I wear a goatee, but my whiskers come in more fully on one side, so I’m always having to trim that part back. Besides which, I want an overall neat appearance to the beard, so I still need to shave my cheeks and the rear half of my chin every morning. So it occurred to me, since women have themselves waxed to avoid constant shaving, couldn’t I have my face waxed, and not have to shave?
Would waxing just not work for male facial hair, or is it something most men just wouldn’t think of?
Wax? From what little i know of waxing, which is entirely based on Howard Stern interviews of hot chicks, waxing only lasts a couple weeks. I think you’re thinking of electrolysis, which may or may not be available for men’s faces.
A lot of beards are made of very coarse and very smooth/slick hair (compare to leg hair), so I imagine the wax may not grasp the hair well. You also have to have it grow out a lot.
Now I am just giving my opinion. I don’t know for sure.
Odds are your facial hair is thicker and denser than the hair that is generally otherwise beign waxed. Also, it is on your face, which is made of very flexible skin. Thirdly, the hairs in your face seem to have MUCH deeper roots than the hairs in your legs. Try pulling one hair out of a cheek and one hair out of a leg and compare. This last is very important. I do not know if it would be possible for the average man to wax his face. The hair may just be held in too strong.
Sometimes my girlfriend annoys me by biting a single hair on my chin. When I escape by yanking my head away from her the pain is intense. I have plucked every kind of hair on my body and facial hair is in a league of it’s own when it comes to pain and reluctance to leave it’s home. I truly believe that if wax was able to grip tightly enough to every hair on a cheek (and I don’t think it could) then you might end up ripping your cheek off.
Some women wax to remove facial hair, typically on their upper lips, chin, and eyebrow areas. So it should be possible, in theory. But it HOITS. The main reason women wax those hairs instead of shaving is because stubble on a woman’s face is not only unattractive but extremely embarrassing.
If your beard grows fast, you will need to wax often. I can’t say how often because I’ve never heard of anyone waxing his beard. Also bear in mind, if stubble bothers you, that you will need to let the stubble grow a bit before waxing - it’s purely a mechanical process, ripping the little hairs out of their folicles, and the wax has to have something to hold on to.
If you decide to do this, have a buddy record your howls of pain, purely in the interest of science, of course.
waxed (plucked) hair grows back relatively quickly, albeit slightly thinner each time it is plucked. Electrlysis is not permanent either but can last weeks to months depending on the thickness and type of hair. What you want if you want permanent hair removal is laser hair removal - its permanent or semi-permanent but fairly expensive.
It’s worth considering that while you’re happy with yout goatee now you might look pretty odd with it when you’re 85, so maybe permanent isn’t the way to go anyway
Like Cisco said, you would look “too groomed.” The bare areas would look like a child’s skin, not shaven, since the hair will have been pulled out and the replacement hair is much thinner.
Might I suggest an alternative. I’m a goatee-wearin’ fellow myself. I roomed years ago with an african-american guy. He had hellacious razor bumps. ( There’s a word for that problem and I apologize for not knowing the proper phrase but you know what I’m talking about ).
He used a seriously strong depilatory creme. He’d mix it with water, make a paste, and brush it onto his face. God, it was the closest “shave” in history. It dissolved the hairs, right into the skin layer. He said it was good for quite a while.
I had to use that stuff once, and because of where it was applied on my body, someone else had to apply it. :eek: It burned a bit, but I was indeed hairless to the last. It took a darned long time for the hairs to grow back…uh…there.
Cartooniverse, using a Mach 3 shaver and pleased with the results.
He probably used Magic Shave Powder. It’s a girl’s secret weapon for the bikini area. If you try it, do a patch test first in an inconspicuous place (like the inside of an elbow) to make sure you don’t have some sort of nasty reaction to it.
Wow would waxing hurt, if you did it on your face.
I wax my legs with no problems. I tried doing my underarms once (which I think has similar, deeply rooted hair as a man’s face) and it hurt so bad I couldn’t go through with it.
There is a significant difference between a woman’s facial hair and a man’s. Men have thicker, denser, stronger hair that is a lot less easy to remove. Thus, I do not think the same methods would work.
I’ve only ever used it at the fringes. The depilitories marked to women always strongly caution against using them on the “sensitive tissues”. Personally, I wouldn’t try it…
I heard about a meticulous guy who had electrolysis done on his facial hair. This was on TV maybe 7 - 10 years ago. IIRC he had small areas done and was “worked on” weekly. Once the first pass was complete, they went back and got hairs that regrew.
That’s actually very odd to say. First, (professional) electrolysis is generally considered the “gold standard” of permanent hair reduction, with generally the highest rate of permanent removal.
Second, the effectiveness of laser varies tremendously, depending upon your hair type, skin type, the laser type, skin thickness, fluence level, and number of treatments. Third, laser generally can be less expensive for clearing large areas than electrolysis - laser is sometimes used to “beat back” a heavy growth of hair, so that the troublesome hairs that don’t die off can then be electrolyzed out.
Both laser and electrolysis do give a “natural” look, since in both cases you are generally attacking the terminal hairs, which are the thick, heavily pigmented ones. The fine velus hairs generally are not impacted by laser, and few would waste time electrolyzing them.
Being a fellow, I lack this oyster shell. However, I realize I was a bit disingenuous up there. Apologies. The stuff was used on my lower back, but only the back area and nothing…lower down. It was in preparation for surgery.
It burned badly enough on that part of my skin that frankly I cannot imagine applying it anywhere near my delicate tissues. As for the fact that it may well have been Magic Powder that my friend used, my gosh- he used it on his face !! Near his EYES. Incredible that he can do so and not risk injury to his eyes from the vapors. I don’t remember if he had to cover them once applying, whilst waiting for the timer bell to ring. Hmmm. You’d think I would remember being in a motel room with a man I barely knew who was stark naked, face covered with caustic chemicals, wearing a wrap around his upper face.
