it's a. An agonisingly slow process, b. Irritating to remove hairs that keep getting stuck between the pincers, c. You need a source to plug in, and d, e, f in common with waxing.
4. Chemical hair removers: a. NOT suitable for sensitive skin, b. Smell weird, c. Can cause caustic burns, d. Sometimes it's difficult to melt off coarse hairs.
5. Bleach: a. Smells weird, b. Has a distinct possibility of causing chemical burns if not mixed correctly, c. Can cause allergic breakouts, d. Irritates sensitive skin and the most obvious e. Hair's still there, so you can't just waltz out in a miniskirt.
6. Pumice stone rubbing: Gawd almighty, are folks still doing that to themselves??
7. Laser hair removal: a. Hair comes back (personal experience) b. It's quite costly, c. You can end up with burn scars that won't go away for upto a year, leading to d. You wasting a lot of time and concealer trying to cover up the dermatologist's fiasco. e. Did I mention that the hair comes back?

The beauty of a razor is, depending on your years of experience, you can have baby soft, ultra-smooth skin in a matter of minutes in the privacy and comfort of your own home. No money wasted on beauty parlours, no infections, no embarrassment. You don't even have to end up with washerwoman's fingers from excessive exposure to soap and water.

Image downloaded from http://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentofscience/prune-skin/

What I do is, I get my hands on the cheapest and biggest bottle of moisturiser in the market, slather up and razor away. Works like magic. I don't even need any water to wash it off. This is, in addition to hair removal, a very good body exfoliator too. I can actually see dead skin flakes clogging up the tiny gap in-between the twin blades. So at the end of it, I have smooth, soft, glowing and moisturised skin; just like a foo-foo spa, but without any fears of unwashed towels and unsterilised tools.

A razor's only drawback is that it can occasionally nick the skin. Even that won't happen after some practice, unless you're busy daydreaming like I was (see the bloody spot in the pic?). As for that commonest of myths, of shaved hair growing back thicker,

It does not happen, folks!!!

In fact, just the opposite. Years of repeated minuscule trauma to the follicles leads to hair growing thinner, even sparser. The same way that over-plucked eyebrows don't always grow back. Take me for example. After fifteen years, if those stories were true, I should have been top contender for "Yeti of the Year". Contrary to expectations, I'm not. I'm just a rather clumsy, lazy bum teaching doc trying to maintain regular blog posts.

Stay happy, stay well groomed...