The War on Hair

A woman's war against hair is often a long and bloody one. What to use and where? Hair-dissolving creams that are supposed to smell of roses but really don't? Epilating with tweezers (a life's work)? Waxing (don't try this at home alone if you don't want to spend two hours scraping dried wax off your furniture and out of the hair you didn't want to get rid of)? Or just resort to good old shaving? I'm not particularly adept at shaving (thankfully I am not a boy because my face would be incessantly covered in scabs and bits of tissue). I can't shave my legs without slashing myself and in other more sensitive areas my skin objects to the blade with a painful rash which ultimately looks much worse than the hair I was trying to get rid of in the first place. Then I moved to the Pijnackerstraat and found myself living above a beauty salon that offered an alternative.

During a visit there for a leg wax (an expensive, somewhat painful but less bloody alternative to the ankle-slashing I'd been doing in the shower) the owner, Doris told me about I.P.L. which stands for Intense Pulse Light. It's a relatively new method for permanent hair removal. It's not laser but intense light and it zapps the hair folicle at the root - killing it. You are only eligible if you have a relatively pale skin and dark hairs because the zapp looks for contrast between the skin and the hairs... or something like that. Anyway, I opted for permanent nicely trimmed bikini line IPL and recently had my 5th zapping session.

Doris and I adorn Elvis-'76 looking protective goggles and then she zapps the relevant areas with a 2x5cm thingymygig. It does actually hurt quite a bit, but not like waxing (the only time I ever waxed my bikini line I walked around like a Neanderthal for two days - not something I will ever do again). After a zapp-session nothing much changes but within about two weeks when hair starts growing back it's much softer and there's less of it after every session. Doris thinks I'll be done in another 3-4 sessions. I hope so coz it costs a pretty packet too.

The sessions need to be at least 3 months apart so I won't be able to tell you if it has worked 100% until at least a year from now, but I am pleased with it so far and it beats waxing (see video below).