I was delightfully overwhelmed by the supportive comments (both here and on our Facebook page) over my original blog post about my hairstylist Brad’s unexpected departure from my life (he moved to Arizona). Turns out that lots of you can relate to the sadness that comes with losing your beloved hairdresser as well as the anxiety of finding a new one! More than one commenter admitted to flying to the city where their favorite hairdresser works—I understand the motivation for that, but I’m afraid bi-monthly travel to Phoenix is beyond my logistical and financial possibilities! It was time to find someone here in Seattle.

The great news is that I indeed found someone new, Betsy, and she’s definitely not crazy! I gave her a try on the recommendation of a colleague here at Paula’s Choice, and I’m so glad I took a chance. She owns her own salon/record shop/vintage store called Radar Hair & Records, and everything from the kitschy-industrial décor to her two dogs nuzzling my feet made me feel right at home. The best part is the adorable cut she gave me! I brought in lots of pictures of cuts I liked to show her, but kept an open mind, and I was rewarded with an extremely positive experience.

Another unexpected outcome was her recommending a truly innovative hair-styling product—and I really thought I had seen it all! I told her that I wanted my cut to be easy to style, without requiring a lot of product. Not only do I need my beauty routine to be simple, but I feel like I’m on the wrong side of 30 to look like I have a bunch of goop in my hair all the time. However, with my fine hair and a short, pixie-esque cut, going without styling product means that my hair can easily look flat, boyish and boring.

Betsy’s solution? She recommended I try Schwarzkopf’s Osis Dust-It Mattifying Powder, an absorbent powder styling product that you shake right into your hair. (Warning: A little of this stuff goes a long way!) I was immediately impressed with the volume and hold Dust-It gave me, without any stickiness or greasiness. Even better—it lasted all day and looked great. The only downside was the steep price ($23!), but I’ve since found it at Amazon for only $9! If anyone with funky, fun short hair is looking for serious volume and texture, this is a product to try! Anyone using Aveda’s Pure Abundance Hair Potion, which is also pricey, should check out Dust-It to compare!

So it seems my brief hair drama-trauma is over and I am once again a happy, well-coiffed woman! Now if only I can keep Betsy from finding out that it rains much less often in Arizona…

Women worry about and spend a great deal of time and money to look and feel beautiful. Whether it is their makeup, skin care, hair care (cutting, dyeing, styling), shaving, dry lips, buying the right fragrance, getting manicures and pedicures, dark circles under the eyes, clothing, weight loss, and on and on, we want to be attractive—and we pay attention to lots of details to achieve this goal.

Yet, despite this endless effort (any rational person has to admit that it’s exhausting) there are details we ignore, can’t see objectively, or didn’t know anything about (I mean, there is only so much time in a day, week, month, or year, right?).

It isn’t my intent to make your life more complicated. My hope is that these recommendations may actually make your beauty quest easier. I’m curious to hear what you think (I love your feedback!).

1. Stop touching your face when you have makeup on! Rubbing your eyes, resting your face on your hand, or holding your cell phone against your cheek causes you to slowly but surely wipe away the makeup you put on in the morning. Ask your friends or coworkers to point out when you do this because you probably don’t even know you’re doing it.
2. Don’t leave the house with chipped nail polish. Putting on a great outfit, stunning shoes, and doing your hair and makeup is all for naught if you ignore your peeling, cracked nail polish. Even with everything else in place, the shoddy manicure takes focus. It is especially detracting at your job.
3. Don’t wear clothes that don’t fit. This sounds simple, but it isn’t as easy as you might think. Women feel pressure not to repeat outfits within the same week, for some not even in the same month. When there’s nothing else to wear we go to the parts of our closet we shouldn’t. So if you can’t button a jacket or blouse, if your pants are too tight (you can see your panty line or way too much body detail), sleeves are too long, skirts are way too tight or short for your body type, or your pants are so long they drag on the floor and have frayed,  don’t wear them. Oh, and about those shoes with worn-down heels and torn leather—those need to be tossed out!
4. Don’t wear fake nails. I know, I know, those of you who are attached to your fake nails as much as they are attached to you aren’t going to take my strong recommendation to give this one up. Nonetheless, even if there weren’t issues of infection, damaged nail plates, and fumes when you’re getting them done, they are expensive and almost always distracting. Fake nails add nothing to your overall appearance. I mean really, isn’t it rare to see a set of fake nails that don’t look fake? Having long nails might be enviable, but if you don’t have nails that grow naturally long on their own, it doesn’t add to your appearance to stick acrylics on.
5. Don’t overdo mascara! I’m guilty of this one, too. No matter how hard I try to stop, I keep piling the stuff on. I do love the way my eyes look with long, thick lashes and it takes a lot of mascara to achieve this. But I also know that the way I do it doesn’t look anything like “real” long lashes. Too much mascara is distracting and the more you wear the more likely even the best mascara is going to flake during the day. Isn’t that a pretty picture? I’ll try again today to cut back, but just like for some of you, this isn’t going to be easy.

