Hormone changes often mean hair gets thicker where we don’t want it to grow and thinner where we do. Getting older can also make skin more sensitive and delicate. How you remove hair after 40 may require a rethink. Brown skin? Be careful. Any woman of color who has ever removed an at-home wax strip and had skin peel off along with hairs, leaving an obvious patch of lighter or pink skin knows this: Some methods are more suited to the pros than do-it-yourselfers.
As our skin becomes more delicate with age, an expert touch is essential. So is checking with your doctor before booking services. If you’re using antibiotics, blood thinners or certain retinoids, for instance, you may be advised walk away from the wax salon. If you’re on hormone replacement therapy, have diabetes or are undergoing chemo, also check with your doctor about the safest methods for you. As we get older, we’re more likely to be managing chronic conditions—another reason to retool our grooming routines.
Check reviews or get referrals before stepping into a salon. Sisters must be discerning when it comes to certain services because in the wrong hands, accidents like wax burns can leave behind scarring and hyperpigmentation on brown skin. Sisters asked board-certified dermatologist Jeanine Downie, MD about popular hair removal options.
Shaving
Shaving is the easiest way to remove hair fast! It doesn’t require a great deal of skill, and you can do it in the privacy of your bathroom. What’s not convenient, though, are the razor bumps, nicks and cuts, as well as regrowth that appears in as little as a couple days. For this reason, it’s better to shave areas where hair grows at a slower pace.
Suitable for: Upper lip, toes, in-between brows, legs, armpits—especially if you de-fuzz on your own at home.
Does it last? Shaving is effective for hair removal, you just have to do it every day, according to Dr. Downie, “People don’t want temporary, so therefore they consider it ineffective,” she says.
Pain on a scale of 1-10: 1— Unless you cut yourself by mistake, shaving should be painless.
Cost: Most disposable razors run for as little as a few dollars, though you may have to shell out a little more for higher quality ones that contain moisturizing effects.
Other considerations: “[With shaving], a lot of times the rubbing areas [like] the groin and under the arms [appear] darker due to friction that’s happening,” explains Downie. “You can avoid this by using a sharp blade, a thicker, richer shaving gel and a single or a double-edged razor rather than a triple or a quadruple.”
Plucking
The risks of plucking—dark spots, infection—outweigh its benefits, so it’s best to avoid it altogether. However, if you still decide to pick up tweezers, it should be reserved for the occasional chin hair or that one brow hair stuck in a pesky spot.
Suitable for: That occasional stray hair the wax missed
Does it last? Results from plucking last anywhere from a couple weeks to six, but there's always a chance that the hairs will never grow back if trauma and scarring occurs.