If you are my husband, please don’t read this. Just back away slowly and go play some video games. There are things you don’t need to know :)
Ah, body hair - such a controversial topic. I’ve seen a spike of body positivity campaigns with rainbow colored armpit patches lately and other empowering images. If that’s for you - great! You "do you" and have fun. Personally, I don’t love my own body hair. I’m naturally blonde and not hairy, but there are still some things that I prefer to wax/shave/thread/tweeze and otherwise obliterate.
I have blonde “peach fuzz” above my upper lip that I can’t and won’t make friends with, so I’ve been using little at-home wax strips (these ones) to rip it out every few weeks. It’s painful (but fast) and turns my fair skin a lovely color of a ripe tomato, sometimes for more than a day. I can take the pain, but the more I thought about the process, the more I started wondering if repeat traumatic skin procedures would actually do some long term damage. After all, I always nag my husband to not pull down his skin when he wipes his face, not to raise his eyebrows, etc., but isn’t waxing much more traumatic than that? Plus, the process would still leave some pesky hairs behind. Hmm…
Ok, so what are my options, then? Threading is just as traumatic, plus even more painful and expensive. Hair removal creams are a no go for me - after a very unfortunate upper thigh Nair incident in high school, I won’t risk it again. Bleaching is pointless - I’m already blonde and I don’t like the feeling of the fuzz, the color is irrelevant. Sigh… Well, sounds like time for some facial razors!
I grew up thinking that shaving makes the hair grow back thicker. Turns out, that’s not true (the blunt edges can make it feel thicker but that’s just an illusion). I also talked to some women who currently shave their upper lips and they all confirmed that it doesn’t grow back weird, doesn’t look like a stubble, and doesn’t come back as fast as men's stubble does.
There are many facial razors, but I settled on Shiseido ones available on eBay and Amazon. They come in a pack of three in the “feminine” pink… I hate pink, but ok, I can overlook that if the product is fantastic.
The first time I tried using them on dry skin. DO NOT do that. It’s not pleasant and doesn’t get the hair off very well. Since then, I’ve perfected the technique - I use this cleansing cream while telling myself it’s ok to shave my face and it takes me probably fewer than two minutes total. The skin is soft and smooth, no redness, no irritation, no pain. Oh, before you ask “can you just use a normal leg razor or your husband’s facial razor?”, the answer is “no”. Speaking from experience, it’s not precise and not very gentle. Just don’t.
Some ladies shave their whole face, including the forehead, but I don’t do that. I have a bit of peach fuzz on my cheeks but it’s so insignificant and not at all noticeable that I just leave it alone. So I can’t speak about that usage for the razors, but they work amazingly for the lips. And sure, the effect doesn’t last as long as waxing, but it also doesn’t unnecessarily stretch out my skin. I can go about 10 days between touch ups. The hair grows back exactly the same as it does after waxing - it doesn’t feel or look like a stubble and is not thicker. With wax, I would sometimes get pimples from the irritation or the hair growing in, but I have no such issues with the razors. Each blade can easily last me 4+ times, so more than a month.
I was hoping to use the razors to also maintain my brows between threading sessions, and to tame my husband’s impressive caterpillars (he hates wax with a passion), but I wasn’t successful. I had a hard time maneuvering the blade, plus it doesn’t work on dry skin. So, I guess tweezers it is for me (wax breaks me out).
In short, the benefits of facial razors:
Fast
Painless
No skin trauma
Cheap
The drawbacks:
Overcoming social stigma that facial shaving is only for men
Not for eyebrows (maybe some other kinds would work for that)
The pink color :)
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