OK, one more “don’t” that will help a lot, and I’ve blogged about this issue in the past: Don’t fall asleep for the night with your makeup on! Being sure to cleanse your face before going to bed will help you avoid a litany of unattractive skin and eye-area problems and help you spend less time getting ready in the morning (because you’re not trying to fix all of the side effects evident from sleeping with your makeup on).

I tuned in for the season premiere of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills expecting to watch the usual train wreck that precedes this cult-following Bravo reality series. What I didn’t realize was that I’d also receive an education in Sun Damage 101.

The majority of the housewives are in their forties, but you’d never guess it. Despite their efforts to look younger (including overblown lip injections, obvious forehead lifts, extreme Botox and fillers, etc.), most of the women actually look ten years older than their real age—tan skin, neon pink lipstick and all. I found it odd that the housewives put so much emphasis on having cosmetic procedures done on their faces (and that‘s a whole other blog), but yet they make little to no effort to take care of their sun-damaged wrinkly necks and leathery, brown-speckled décolletages. This exemplifies the point that you cannot have it both ways: All the fillers, injections, and lifts available will never look convincing if you continue to damage your skin in the sun.

So all this got me thinking: As diligent as I am about wearing sunscreen, I still sometimes forget certain areas like the neck, chest, and hands. Seeing the leathery-skinned housewives of Beverly Hills taught me to never make that mistake again! Because those areas are constantly exposed to UV light, they blatantly show the telltale signs of sun damage if not adequately protected. Let the sun-drenched skin of the Beverly Hills housewives serve as a reminder for us all: Never neglect your neck, chest, and hands from broad-spectrum sun protection!

I could go on and on about other “lessons” from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and the other Housewives series, but let’s hear what you have to say!

I finally have time to write again. After three weeks of doing over 150 newspaper, TV, magazine, and online interviews, along with several presentations to Chinese and Taiwanese beauty bloggers, I was exhausted and ready to get on the plane and come home. Unfortunately, for all the anticipation I had before departure, it was a trip from hell.

Shortly after dinner on my flight, I got food poisoning (not from the food served because no one else was affected, and thank goodness it was only me or it would have really been a disaster). I was having waves of nausea, cold sweats, and a feeling I was going to fall if I stood up. Simultaneously, I was also developing a raging flu with a fever and cough (can you believe that!). I needed a wheelchair to get off the plane. Geesh!

Aside from my traumatic trip, everything else was spectacular and fascinating (I was in perfect health until my plane ride home). Taiwan is a small part of the world with a population of 24 million, in comparison to China which has a population of 1.3 billion people. It is so hard to fathom that number!

Taipei has a mix of old world and new development with one of the tallest buildings in the world. Beijing and Shanghai have very little that isn’t new. These two cities are a maze of endless towering buildings enveloped day in and day out with a thick haze of pollution that blurs the horizon as well as buildings just a few blocks away. Picture New York City on steroids with minimal visibility in any given direction.

Beijing has a personality that is a mix of Washington D.C. and New York City as it is the financial and political cornerstone of the country. Shanghai, on the other hand, is a shopping Mecca. You can’t imagine the number of department stores, clothing boutiques, and home décor shops there are.

Despite all this potential to spend money on enhancing my wardrobe and home, it was sheer agony because there was no way anything was going to fit me. I was trapped in a world where on rack after rack there were stunning outfits but only with sizes ranging from 00 to 6. Can you believe that double-zero is actually a size? I don’t think I could fit a double-zero on my forearm, let alone try to make a top or pair of slacks work!

