Adventures in Hair Removal: Nair

by Aimee Amodio | More from this Blogger

15 Jun 2009 02:22 PM

As I said when I broke up with my razor, I want to give a few other methods of hair removal a test run. Today I had my first date with a depilatory cream.

The instructions are easy enough: smear on the cream, wash your hands, and wait. In as little as three minutes (or up to ten minutes) your legs will supposedly be hair free. After that, just wipe away the cream, rinse well, and enjoy your smooth new legs.

Okay, I can do that. I'll even take pictures because I'm sure you want a good look at my hairy legs.

I picked a test zone on my right leg and applied the cream. The waiting was the worst part, I think, because no matter how good my entertainment is, the edge of the tub is NOT a comfy place to hang out. And I don't have a clock in the bathroom, so I had to kind of guess at whether or not it had been long enough.

After my test swipe with the wet washcloth, it seemed I had indeed waited long enough. I was pleasantly surprised at how easily the hair wiped away -- I'd been half convinced that the cream wasn't going to work as advertised. The section of my leg that had the cream on it ended up pretty close to hairless... except for a few places where I hadn't covered the hair as well as I should have.

All in all? I'd probably try this again. It's not the best choice for a day when I'm in a hurry to get through my washing-up, though... not with the three to ten minute wait.

The advantages:

• I got a little quiet time in the bathroom while I waited for my hair to dissolve, or whatever it does. With a good book in hand, the wait really didn't seem very long.
• Since I wasn't doing it in the shower, I had my glasses on and could actually see what I was doing. When I shave in the shower, I'm mostly going by feel.
• We'll see if my legs stay hair-free longer than they would with shaving, as the bottle promises.

The disadvantages:

• The cream definitely has a smell. It's sort of reminiscent of hair dye, sort of like ammonia. It's not overwhelming, but it's not the best thing I've every smelled.
• The waiting. I'm not a patient person, and this would not be my first choice for hair removal if I was in a hurry. Using this as my main hair removal method will require me to plan my beauty time carefully.
• Miss a spot? You've got to go back and do it all over again. If I find a few stray hairs with my razor, it's easy enough to swoop over the spot and clear them. If I miss a spot with the cream, I've got to start at the beginning and wait again. Or shave them, or tweeze them, or find some other way to deal with them.

With practice, I'll probably get better at applying the cream... maybe to the point where missed spots won't be a problem. But this first time out, there's definitely a dividing line between the places I covered and the places I thought I covered, but didn't.

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Aimee is a fiction writer... dog lover... music lover...

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EvaRose (260) 16 Jun 2009 07:27 AM

I'll have to try it, I've always been quite skeptical about it also.

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Aimee Amodio (11995) 18 Jun 2009 01:30 PM

I forgot to mention the BEST advantage of all: no razor burn. That's the whole reason I started on this experiment with hair removal -- to find something that wouldn't wreak havoc with my sensitive skin. I've had NO reaction to the Nair. Yay!

lucy10 (15) 17 Nov 2009 03:46 AM

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