itsybitsysissy: Ultimate Guide to Hair Removal & Skin Care I promised to write one guide eac
itsybitsysissy: Ultimate Guide to Hair Removal & Skin Care I promised to write one guide each month and I plan on keeping this promise even if I don’t have a lot of time on my computer at the moment. I’m traveling alot this summer and don’t always have my computer with me and if I do I don’t always have connectivity. I’m already leaving again today and am buisy packing right now, so this time I’m only releasing the text and will add pictures later. Let’s start with a short List of Hair Removal Methods:1. Cutting 1a. Shaving 2b. Alternatives2. Corroding or Burning 2a. Depilatory Cream 2b. Fire3. Ripping 3a. Cold Wax 3b. Hot Wax 3c. Tweezers 3d. Epilator4. Annihilating 4a. Intense Pulsed Light 4b. Laser The methods listed above are pretty much ordered from cheapest (per session) to most expensive, from least to most long-lasting and at the same time from what most sissies try first to what they try last.So let’s just go through them in that order: 1. Shaving Have you ever shaved your whole body? Maybe you are still afraid of what people will thing if they see your shaved legs and arms?No problem, take it slow and do what feels comfortable. Try keeping your beard shaved and shave some parts where you don’t have a lot of hair anyway, so nobody will notice.That’s actually a good way to get a feel for shaving your body. If you shaved your whole body all at once without knowing what to expect you may have signed up for a couple of really uncomfortable hours or even days. So how do you keep your skin from itching after shaving? There are many reasons for the itching: 1) Skin Irritations - those are tiny cuts that you can see as red dots. To prevent them from happening only use fresh blades instead of re-using a disposable razor. 2) Germs - Even if you use fresh blades you’ll always have a few tiny wounds after shaving or even just open pores where germs can enter. So it’s very important to clean the skin and the blade before and after shaving. The best method is usually simply by showering or cleaning the relevant area of the skin with water and soap. Alkohol-containing aftershaves have a good germicidal effect, but alcohol can also cause rashes for some people. In general it’s best to use remedies with natural ingredients.Also and this is very important for all hair removal methods: Don’t use any creams, especially the fatty kind for a day or so after removing your hair. Creams will cram your pores and that compromises your skin’s ability to protect itself from germs. You’ll get lots of ugly pimples as a result.For the same reason don’t wear tight clothes and generally avoid sweating after hair removal. 3) Allergies - Some people have rashes after shaving. A little rash can be normal, but you may consider that it could be an allergic reaction to some ingredient to something you use. So try once with just soap or even just water and see if it makes a difference. 4) Ingrown hair - If you cut off the hair at or below skin level it can curl back and grow inwards. This is more than just an annoyance. It can be really painful, take a long time to undo and be a gateway for local infections. 4a) Preventing ingrown hair - Shaving technique is important. Use enough shaving cream, don’t apply a lot of force while shaving and be extra cautious in areas where you have fatty skin or where you had ingrown hair before. If you identified an area where you tend to have ingrown hair be extra gentle there, try only shaving with the grain (against the grain cuts the hair shorter, so in areas where you don’t have such problems this is better for optical reasons - e.g. beard) or try using a trimmer at the lowest setting instead of shaving at skin level. 4b) Treating ingrown hair - First off: Don’t shave over areas where you currently have ingrown hairs and don’t try to treat ingrown hair where you just shaved. Let your skin rest a bit.Now if you recently shaved, but let your skin rest - e.g. over night - you can use a loofa sponge or similar to exfoliate areas where you may get ingrown hair (or already have but don’t see yet).Once a hair grew in a bit you’ll see it as a dark dot, often surrounded by red skin and sometimes elevated or in combination with a pimple. At that time exfoliating is too late. Instead use clean tweezers or a needle to remove it.If you can’t handle it by yourself don’t hesitate to go to a dermatologist. What are the pros and cons of shaving compared to other methods? Pros:It’s cheap (per session), it’s fast if you only do small areas, it works everywhere though you’ll have to have a clear vision of the area to shave it thoroughly and last but not least: shaving can be combined with every other method.Cons:It has the shortest-lasting effect, you produce a lot of waste, you’ll always have a beard shadow What about alternative ways to cut your hair? The only alternative really worth mentioning is cutting your hair with a beard trimmer or hair cutting machine.You’ll always find alternatives in the market that promise better effects, but they usually come and go. If they were any good they would last. So check them out thoroughly before you fall for a marketing scheme: are there many reviews? since when does the product exist? do you constantly need to buy refills/new blades/whatever? … 2. Depilatory Cream Important: Some people don’t tolerate some ingredients of depilatory cream. So apply in a small area first and wait a day to make sure you don’t have allergic or similar reactions. Pros and cons compared to shaving: Depilatory Cream is the next level after shaving. Effects last a bit longer, it usually hurts a bit more, it’s a bit