The media attention for the launch of my book in both Simplified and Traditional Chinese and my Paula’s Choice product line was astounding. My reputation as The Cosmetics Cop preceded me, and, not surprisingly, I was asked the same questions in China that I am asked all over the world (what gets rid of dark circles, what stops wrinkles, what products clear up acne), only with a few twists.

Asian women wanted to know what products were best for their skin because they believe they can’t use products designed for Caucasians. From a chemistry standpoint, there aren’t products specially formulated for Asian skin but, not surprisingly, cosmetic company marketing departments reinforce this false notion with products labeled clearly as being designed for Asian skin.

The fact is, physiologically, there are no differences between Asian skin and Caucasian—or darker skin tones, for that matter—when it comes to skin care. Skin is merely the human body’s largest organ. The same way the heart, kidneys, liver, or other organs don’t require different foods to be healthy, nor does skin.  Can you imagine going in for, say, heart surgery and telling the doctor you need a special procedure because of your nationality?

Skin color does not change what skin-care products are needed to fight wrinkles, acne, rosacea, oily skin, dry skin, uneven skin tone, and on and on. The protocol is the same for everyone, and there is no research to the contrary.

I was also asked a great deal about skin-care products that could make skin white. At the cosmetic counters and drugstores in China and Taiwan there are countless products branded as ”whitening.” Whitening products are actually the most popular skin-care products sold in Asia. Wanting to have lighter skin has been part of the Asian culture for hundreds of years, and most Asian women are diligent in this pursuit.

It isn’t so much that Asian women want to be white, they just don’t want to be yellow. In China, I was told there are age old sayings illustrating this beauty issue. One such idiom I had never heard before was, “One white face erases 100 ugly.” Loosely translated, this phrase in essence means that if you have whiter skin, 100 other flaws such as acne, a large nose, or thin hair don’t exist anymore and you are beautiful nonetheless. Another expression describing an unattractive older woman was to refer to her as a “yellow-faced old woman.” Now that was culture shock for this Cosmetics Cop!

Just to be clear, I have no judgment about the pressure Chinese women feel about the color of their skin. Every culture has women fretting about some aspect of being beautiful that sounds oppressive, and Asian women are no different, which is why they need a Cosmetics Cop as much as other women do anywhere else I go.

Speaking of skin-care products, I am thrilled my products are doing so well in Asia despite the fact I don’t sell “whitening” products. I am proud beyond words to find Chinese, Korean, and Taiwanese women so warm and open to my information and the skin-care philosophy and research Paula’s Choice provides.

Despite some bumps along the way, I am looking forward to going back. There is so much more to learn and to see. Plus, I continue to be acknowledged around the globe for being The Cosmetics Cop! This international recognition has brought new meaning and challenges to my life. I am grateful for the privilege and am eager to continue and expand the passion I have for this perpetually wonderful, yet at times infuriating, business of beauty.

Ever since I first started working on the Don’t Go… books with Paula, we have had a fondness for doing our hands-on research in the beautiful city of Vancouver, British Columbia. Not only is this major city a relatively short drive from Seattle, but time and again it has proven to be a very friendly, helpful city for The Cosmetics Cop Team to work in.

By “work,” I mean we literally hit the streets, notes in hand, ready to visit drugstores, department stores, and specialty shops to personally look at dozens upon dozens of skin-care and makeup products. As you might imagine, this process requires lots of preparedness and concentration, not to mention a comfortable pair of walking shoes!

A co-worker and I recently did some research in Vancouver and it went beautifully! Not once were we asked to leave a store (yes that actually happens to us) or suspiciously questioned as to what we were doing, or even eyed with nervous apprehension. It seemed the salespeople simply viewed us as conscientious consumers with a rather intense curiosity about cosmetics—and that’s just fine with us!

What really struck me during this last trip was how different it can be doing such research in Vancouver vs. Seattle and environs. When we’re out doing our work in the U.S. we’re almost always on guard, ready to explain why we’re taking notes, why we need to see every shade of foundation (not just those the salesperson thinks will match our skin), and why we need the complete ingredient list rather than just the buzz-worthy ingredients the cosmetics industry loves to emphasize. We were careful in Vancouver, too, but found that for the most part, the salespeople weren’t all that concerned with what we were doing (and when they approached us they were always polite as opposed to the terse “What are you doing?” we normally get). 

