Facial Hair Removal Tips
Removing facial hair can be painful, expensive and can cause a lot of frustration. Since we don’t cover our faces the same way we do our arms and legs, we need to be prudent about removing excess hair on our upper lip, chin or eyebrows. In fact, facial hair might require the most precision and effort, which is saying a lot when it comes to personal grooming.
Traditionally, people have used a variety of methods to remove facial hair, including plucking, waxing, mechanized epilation and shaving. These can be painful and typically only offer short-term solutions. This means they can work in a pinch if you need to clean up your chin or upper lip before hitting the town or heading to work. Beyond that, they aren’t the best solution to your facial hair dilemma.
To remove unwanted facial hair, you need to understand why it grows, the reasons that popular tools and approaches may or may not work, and some tips to build a comprehensive plan. The goal is to help you achieve the smooth and beautiful skin you deserve.
Why Does Facial Hair Grow?
Women grow facial hair differently than men because they lack testosterone. This causes their facial hair to be more faint and less noticeable.
Facial hair can grow for one of the following reasons:
- Hormones
- Genetics
- Conditions like hirsutism or virilisation, which cause women to grow hair in the same pattern as men.
It’s impossible to reverse genetics but that doesn’t mean hair must take over your face. You have options.
The Traditional Methods
Let’s review some of the more popular methods used to remove facial hair.
Shaving
While this is the most popular method for men, for women, shaving is believed to result in hair growing back thicker. This is a common misconception as shaving doesn’t change facial hair’s thickness or growth rate. Also, believe it or not, shaving is rather popular among women.
If you want to give shaving a go, try doing it in the shower or immediately after. The steam helps soften hair and will help you avoid razor burn.
Plucking
Using tweezers to individually pluck hairs is inexpensive but you need to know how to handle a pair of tweezers. Plucking is only a viable option for stray hairs, or very small areas due to the time requirements.
Follow these steps to pluck with precision:
- Wash your face with warm water and a clean washcloth. This will soften the skin.
- Disinfect the tweezers with alcohol.
- Inspect your face to determine which hairs you want to pluck. Remember, you will be individually plucking each hair so leave yourself a good amount of time to complete the job.
- Pull your skin taut around the hair you want to pluck.
- Pluck with a swift and fluid motion. You always want to pluck in the direction that the hair is growing.
- Disinfect the tweezers with alcohol again before storing.
If the pain is intense after a plucking session, rub some ice on the area. This will reduce redness and help with inflammation.
Waxing
Despite being the most painful way to remove hair, hot wax works and can leave skin feeling exceptionally smooth. It’s also a good way to shape eyebrows, which requires some skill and precision.
People can use either strips or a stick to apply the hot wax. We recommend purchasing a wax warmer to ensure that the wax is evenly and properly heated. Proceed with caution during treatment. Remember, this is hot wax in the vicinity of your eyes. In addition, facial skin is often more sensitive than the skin on your legs or forearms.
To wax your face:
- Wash your hands and face. You can even exfoliate your face prior to treatment.
- Tautly hold the skin of the area you want to wax.
- Apply the wax via a stick or strip.
- Pull in one swift motion to remove hair from the root.
Waxing your face can cause acne or ingrown hairs. If this occurs, discontinue treatment.
Threading
Threading has become a trusted and preferred alternative to waxing and plucking. It is a great way to perfectly shape eyebrows without the use of harsh chemicals. All you need is a thread, some dexterity and skill.
Threading is a process where a thread removes facial hair by pulling it from the root. This approach delivers longer lasting results than shaving and waxing and without any skin irritation. The catch is that there is some skill involved with threading, which is why most seek professional treatments.
Epilation
Epilation is a lesser known option, but it can deftly remove facial hairs for up to a month. These devices can treat your eyebrows and chin and work by grabbing multiple strands at a time. It’s quick and typically produces positive results. Epilators come in different sizes so be sure to get one specifically designed to treat facial hair.
To use an epilator:
- Perform a spot test on a small area. Continue if there’s no apparent redness.
- Hold the device at a 90-degree angle.
- Tautly pull the skin to give the epilator access to the hair you want to remove.
- Slowly glide the device’s applicator over your face.
Epilators can cause some pain and discomfort. If you experience any swelling, rub some ice on the affected areas as this will reduce inflammation.
Light Based Hair Removal Devices for Facial Hair
Some people prefer to use hair removal devices for removing facial hair, like the ones in our Flash&Go series. These devices are safe to use on facial skin and produce exceptional results. The one caveat is that you can only use them below your cheekbones. This means they cannot be used to shape eyebrows, but they work wonders for chins and upper lips!
Silk’n hair removal devices use a proprietary form of light-based technology known as Home Pulsed Light (HPL) to provide safe and speedy treatments.
You have the option of designing a treatment plan featuring one or more of the following: the Compact, the Jewel, the Express and the latest model, the Infinity.
To use a Silk’n Home Pulsed Light hair removal device:
- Shave the area(s) you want to treat prior to each treatment session.
- Start on the lowest energy level, applying the treatment surface to your skin.
- Push and hold the light trigger, the device will flash one pulse of light. Slowly glide the device across the treatment area.
- Some devices like the Express, allow you to glide the device across your skin whereas the Jewel has a sensor that will self-flash once it touches your skin.
- Use your Silk’n hair removal device once every two weeks for the first four to five sessions. After three or four treatments, your hair should be starting to appear thinner and the growth cycle should slow. If you are happy with the results, then you can treat specific areas once a month as needed.
- For full hair removal or for very coarse hair, it might take up to six months to see full results as your body has millions of dormant hair follicles that can come to life at any time, this is what the maintenance phase is designed to address.
We recommend consulting our Resource Center or the device’s user manual, to make sure you understand how to conduct a proper treatment for your face. If you have questions, you can contact our helpful customer support team at 1-877-367-4556, or use the contact form/email address on our contact us page.
Eyebrows
Over the last few years, the popularity of eyebrow waxing has seen the proliferation of salons solely dedicated to this grooming practice. This can be prohibitively expensive especially since it is something you can do at home.
Closely follow these steps to wax your own eyebrows:
- Collect the supplies you will need to perform treatment. This can include grooming wax, tweezers, popsicle stick, scissors and some cotton fabric.
- Rinse your face with warm water.
- This opens hair follicles making them susceptible to waxing.
- Mark the area you want to treat with powder.
- This will prevent you from waxing off too much hair.
- Prepare the wax by following the instructions provided.
- Use the popsicle stick to apply the wax in the direction that the hair grows.
- The wax should only be placed above, or between eyebrows, never over them as this will remove all of the eyebrow hair.
- Place a strip of fabric over the wax, press and rub firmly, leave for a couple of seconds, and then pull the strip off in one quick motion.
- Repeat the process on the second eyebrow and/or in between your eyebrows to complete the treatment.
As with anything to do with your eyes, be careful. Do not pull up and back because it could cause quite a bit of pain.
Ready for your New Face?
These methods can help you achieve smooth facial skin that looks and feels amazing. You need to find one that delivers the results you want and can fit your budget, schedule and lifestyle.
With threading and waxing, it’s never a bad idea to seek professional help to make sure it is done right. For best results combine methods, like using a Flash&Go hair removal device for your chin and upper lip and then threading or wax for your eyebrows.
Read more about Hair Removal in the hair removal section of our Resource Center, browse other hair removal articles in our Beauty Blog, or see what Silk’n hair removal devices are on sale today!