faster for large areas but not as thorough (you may still have to shave off some remaining hair), it has the same side-effects, maybe slightly more frequently and just like shaving it has no permanent effect. Also like shaving you can combine it with other methods.A big difference to shaving is that the hairs are not cut off to form a pointed end but corroded off irregularly this has the great advantage that you don’t feel the hair growing back as much as after shaving, but at the same time it’s a greater risk for ingrown hair. Are there special things to consider for aftercare? Yes! Depilatory cream contains chemicals that hurt your skin, so be sure to let your skin relax before aftercare. Take a quick shower to remove the cream (don’t use anything but water or a very sensitive soap), dry yourself off gently and then just lay down for an hour or so in your freshly made bed.After that if you still feel some burning or itching apply aloe vera to the affected areas. Again, don’t use any fatty creams. In fatty or sweaty areas instead use baby-powder, chalk or rhassoul.Wait at least 24 hours before even thinking about exfoliating or peeling. Burning instead of corroding? You can reach similar effects as with depilatory cream with fire. It too removes the hair at or slightly below skin level.It hurts more while doing, but has fewer side-effects. You can’t do it everywhere it’s better for some small areas and it is a bit risky so do it with caution.First shorten your hair then take your lighter and get into position: Everything from the lighter upwards will be hot and burn, so come to the area you want to burn from the side and make sure nothing is above it (especially not your head!).Only hold each part of the skin to the fire for a very short time and have cold water nearby to cool it off.Oh and do all that with an open window - this will stink up your place a lot. 3. Ripping out your hair Wax, tweezers and an epilator - with those three tools you can litterally rip out individual hairs (or many at once) out of your skin. Pros and cons, efficiency: The efficiency of these methods is highly dependable on your technique. Take a pair of tweezers for example and try to rip out some individual hairs. You’ll notice that some hair come out with some jelly-like substance stuck to their inner-end. That is (part of) the hair follicle.Ripping out hair by their follicles means it will take a long time until they grow back (but they will some day), while every hair you rip out without removing or at least damaging the follicle only takes a few hours longer to grow back than hair cut with a razor.So in other words the efficiency depends on what percentage of the hair you rip out comes with the jelly-substance. There may be areas of your body where one or the other methods work best Pros and cons - compared to other methods: Ripping out hair is more painful and comes with more side effects than shaving and using depilatory cream. It can be combined with the former, but not with Laser methods.The epilator works fastest, but also hurts the most and it won’t be very effective if you constantly twitch from pain.Tweezers are great for very small areas as they can be very effective but even small areas take up a long time.Waxing (yourself) is a great method if you’d rather endure some short moments of intense pain than the constant pain of using an epilator. A downside of waxing though is that it’s quite sticky and messy and you may have some wax left stuck on you somewhere even after taking a shower. Skin Care after Ripping out your hair The same rules apply as after shaving or using depilatory cream, but you may additionally want to consider rash cream. Ripping out hair can leave small lesions and the faster they heal the lower the chances of them getting infected.Take the rest of your day off and just relax and let your skin rest. Don’t break a sweat and don’t get in contact with anything unhygienic like pool-water or worn clothes. 4. Intense Pulsed Light Warning IPL and Laser only work for dark hair and light skin! Buying an Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) Machine is probably the best method other than having your hair removed professionally by laser.I won’t go into technical details, but IPL is basically very similar to laser only it’s not as strong (lower power per second) and therefore safe® to use yourself. But do read the safety instructions! How to use it: Before using your IPL machine you already remove all visible hair, to avoid a) burining your skin and b) wasting energy on the outer parts of your hair.This way IPL doesn’t really hurt very much. Most machines have an intensity regulator so you can shoot more or less energy at once at a certain area. The more energy you use the more effective, but then again shooting lower energy pulses with some pauses in between to let your skin cool off can be even better. Pros & Cons: So all in all IPL is definitely less painful than an epilator and more painful than shaving or using depilatory cream.It’s the first method so far that has any significant long therm effect (some removed hair can grow back, but some will be gone forever or weakened). Side effects are actually lower than any method I described before, unless you burn yourself. And it can be combined with anything but ripping. 