I don’t know why this is, but we really appreciated just being able to go about doing our research without being questioned or treated like we’re up to no good. It’s amazing how often we’re either viewed as shoplifters or, more often, as employees from another store, there to check out the prices at a local competitor (I’ve been accused of this at Walgreens and Wal-Mart, and have had my notes scrutinized by management at Wal-Mart, not to mention questioned by security at Sephora stores) despite the fact the information we are gathering is mandated by the FDA to be available to the public.

The department stores can be the worst. Salespeople are often rude, they tend to hover, or they protect their products as if we were going to steal something. We gladly go through these experiences for you and have for years (even Paula has been thrown out of stores for writing down ingredients lists), because our goal is to do what it takes to get you the facts about the products you are buying. We truly want to help you spend your cosmetics dollars wisely, because wasting money is never pretty.

Of course, we’ve had lots of pleasant experience doing cosmetics research in the States. I can think of several salespeople who’ve been exceptionally helpful and who’ve willingly provided the information we need. These encounters are always appreciated. But I do need to send a great big “thank you” to the city of Vancouver for being such a great overall place for The Cosmetics Cop Team to do the work that so many consumers rely on to make informed decisions about what they buy. Until next time, Vancouver, THANK YOU!

I
’ve been researching the science of skin care and deciphering its complex facts for people all over the world for years. Wherever I go there is endless confusion about what skin needs and what skin-care products can and cannot do. As many of you know, this isn’t surprising given the never-ending lunatic claims the cosmetic industry comes up with.

Without question, skin care is complex, and cutting through the hype is still a challenge! This is why I love The Dr. Oz Show.

The show’s entire premise is to only present information that can be supported by research. Their producers are eager to know the facts. I’ve done the show four times this year, and am always flattered to be asked to come back. Despite the show’s no-hype format, there just isn’t time in my four-minute segment for me to explain even a fragment of what is needed to understand a particular skin-care issue.

After the airing of a recent Dr. Oz segment I was on (Did That? Try This! For Your Aging Skin!), a woman wrote to us wondering why I suggested serums weren’t necessary, given I have three serums as part of my Paula’s Choice line. Now I know I didn’t say serums were superfluous. It was clear to me she misunderstood my point.

On the show, I was trying to explain to a woman with oily skin why using five different moisturizers every night as part of her skin-care routine was a serious problem. This woman was assuming she needed a moisturizer, anti-wrinkle cream, serum, firming lotion, and a treatment gel of some kind. What I knew for sure is that she didn’t need to use a serum, lotion, cream, gel, and moisturizer all at the same time!

What got lost was my message that serums or any other texture of moisturizer/anti-wrinkle product, when well formulated, can be a brilliant way to take care of skin. The prerequisite: It must be formulated for your skin type and skin-care concerns.

I really wanted to help this woman narrow down the number of products she was using and to only use ones targeted for her skin type, regardless of the name on the label. That might include a serum, but it would completely depend on the product’s formulation and the other products she was using. How could I get that across in four minutes knowing that there were two other women I needed to help as well on the same segment?

There is much more that I would have added, but it’s not The Paula Begoun Show, it’s The Dr. Oz Show. Here’s what I would’ve said if given more time:

• Packaging is as important as the product! Jar packaging exposes the air-sensitive ingredients in a product to light and oxygen, which causes sensitive ingredients to deteriorate after opening. Plus, it isn’t sanitary to dip your finger into a skin-care product.
• There is no single ingredient more important than another. Vitamin C or some exotic plant from a remote part of the world isn’t going to reverse the aging process or get rid of your wrinkles. Applying a product that only contains vitamin C is like eating only oranges; it’s a healthy addition to your diet, but you can’t live off them! You need a variety of antioxidants and nutrients for optimum health. Skin, as our body’s largest organ, isn’t any different.
• Fighting wrinkles involves an AHA or BHA exfoliant, products that are loaded with antioxidants, ingredients that help skin produce normal cells, and skin-repairing ingredients. But most importantly, you need a sunscreen 365 days a year. The best anti-aging products on the market are useless when you aren’t protecting your skin from UV exposure.
• Fighting oily skin requires gentle, non-irritating products so you don’t stimulate more oil production.
• Someone with oily skin should only be using products with a gel, liquid, or extremely lightweight serum or lotion base.
• For oily skin, it helps to use a mattifying product during the day.
• Age is not a skin type! What works for oily or dry skin at 30 will work at 50 or 60. “Mature skin” is a marketing buzzword, nothing more.
• Ignore the claims! It is the rare skin-care product that doesn’t have misleading information on its label.

