Abstract: This chapter describes the management of the unwanted hair. The main function of mammalian hair is to provide environmental protection. However, this function has now largely been lost in humans, in whom hair is retained or removed from various parts of the body essentially for cosmetic reasons. Though both men and women remove hair, it is the appearance of hair on a woman's body that is perceived as unnatural. Women feel that hair does not belong to their body, except for the scalp, and constantly seek means to rid themselves of this unwanted hair. Generally, women rely on shaving, depilatory creams, bleaching, waxing, and plucking to remove unwanted hair. Hair removal can be broadly put into two categories, depilation and epilation. The two terms are quite often used interchangeably in the scientific and the patent literature. Depilate is defined as "to remove hair by any means." An important distinction is that in epilation, the complete hair shaft is removed from its roots, whereas, in depilation superfluous hair is removed and the hair-root is left undamaged. Waxing is a time-tested method of hair removal that has seen a renewed popularity. While depilatories remove hair at the skin's surface, "epilatories," such as tweezers and waxes, pluck hair from below the surface. Waxing and tweezing may be more painful than using a depilatory, but the results are longer lasting. Because the hair is plucked at the root, new growth is not visible for several weeks after treatment.
Publication Year: 2009
Publication Date: 2009-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 2
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