There are many different ways to remove body hair including waxing, tweezing, laser or electrolysis treatments, or applying depilatory products. However, the easiest and least painful way for mens grooming to rid himself of unwanted hair is to shave it off. The chest is a popular area to be shaved and the process requires a bit of care in order to yield the best result.

First, trim the hair using scissors, hair clippers, or a beard trimmer. This will take off the majority of the hair’s length, requiring shaving of only short hairs, thus less frequent clogging of the razor. Get into the shower and rinse off any excess hair trimmings, then wet the chest area so the stubble will be damp prior to shaving.

Grab the shaving cream and apply it to the area, lathering it thickly. Shaving cream is recommended over foams and gels that tend to dry out the skin. Use a razor with new blades in order to achieve the closest shave. Shave the chest in the direction of the hair growth, using short, gentle strokes and then rinse the area thoroughly.

Aftercare is perhaps the most important step in the chest-shaving process. Since the chest area is a relative stranger to shaving, a shaving rash or itchy bumps may develop there. To prevent these nasty side effects, spray the chest with an antiseptic spray or apply rash cream to the area. This will ensure a smooth chest on the beach making your mens swimming trunks look even better!

The hair will inevitably re-grow within a short period. During re-growth, ingrown hairs may develop, which can be quite painful. To prevent these, the chest area should be exfoliated several times per week using a body scrub. The chest area may be re-shaved as necessary in order to maintain a smooth appearance. Shaving requires minimal time and materials and is much less painful than many of the other hair removal methods available today.

When compared to laser hair removal, electrolysis seems primitive. With this technique the hair follicle is essentially electrocuted by a small electric current passing from a wire-thin electrode inserted into each hair follicle, thereby creating enough damage to prevent further growth. Since each hair follicle must be treated individually the technique is quite tedious and sessions take longer than with laser treatment.

Laser hair removal is less painful than electrolysis and the overall cost may be less depending on how large an area needs to be treated. The duration of the treatment period may also differ significantly, with Laser hair removal only requiring 5 to 6 sessions over a 6 month period and electrolysis requiring significantly more sessions over a period lasting up to 4 years. Notably, electrolysis is the only technique approved by the FDA for permanent hair removal and can work with any skin or hair color combination. The choice between Laser Hair Removal and Electrolysis therefore depends on skin and hair color, the cost and duration of the treatment regimen, the patient’s ability to tolerate pain, and concerns over the permanence of hair removal.

These methods are not perfect (no method is) but at least they offer a solution if you can afford the time and the money for them.

Laser or IPL hair removal involves treating the hair with beams of high intensity light. This targets the color pigment in the hair and aims to damage the hair badly enough right down to the follicle so that it will not grow back. It has to make sure that the hair is treated with sufficient power while the surrounding skin is left undamaged however so it is a tricky process. And it means that laser hair removal is much less effective for those with light hair (such as blond, gray or red) or dark skin.

In electrolysis, each hair is treated with a current of electricity by inserting a probe near the base of the hair. The process has the same aim of damaging the hair follicle to such an extent that the hair does not grow back.

When comparing the two methods, laser hair removal is faster than electrolysis as several hairs can be treated at one time whereas with electrolysis each hair has to be treated individually. With electrolysis however you have a proven method of permanent hair removal and with laser hair removal just a proven method of hair reduction which can be significant if you want to be sure no hair will grow back.

The best thing is to use electrolysis for the smaller areas of the body such as the face and try laser hair removal for a larger area such as the legs to give the best combination of time required and effectiveness.

When it comes to hair removal there is not much you can do that is natural apart from having the genes that mean you don’t grow unwanted hair in the first place and we know that not many of us grew up with those!

Or you could leave the hair to grow and just be as natural as you were born but there is not much beauty in hairy legs and a mustache on a girl.

You can shave the hair off your legs, of course, which is a chore but does not involve too much in the way of unnatural sounding processes or harsh chemicals like depilatories but you will have to repeat the process over and over and you will be cursing nature that gave you the hair in the first place.

You can use wonderful smelling wax which has been enriched with natural fragrance and smells wonderful but you will not feel too natural while you are yelping in pain and you will have to repeat the painful procedure every few weeks.

My favorite hair removal method which is the one used by the celebrity “natural beauties” is IPL laser hair removal. There is not much natural in zapping your hair with laser focused waves of light to destroy the hair follicles but after you have had a few sessions you will be able to go about with much reduced hair growth (if not hair free) as if that is the way you had been born. And after that you can tell yourself that you are naturally smooth even if you had to pay dearly for the privilege.

Before:

Avoid exposure to heat, before and after the hair removal. Don’t expose to sunlight either, take saunas or hot baths from one day before to one day after the treatment. The hair removal will be better and spots on the skin will be avoided as well.

Do not use moisturizing creams or oil at least 12 hours before the IPL hair removal process. Although it is important to have hydrated skin to ease the hair removal, the day it will be performed  it’s better to use moisturizing cream after the session. As an alternative talcum powder can be used before the hair removal.

During:

Even though pain with IPL permanent hair removal is minimum and can be easily beared, ice can be applied for both pain andreddening (if they should occur), even if generally there are no problems. Do not apply ice directly on the skin, wrap it up with a cloth before. During the sessions, as the discomfort is very little and only the part of the body to treat is needed by the doctor, you can take advantage of it doing a facial cleansing or manicure.

After:

After removing the hair with IPL, post-depilatory calming cream can be used, there are perfumed or neutral ones. The first can irritate, so be sure before using it.

To obtain a calming effect apply camomile gel, aloe vera or witch hazel, even if it’s an after sun it’s great after an IPL hair removal session. If you want to delay the appearance of regrown hair, use a growth retardant cream, which also has moisturizing and calming agents.

Do exfoliations between sessions of IPL hair removal to avoid that the hair grow towards inside. Use a wash cloth or a cream for exfoliations to eliminate dead cells and regularly a hyper-moisturizing cream to facilitate the growth towards outside. A great home defoliant is bicarbonate.

A word of warning about anesthetic creams:

Recently experts have warned patients about the indiscriminate use of anesthetic creams during IPL laser hair removal sessions. These creams are used in medical treatments and need medical prescription. They’re drugs, generally including a local anesthetic (lidocaine, benzocaine, prilocaine etc.).

There some risks using these creams in IPL permanent hair removal sessions. First of all they could cause a conflict with other drugs (we would like to stress the importance of talking to a doctor and go to a medical center, not an aesthetic one), secondly your body could absorb the cream which may cause serious effects such as irregular heartbeat, respiratory problems, neurological symptoms (convulsions, coma) and even could cause death.