Skin care is complicated, and there is (and always will be) a lot of misinformation, half-truths, and blatant lies to sell women products that can’t live up to their promises. Explaining how to really keep skin younger and healthier longer, how to reduce acne, fight wrinkles, heal dry skin, and on and on is far beyond what can be stated in a few minutes on a talk show. Dr. Oz is doing his best, but there is just so much time in an hour to talk about your liver, kidney, heart, knees, and skin!

Last week, I took notice of this article featured in The New York Times’ Skin Deep section. In it, a profile of Dr. Perricone’s new “Super” line (due in late October in Sephora stores) revealed that the 25- to 30-year-old anti-wrinkle market is a sales juggernaut just waiting to take off. With products that have cutesy names and iPod-like packaging, the idea is to speak directly to young women who deeply fear the sudden onset of aging. “Thirty is not baby-faced,” Andrea Lavinthal, a beauty editor at realbeauty.com said, “I feel like I am on a landslide to 40.”

Wait—what?

This article—and Perricone’s marketing angle—had me incensed. This is straight-up fear-mongering at its most basic and transparent. When did 30 become old? Nobody should be afraid of their 30-year-old skin, or that they will suddenly get old “overnight,” a complaint that Dr. Perricone reported straight from his patients. His unprofessional polling technique notwithstanding, his warnings are nothing more than scare tactics disguised as marketing—people don’t wake up older out of the blue! The irony here is that a recent beauty survey I read indicated that most women feel they’re at their most beautiful in their 30s, but that survey doesn’t seem to have been taken into consideration by anyone’s marketing team.

Let’s get back to reality: The signs of aging accumulate over time, and the best thing that women of any age can do to avoid accelerated aging is to exfoliate regularly, never get a tan, apply sunscreen 365 days a year, and use products loaded with antioxidants and cell communicating ingredients (of which you’ll find many at PaulasChoice.com and Beautypedia.com). Speaking of sunscreen, it stands to reason given abundant research that the single most powerful anti-aging product anyone of any age could be using to prevent “aging” is a well formulated sunscreen. A quick call to Perricone’s customer service number confirmed that not one of the 13 new anti-aging products include sun protection. This glaring omission alone doesn’t bode well for this new “Super” line, but we’ll know for sure once The Cosmetics Cop Team reviews these products next month.

A small, healthy debate ignited between some of the members of The Cosmetics Cop Team over these products and their marketing angle. Is Perricone speaking to a real fear that women in this age range have, or is it a fear that’s perpetuated by the industry itself, by continually exposing women to ever-younger (and ever-photo retouched) images of beauty? Are these products fueled by legitimate demand from women who want to stop wrinkles before they start, or is the beauty industry manufacturing a need, and expensive boutique products to conveniently swoop in and meet it?

I suspect that it’s a chicken-or-the-egg type of situation, and I’m skeptical if anyone can say for sure which came first. The relationship between 20-somethings and anti-aging appears somewhat symbiotic: young women have this fear and the industry fans the flame.

Readers, what do you think?

I’m tooting my own horn here, but cosmetic companies are finally recognizing what I’ve been saying for years: Research has made it abundantly clear that exfoliating is critical for improving your skin. Exfoliating makes skin look younger, unclogs pores, and reduces breakouts. The best way to exfoliate is with an alpha hydroxy acid product (AHA) containing glycolic or lactic acid or beta hydroxy acid (BHA) which is salicylic acid. As a result of the benefits, more and more AHA and BHA products are showing up everywhere.

