Many women are embarrassed by having too much hair. Excess body hair can be most easily removed by shaving, but razors can can make it difficult to reach some spots, and shaving often causes irritation. Lasers and electrolysis can also be used. But these can be expensive, and they also often cause unwanted side effects.

Excess facial hair is especially troubling and most hair removal creams, called depilatories, can have unpleasant side effects. Depilatories work by breaking down the hair’s protein structure, so that the hair comes out of the skin easily when you rub off the cream, but they can also hurt your skin.

A different approach to unwanted hair, at least on the face and under the chin, is to use a cream that can actually inhibit the growth of hair so that the issue of removing it does not arise.

Vaniqa is a cream that works in a different way to depilatories. Instead of destroying hair and risking damage to the skin, Vaniqa targets the growth mechanism of hair, acting to block essential elements the follicles need to engender growth. In this way, Vaniqa can actually prevent the growth of new hair. This approach is likely to be longer lasting that just using depilatories.

To find out more about Vaniqa, click here.

How Depilatory Creams Work
Depilatories are usually available as creams, but they also can come as gels, lotions, aerosols or roll-ons. Once rubbed or sprayed onto the skin, they break down the chemical bonds in the hairs’ protein, known as keratins. This makes the hair so weak that it falls out of its follicle.

Benefits of Depilatory Creams
The first obvious benefit of using depilatories versus other treatments is likely to be the price. Depilatory creams are considerably cheaper than most other approaches. Also, unlike waxing, the method is relatively pain-free so long as you follow the directions carefully. The skin can benefit too because as the hair is rubbed off the skin underneath is exfoliated. So when you have finished, your skin will be both hairless and freshened because the top layer of cells will have been painlessly removed. Finally, hair removal creams act deeply removing the hair from below the skin’s surface, so hair regrowth is slower. Typically, creams can get rid of hair for a week, which is less time than waxing, but more than shaving.

Problems with Depilatory Creams
Using depilatories can cause some small problems and one potentially big problem. The small problems include messiness and uneven application which can result in some spots being hairless while others are still hairy. The potentially big problem is caused by the harsh chemicals that dissolve hair. They can irritate or burn skin and cause allergic reactions. Just like hair, skin contains keratin which is the protein targeted by the alkaline chemicals in depilatories. For this reasons, these creams need to be tested carefully before use.