5. Laser Why you should save up for laser Laser hair removal is the most effective by far. It’s very expensive and it takes many long and painful sessions, but even after a few you’ll see a significant difference.If you don’t think you’ll ever be able to afford to have all your body lasered then at least save up for beard-laser removal (it’s the only good method for your beard) and maybe some other small areas where other methods fail (like your bikini-zone). How to prepare for laser hair removal If you saved up enough money there are a few things you should know before your first session: Don’t go into the sun! Laser hair removal is best started in fall when your summer-skin-color starts to fade. The laser will not only attack your hair but also the dark pigments in your skin. So the paler you are the more effective and the less painful the laser will be Don’t rip out your skin! Laser only works for hair in a certain stage of growth which your hair will not be in if you recently used an epilator, wax or tweezers. Shave your body thoroughly the day before each session! The laser will burn every part of dark hair on your body. If you have hair that is over your skin it will burn your skin, hurt more than it has to and maybe even leave ugly skars Don’t use any creams, makeup or similar. Come as you are. Follow the rules the laser institute tells you! They are the experts, so trust them. There are different kinds of lasers and they do evolve so some of the tips I give you may not be correct for some lasers your institute may use. So do what they say! Pros & Cons of Laser Hair Removal Laser is the most expensive, most painful and most effective hair removal method. But some of that is relative. E.g. if you are young and have your hair removed permanently now for a lot of money it may still be cheaper in the long run than shaving every other day for the rest of your life. Also about the pain: I always consider pain you inflict to yourself harder to endure than pain inflicted by others. I can’t really wax or epilate myself because in the moment of pain I flinch away, but laying still while someone shoots me with lasers is ok.Also there are basically no side effects. The day after your session you can have an itchy rash (only treat it with alow very - no cream), but there are no ingrown-hair and no moment when a lot of hair painfully grow back at the same time. 6. Hormones! Usually when you search for hair removal methods you won’t find a reference to taking hormones. Only if - like in this case - the target audience includes trans woman or if it includes women with hirsutism.But estrogens and anti-androgens have a lot of effects and a more feminine hair-distribution is one of them. What can/can’t hormones do? Effects are different for every individual. Some trans women have basically no more visible hair on large portions of their body during hormone therapy, while others, just like some genetic women, still do have a lot of visible hair on some parts. So do expect to have: less hair on your body a different (probably less hairy) intimate hair coat to pay less for laser hair removal after hrt But don’t expect: never to having to shave again if you only do hormones or to loose your beard Other relevant effects:among many many effects of hormones, the following are also relevant to this guide: they can stop hair-loss on your head your skin will get thinner and cleaner I’ll write more about all the other effects of hormone replacement therapy in a future guide. 7. Skin Care So I already wrote all about hair-removal-after-care, but to live up to the title of this guide I’ll write down what else I know about skin care: 1. Know your skin type. This is the first thing to do before thinking of developing a skin care regime and buying all kinds of creams and lotions. There is oily, dry and combination (or normal) skin. Find a good guide on the internet or ask your dermatologist if you can’t figure it out on your own.Basically all skin products are made for one or two of these types. Some can be used by all. 2. Clean yourself Cleaning your skin regularly will help prevent most skin issues and it’s the easiest thing to do. Just use water and maybe a little soap.Excessive cleaning can be bad too though - it can hurt and dry out your skin - so don’t overdo it, don’t use strong cleaning lotions and no scrubs. 3. Less is more This philosophy can be applied in two ways: Less (and more natural) ingredients in your products mean less unwanted side effects and the fewer products you use the more they can unfold their individual effects.You don’t need to combine cleaning, anti-aging, andi-oxidant, anti-acne, moisturizing, drying, anti-inflammatory and relaxing effects all at once, or none of them will really work. 4. Only you are you! There are millions of skin care guides out there that all promise you’ll look like a superstar, but stay vague about who the guide will work for.Every person is individual and every skin is different. Find out for yourself which products work well for you and never expect wondrous results. 5. Hormones (again) I’ll have to mention hormones again, because their plant-based versions - Phytohormones - are great ingredients if you want to feminize your skin. You may have tried phytohormones as nutritional substitutes and found they are not very effective, but when it comes to skin care, they work quite well.As I mentioned before hormones have feminizing effects on the skin, so using them directly on the skin can be very beneficial. After shave is an example for a product that greatly benefits from phytohormones as ingredients. They will keep your skin from producing too much fat, so your pores won’t clog and you don’t get acne. But every efect comes with side effects, so make sure to moisturize a while later if your skin gets too dry. As always bookmark the following post to check for updates: http://itsybitsysissy.tumblr.com/post/157029886390/ Please support me via patreon.com so I can create more guides. Supporters will get exclusive previews whenever I finished a chapter -- source link