As most of you know, acne-prone skin and sun-damaged skin produce abnormal cells that build up on the skin’s surface because they don’t shed as they should. That thickened outer layer creates a rough, dull appearance and keeps beneficial skin-care ingredients from absorbing for maximum benefit. When skin gets help exfoliating on a daily basis, practically overnight skin becomes smoother, it produces more collagen, skin tone improves, clogged pores practically go away, and breakouts are significantly reduced.

While scrubs have been the mainstay for exfoliation over the years, they are a poor choice. Even gentle scrubs end up disrupting the skin’s outer barrier, which hurts the skin’s ability to fight environmental damage and breaks down collagen.

Okay, another brag: So even though AHAs and BHA have been around for more than 50 years in mostly dermatologic formulations, my Paula’s Choice product line is one of the few exceptions; I have the only cosmetic line in the world with 9 BHA and 5 AHA products in various textures and concentrations.

Many lines, including big brands such as Avon, Olay, and Mary Kay, launched AHA and BHA products in the early ’90s, but they were discontinued shortly after. Part of the reason for that is because the word acid is just scary. It’s hard to explain to a woman why an acid is as good for skin as green tea or vitamin C. And while AHAs and BHA really make skin look younger, they also make skin more vulnerable to sun damage just as a child’s would be. This fact makes a sunscreen mandatory, and lots of product lines didn’t offer one as part of the skin-care routines they sold (and many still don’t).

Ironically, when you really make skin younger it has the same problem that a kid’s skin does.

Another reason cosmetics companies stayed away from creating AHA and BHA products is that they are hard to work with in a formulation. For efficacy, AHAs and BHA require a pH of 3 to 4 and a lot of anti-irritants to maximize results, making stability an issue.

I also feel strongly that BHA has been an unsung hero of which other companies are only now beginning to take note. Salicylic acid has astounding properties. It not only is an effective exfoliant but it also has some antibacterial benefit, and because it is related to aspirin (aspirin is acetyl salicylic acid) it also has significant anti-irritant properties. This makes BHA a blessing for someone with acne or rosacea.

Now that AHAs and BHA are showing up in skin-care products again, the question becomes, can companies come up with effective formulations and adapt their other products to give women the best results possible? Of course, we will let you know as we add reviews to Beautypedia.com.

In 2004 Dove launched their “Campaign for Real Beauty.” Their mission? “Make more women feel beautiful every day by widening stereotypical views of beauty.” With a series of edgy commercials and print advertisements starring regular women, not supermodels, Dove claims to have rejected the unrealistic standards of beauty created by mass media.

For those that missed the print ads, the “non-model” types are shown smiling and confident in their white underwear, refusing to hide their pretty good, cellulite-free, size 12 to 14 bodies; perfect skin; and white smiles. Whose idea of “regular” is this?

The message behind the “Campaign for Real Beauty” is important—I am not denying this. The influence that advertising has on our perceptions of beauty and what constitutes the ideal physical standard can be demeaning for many and destructive for some. But is Dove really helping matters? I don’t think so.

From my perspective, Dove is merely profiting from the illusion of enhancing the self-esteem of women while simultaneously reinforcing the message (and myth) of firming cream to eliminate cellulite as a necessary part of a healthy body image.

If Dove’s intention is to protest the unattainable beauty standard seen in most beauty product ads, their authenticity is lacking. Simply replacing this standard with their only slightly more attainable version of beauty and then selling products to perfect it is not a solution. Dove’s campaign aims to illustrate “real” beauty, but how does it feel to the woman or girl that does not feel represented by their new standard?  What message is Dove sending to the person who doesn’t even measure up to their artificial norm?

What about the men? It’s no secret that Unilever, Dove’s parent company, also owns Axe, the popular men’s body-care line. In a way, Axe has their own version of the “Campaign for Real Beauty.” Axe markets to young men with the message that it is perfectly normal to expect two things from women: they’ll become insatiable sex maniacs upon smelling Axe Body Spray, and they should look as if they haven’t eaten in weeks.

And don’t get me started on Unilever’s ads for skin lightening products in India called Fair and Lovely.

If Unilever’s efforts were authentic, it begs the question of why they’re not using their limitless global influence to change the way advertising depicts beauty for all their products. Why attempt to fix the problem with Dove’s “Campaign” while simultaneously sending a contradictory message with their other brands?

