Did you know that all totaled you have more than 5 million hairs on your body — and that you’re removing them all wrong?
Don’t worry, no one ever said hair removal was easy. In fact, it’s probably quite painful and irritating to get the smooth skin you desire. Whether you’re a man, woman, or non-binary, almost everyone is making these hair removal mistakes.
Want to know how to make your skin silky soft and smooth and irritation-free? Read our top tips for removing your unwanted hair.
1. Never Forget to Exfoliate
It doesn’t matter if you’re doing laser hair removal, using an epilator, razor, waxing, sugaring, or depilatory creams, exfoliation is essential. It may be one of the most important things you can do for preventing ingrown hairs and keeping your skin healthy.
That said, some hair removal techniques such as sugaring can help you by removing dead skin and cut down on your skincare routine for a couple of days.
Wait about two days before exfoliating after waxing, sugaring, or laser removal. One day should be okay for most people using a razor. Try to use fine-grain exfoliants, especially on tender areas like underarms and groin areas.
2. Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate
After removing your hair and taking some dead skin with it, razor, laser, wax and sugar can leave your skin dry and vulnerable.
Combat this with the right moisturizer to keep it healthy and hydrated. Using the wrong moisturizer can clog pores and lead to ingrown hairs, undoing all that wonderful exfoliation you do.
Keep away from perfumed creams which often contain alcohol and other irritants. Using moisturizers after a shower is preferred since you can lock in moisture and prevent getting dried out.
3. Waxing Too Often and With Poor Technique
One of the worst mistakes to hair removal is removing it too often. As with shaving every day, over-waxing is a major issue in hair removal today. Wax, wax strips, and DIY sugar waxing is now so common that people think they should perform the act weekly.
What you’re doing is missing hairs, breaking weak hairs that haven’t grown long enough, and causing unnecessary damage to your skin.
Using the wrong technique in waxing or sugaring can also cause more problems with breakage, rather than getting the root. This contributes further to ingrown hairs than most people realize.
4. Using An Old Razor or Sharing One
You wouldn’t share a toothbrush, so you think it would be obvious that sharing a razor is just as gross. Used razors, especially ones you’ve overused, tend to get a buildup of bacteria and debris, including sharp bits of hair that clog them.
These will scrape against your skin, and any bacteria on the razor will use the micro-cuts to enter and irritate your skin. You’re the ultimate judge of when a razor has met its day, but we recommend two to three shaves maximum.
5. Dry Shaving: Don’t Do It
Shaving creamshower gel
Soaps don’t have the glide that a quality shaving foam can provide, don’t protect the razor or your skin, and will dry out your skin.
Don’t buy just any old shaving cream though. Make sure it’s a quality one with ingredients you can pronounce and are known for contributing to healthy skin.
Hair Removal Mistakes to Avoid
These five hair removal mistakes are the top things to avoid, but be sure there’s more where this came from. Hair and skincare is a sensitive topic sometimes, but one that needs to be brought up.
You’ve got more than 2 square meters of skin and 5 million hairs to worry about, after all. Curious about how to take care of it all? Don’t forget to browse for more beauty and health tips!
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