Prepping skin for hair removal cream

Summer time is here and so is the need for many women to keep on top of the hair removal routine. Whether you shave, wax or use a depilatory cream, it’s good to have a little skin preparation routine that means that while you get rid of pesky hairs, you keep the skin soft and healthy. (Thanks to Squidboots on Reddit for the tips).

Step One: Cleanse

Having clean skin is crucial to preventing infections. Period. With all forms of hair removal, there is a risk of infection. Shaving involves the use of a sharp instrument to remove hair, and there is invariably a risk of cutting the skin with that instrument. Epilation involves ripping out the hair and, in the process, the creation of a small wound.

The easiest way to cleanse your skin is to shower. As you will see below, showering and hair removal really go hand-in-hand, and so I strongly encourage any hair removal to take place in a shower or immediately after a shower. Good old soap or body wash does the job just fine.

Some methods don’t really lend themselves to this (in-salon waxing, for example), but that doesn’t mean that cleansing shouldn’t take place. At the very least, an alcohol swab should be used to disinfect the skin prior to hair removal.

Step Two: Exfoliate

Removal of excess dead skin, or exfoliation, is crucial not only to successful hair removal with shaving or epilation, but also crucial to prevent ingrown hairs after the hair begins to grow back. There are two kinds of exfoliants: chemical and mechanical/physical. Chemical exfoliants are typically acids and can be super useful for keeping your skin healthy if your body has a difficult time keeping the skin cell conveyor belt moving. Chemical exfoliants, however, should not be used for hair removal, as these are specifically intended to aid in skin cell turnover over time or for dramatic resurfacing peels – not for the gentle, acute exfoliation required for hair removal. You want to stick to mechanical/physical exfoliants.

For best results, exfoliation should take place in the shower.

Step Three: Use a post-treatment

The skin needs to be cared for after hair removal. Guinot Epil Fresh – After Hair Removal Soothing Treatment is the latest professional product introduced to the Epil Confort collection. Its soothing, purifying active ingredients make it the perfect post-hair removal product for aestheticians. One of its ingredients, Alpha Bisabolol, is a powerful active extracted from Chamomile, soothes and reduces redness and irritation.

Benefits:

– Cools and calms the skin.

– Eases irritations.

– Removes wax residue.

– Leaves skin softer and silkier.

The combination of different esters easily dissolves wax residue for instantly soft, fresh skin. The anti-microbial properties cleanse, purify, and refresh the area where Epil Fresh is applied. Use along with Serum Epil Confort for its anti-hair regrowth properties.