Bottom line: Dove’s efforts are almost worse than those of the Axe brand, as they have managed to succeed in launching a campaign that manipulates the insecurities of women (Love yourself, but don’t forget the firming cream!) under the guise of female empowerment.

So, let’s hear it from you: How do you feel about the authenticity of Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty and the ads Dove’s parent company runs for their Axe brand or Fair and Lovely?

Just about everyone has hair somewhere on their body that they don’t want, or at least want to reduce. Whether it’s on your legs, underarms, face, back, arms, or bikini line, finding an effective and efficient way to get rid of it isn’t easy. There is a glut of sham treatments and products with unsubstantiated claims to avoid. Even among the options that work, each still has its pros and cons you need to understand—but we can help you avoid wasting money and time and get the results you want!

Shaving
Everyone knows the benefits and problems associated with shaving. On the plus side, it is fast and easy; in the negative column, it grows back way too fast and the stubble or redness it can cause on the thigh and bikini line is obnoxious. There are ways to deal with the redness, like using a hair conditioner or a non-irritating shave gel such as Paula’s Choice Close Comfort Shave Gel, which is designed to protect your skin while you shave. Afterwards, applying a fragrance-free moisturizer or a solution containing stabilized acetyl salicylic acid (aspirin), such as Paula’s Choice Skin Relief Treatment, really helps to reduce redness and calm your skin.

Tweezing
You can’t get much more basic and simpler than tweezing for hair removal. You grab a hair with tweezers and yank it out, removing all the hair on the surface and some amount at the base of the hair follicle. On the plus side, tweezed hairs take longer to grow back than hair removed from shaving or depilatories. On the negative end, tweezing can be painful and only works well for small areas of the face, such as the brow or chin. If you want to remove a lot of hair the time and tedious nature of tweezing isn’t worth the effort.

Threading
This unique method of hair removal comes from Middle Eastern countries such as Iran and Syria. The “threader” uses a long piece of thread held between her teeth and wrapped around the arms and hands in such a way that a loop is created. Then, with swift, rapid motions each hair is plucked away in a short period of time. The speed in which this technique is done is truly amazing.

Threading offers no benefit over and above what tweezing does other than a relatively large amount of hair can be removed all at once in just a few minutes (and someone else is doing the work). Otherwise, your hair grows back exactly how it would if you tweezed.

Epilady
Epilady looks like an electric shaver, but it is really just an automatic powered tweezer. As you run it over your skin it pulls out hair in one even motion. It is convenient and fast, but just like waxing and sugaring, Epilady requires some amount of hair growth in order for the device to have enough hair to grab onto and pull it out.

Waxing
Basically, waxing is just a method of tweezing large areas of hair. Waxing is an inexpensive and effective way to remove hair from most parts of the body. Compared to shaving, it leaves the areas where hair was removed smoother because it pulls the hair out from below the top layer of skin.

Most salons and spas offer waxing, but you can also do it at home yourself. Many beauty supply stores and even drugstores sell all the equipment you will need.

In hot waxing, a thin layer of heated wax is applied to the skin in the direction of the hair growth. The hair becomes embedded in the wax as it cools. The wax is then pulled off quickly in the opposite direction of the hair growth, taking the hair with it. It’s quick but not painless, as many who’ve been waxed will attest!

Cold waxes work similarly. Strips are pre-coated with wax or a sugar-based substance and pressed onto the skin in the direction of the hair growth and pulled off in the opposite direction.

One major shortcoming of waxing is that some amount of hair growth has to be present for the wax to grab onto it and pull it out. That means for a period of time you have to be “hairy” before you can be hairless.

Sugaring
Sugaring as a method to remove hair is identical to waxing only instead of “wax” the ingredients used are various forms of sugar. Just like waxing (and tweezing), sugaring pulls hair out in one swift motion. Despite the claims you’ve heard, there is absolutely no special benefit to this type of hair removal.

The only aspects of sugaring that are preferred over waxing is sugaring is less messy and it has no risk of causing a burn as hot wax does. Sugaring’s mess or mistakes merely washes away, while any remaining wax has to be peeled or scratched off. And because sugar doesn’t have to be heated to use while hot wax does, there is obviously no risk of burning your skin.

