# Hair removers **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 24, 1999, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hair-removers/2200 "1999-07-24T01:35:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 1999, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hair-removers/2200/1 "1999-07-24T01:35:00Z")
How do hair removers like Nair work? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 1999, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hair-removers/2200/2 "1999-07-25T18:09:00Z")
Don’t know. I perfer a tomahawk! ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 1999, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hair-removers/2200/3 "1999-07-26T02:57:00Z")
## Geez-- wouldn’t a better question be “How do these products stay on the market when they DON’T work?” * * * –Rowan Shopping is still cheaper than therapy. --my Aunt Franny ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 1999, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hair-removers/2200/4 "1999-07-26T04:37:00Z")
I dunno Rowan… when I was a tyke, I put some Nair on my arm and all the hair came off in a neat strip. No idea how it works though, but sure enough, the hair just wiped right off. Some sort of hair root eating chemical? * * * “I guess it is possible for one person to make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.” ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 1999, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hair-removers/2200/5 "1999-07-26T11:11:00Z")
I haven’t read the ingredients on a bottle of Nair (though I will next time I go to the store), but I believe they use a solution of a strong base (as opposed to acid). Basic solutions like sodium hydroxide or calcium hydroxide are well known to destroy hair and grease. They are often used to unclog drains. Could someone check the bottle and see if some kind of “… hydroxide” is present? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 1999, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hair-removers/2200/6 "1999-07-26T12:19:00Z")
Lori:How do hair removers like Nair work? * * * ## …by smelling so awful, the hair just curls up and dies!! “There will always be somebody who’s never read a book who’ll know twice what you know.” - D.Duchovny ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 1999, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hair-removers/2200/7 "1999-07-28T03:36:00Z")
I checked a bottle of the stuff it has calcium hydroxide, calcium thrioglycolate, sodium thioglycolate and some other stuff I can pronounce like aloe and lanolin. I just curious, hence my earlier post, because I’m house sitting and found a bottle of it near the tub. I wondered if it worked and if so how. It just seems like a strange little concoction, but then again I grew up using razors. What surprised me were the number of warnings and “don’t use here” in fine print on the back. It looked pretty scary so I stuck it under the sink and just hope it doesn’t crawl back out on its own. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 1999, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hair-removers/2200/8 "1999-07-29T03:28:00Z")
From a Q&A website by Alice at Columbia [www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/0506.html]– “Depilatories cause hair to disintegrate while leaving the roots intact. Depilatories thus permit hair regrowth. By disintegrating chemical bonds in the hair shaft, a depilatory turns your hair into a gelatinous mass, which is then wiped away. Because these agents dissolve protein, they also affect the skin and can irritate if left on too long. Two types of depilatories are available-- the sulfide types are more effective, but their odor is pungent and they are more irritating. The thioglycolate types must be left on longer, but they are more easily perfumed and are not so irritating.” It’s true! They smell so bad, the hairs curl up and die. As I recall from adolescent experiments, Nair struck me as one of the foulest-smelling mixtures of rotten eggs and tea rose I had ever encountered.