You have hair in the last place you want it - on your face! And how do you plan to zap off all that ugly fuzz? Mom tells you to leave it alone, friends insist you get satiny and smooth and granny tells you to try out her traditional ubtan. Still in a quandary? Maybe a lowdown on facial hair just might help clear a few misconceptions.Facial hair could be hereditary owning to genes, or because of a hormonal imbalance. Living in a tropical country like India could also stimulate hair growth as could prolonged stress. Now we come to dealing with the problem. You could tweeze it. Though inexpensive, it is painful, time-consuming and temporary and not really suitable for excessive facial hair. One must be careful also to use a sharp-eyed tweezer.Threading involves using a twisted loop of thread to pull out whole rows of hair. It is faster than tweezing, quite inexpensive and gives you a clean feeling all over. The cons are that you inadvertently pull out fine downy hair too, so re-growth is thicker. It can also cause ingrowth. Waxing pulls hair out from the roots. Though an effective way to depilate yourself, as it lasts between three to six weeks it can be a little expensive as well as painful. Also hair has to be left to grow until its long enough to be waxed again. Instead of cold wax, use paraffin based wax known in India as Katori wax which has zero moisture and so is less likely to cause infection.Bleaching is a another way of camouflaging facial hair and does not deal with hair removal. There are three kinds of bleaches, the home bleach which is made of milk powder, hydrogen peroxide and ammonia. This is considered to be the least harmful if you know how to prepare it. Powder bleach is made by mixing liquid hydrogen peroxide and ammonia, while cream bleaches are readily available in the market. Though easy to use they are most harmful. While bleaching results last between two to six weeks it makes hair more brittle and does not work on coarse hair.Electrolysis, uses a needle which is inserted along the hair shaft and an electric current is passed through, to inactivate it. After this the hair is gently cased out of the follicide. Though time consuming and expensive it is a permanent method. Can be quite painful, and if done by an inept person can cause scars and pits. Also be careful of infection and carry you own needle. In thermolysis instead of an electric current a galvanic current is passed.Today hair abroad is removed through a laser (pulsed light beam). The process is as painless as a rubber band snapping against your skin. After three or four sessions paced over a year, pesky hair follicles may be eliminated altogether. No cheap fix method this and would make quite a hole in your pocket, besides it is not available in India today. Depilatory creams may be easy to use, but are the worst method of hair removal. Not only does the hair come out fast and thick, the chemicals in the cream can burn the skin.The best method of course is the traditional use of an ubtan made of wheat flour, oatmeal and gramflour in equal quantities and mixed in lemon juice to form a thick paste which should be left on for about 10 minutes till half dry. Rub off in circular motions and wash off with tepid water. Done regularly it will reduce growth over a period of time provided hair is not coarse. So now that you've got the general know-how on facial hair, go ahead and tackle it!