One major shortcoming of sugaring is that some amount of hair growth has to be present for the sugary cream to grab onto it and pull it out. That means for a period of time you have to be “hairy” before you can be hairless.

Depilatories
Depilatories (Nair is a well-known brand) literally melt and dissolve hair on the surface with really strong ingredients like calcium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide, or calcium thioglycolate. They do leave skin feeling far less stubbly than shaving, but the way depilatories are formulated presents a high risk of causing serious irritation or even burns to the skin. It is best to test the depilatory on your arm first to check for reactions, and follow the directions on the package exactly. Depilatories should always be rinsed after several minutes; do not leave them on the skin for prolonged periods!

Bleaching
Bleaching is a great, inexpensive option if the hair you want to hide is dark but not thick or dense. It is especially effective for the upper lip or other parts of the face, neck, and arms. There are many options for facial bleach products at the drugstore or on the Internet. One of the best Internet sources for a range of inexpensive options is http://www.folica.com/. (Please note that this site also sells an array of products that have misleading and exaggerated claims.)

Electrolysis
Electrolysis (also referred to as epilation) is considered by the FDA to be the only permanent form of hair removal. There are two types of electrolysis devices: One is a needle epilator and the other a tweezer-styled epilator. Both of these send electrical currents directly into one hair follicle at a time to destroy the hair bulb. Without the bulb, hair cannot grow.

Even in the best of situations electrolysis can fail to deliver. The procedure requires an extremely skilled technician because the needle placement into the follicle is tricky and can easily miss its mark, plus it is possible to use insufficient electrical current which won’t destroy the bulb and stop hair growth.

Although individual electrolysis appointments can be relatively inexpensive, it requires repeated weekly treatments that can take a year or longer to get you the results you want.

Home Electrolysis
Technically, the at-home electrolysis devices work the same way as professional versions but they can’t produce the same results. Why? For safety’s sake, at-home electrolysis machines produce very little electrical current which means they can’t destroy the hair bulb to stop hair growth.

Further, because the technique for electrolysis is so tricky even for a skilled technician, the chances of successfully operating these devices yourself are slim, at best. You would probably end up just tweezing instead of zapping the hair because getting the device to work as intended takes a lot of skill. Given the time it takes for a hair to grow back, it could take months before you knew if it was really working.

Laser Hair Removal
Of all the methods for hair removal there is no question laser hair removal works, and works really well! But it gets better: You can be hairless with very few treatments and minimal maintenance, though this varies depending on how much hair you are trying to get rid of. If you can afford laser hair removal and have light, fair, beige, or medium beige skin, you can achieve long-lasting results over just about any part of your body you want to have hairless. If you have a darker skin tone you must check with your doctor. Lasers for hair removal follow the dark color of hair (they don’t work on blonde hair) and as a result they can damage dark skin color.

The risks in laser hair removal can include skin discoloration (either darkening or lightening of skin), swelling, inflammation, and infected hair follicles. It is important to keep in mind that laser hair removal, while superior to other forms of hair removal, is still not permanent. But it is pretty darn close!

There are numerous laser hair removal systems, but research has shown that the 800 or 810 nanometer diode laser is by far the most successful and can be used on a wider range of skin colors, particularly Asian skin tones.

At-Home Lasers
It may shock you (both literally and figuratively) to learn that the exact same lasers a salon or doctor’s office may use for hair removal are available for you to buy and do it yourself at home. For example, the TRIA is an 810 nanometer diode laser system with research showing it can reduce hair growth. It is tricky to use and the instructions must be followed exactly or the machine won’t produce even minor results, but it is absolutely an option to consider. 

No! No! Thermodynamic Hair Removal

Costing $250 for the device and $21 for replaceable blades the No! No! is a combination of shaving and heat to remove unwanted hair. The term “thermodynamic” in the name is just a fancy way of saying it produces heat to burn away hair which is literally what it does, along with shaving at the same time. There is no research showing this works, and physiologically it really can’t work. Singing hair on the surface of skin (and you will smell burnt hair after using it) does not carry through to the root at the base of the hair follicle frying it into nonexistence. If that did happen you would surely get a fairly serious burn, but thankfully only the surface is affected. It will feel like something is happening when you use it, but other than shaving there is no other real benefit to be had. Our verdict? Just say “no” to the No! No!