I’d just shave. Those creams take at least 10 min., you have to scrape them off to really get the hair off, and they still seem to leave some hair that you end up having to shave off anyway. Compare that to 3-5 min. of shaving and there is no comparison for your time or your buck. Heck, even if you use Skintimate shaving gels and expensive razors it’s still cheaper than $8 a can Veet that only provides enough for two removals.
I’m confused as to why you’ve let it grow so long if you were just going to Veet or shave it. Since its already so long, it might be a good time to try waxing, although I’d get that professionally done rather than try it myself. There probably won’t be another time when your body hair is an inch long, so you might as well make it worth something.
eleanorigby, I secondFreudian Slit .
Go to a salon. Get your facial hair threaded.
No chemicals, less ouchy than waxing and much quicker.
It’s not pain free, but it’s bearable and, if you get someone who is really good, it will literally take 3 minutes for your whole face. Works really nicely for eyebrow shaping too. You can learn to do it for yourself, but it takes practice to get good. If you have Indian or Middle Eastern female friends they might be able to help you. I got an Indian colleague to teach me one night when it was quiet and we were bored.
Me, I have dark hair and mediterranean skin.
My skin would dissolve way before the hair would with a cream (I’ve had the chemical burn to prove that), I find waxing painful, fiddly and expensive and shaving is quick, cheap and I don’t get ingrown hairs, but I put that down to using Tend Skin.
So it’s threading and plucking for the face, Gilette Venus razor with Tend Skin Air Shave Gel (which smells like feet, but is very good otherwise) to shave with and Tend Skin afterwards for everywhere else.
Well, this just proves the whole “YMMV” thing with regard to hair removal and depilatories. I never have to scrape, they never leave hair behind, and I wouldn’t dream of leaving them on for 10 minutes. Shaving takes me way longer than 3-5 minutes, and the results aren’t as good, even when you don’t consider the skin irritations that I get. (Though I suppose the time it takes to shave all depends on how much and what you’re shaving!) And since Magic Shaving Powder is a hell of a lot cheaper than Veet, the price difference becomes negligible.
Anyway, I’ve often thought that the most reliable route to wealth (and maybe a Nobel Prize) would be to invent a cheap, permanent, pain-free, risk-free, and fast method of hair removal.