Hair removal is not exactly a fun and luxurious beauty treatment — it can be costly, and it can often leave behind red skin irritation. As an Italian woman, it's been a constant chore that I've had to face since the age of 11 years old.
There are the obvious methods of hair removal [1] for the standard lip, brow, and chin strands. You can spend time and money at a salon to great results, and many try all different methods at home [2], including shaving, waxing [3], or tirelessly plucking with a magnifying mirror.
As a working makeup artist, I've noticed that makeup application can prove tricky when there's peach fuzz on the face. When bronzer in particular is applied to the hollow of the cheek and jawline, it can look muddy and uneven when there is hair in the way.
This very fine hair growth can be found on the jawline and chin and is hard to remove. I have never wanted to wax my whole face. I feel like I will create yet another beauty maintenance task that will become overbearing.
I tried threading the area, which resulted in tiny red bumps all along my chin and hairline. I attempted bleaching the hairs, however, this simply results in a white/blond beard that is just as disturbing as the black beard in certain lighting.
So what's a girl to do?
I mentioned my dilemma to my facialist. "Oh, just use Nair Face," she said casually, as though the world knew about this secret from the 1950s.
"What? Nair — my face?" I asked with horror.
"Yes! It will get rid of everything and your skin will be totally smooth and perfect," she said matter-of-factly.
When I was growing up, Nair was a popular way to groom unwanted leg or bikini line hair. It also works well on arms or any other area that shouldn't have unsightly hair. Since then, hair removal has become a booming industry. Nowadays, a woman can get sugared, threaded, waxed, dermaplaned, or plucked into hairless perfection. The thought never crossed my mind to "Nair" my face.
I ventured into the hair-removal aisle warily at my local drugstore, not really even believing that such a product existed. Lo and behold, there it was, for a mere $4 [4]. I was still a bit skeptical but I made the purchase and brought it home and tried it out. What happened next was absolute magic.
It was like an amazing gift from the olden days.
Here I was waxing and threading and bleaching like a fool, when all along, there was this amazing depilatory face cream just waiting for me. The amount of peach fuzz that came off was alarming. The cream was gentle and hydrating, and my face felt like baby skin. I examined the ingredients and found almond oil and baby oil were main ingredients, which explained why my skin was so soft.
My first test was to look at my face in the most evil of all mirrors. The rear-view mirror in my car in the blazing sunshine showed not one hair on my face.
Next I applied my bronzer and contour. My makeup went on my skin seamlessly without one imperfection. I had no idea just how much those little fuzzy hairs had been disrupting my gorgeous makeup application. The makeup brush glided across my cheekbones and deposited color more evenly than ever before. Also, the texture of my skin was so soft and smooth that it looked absolutely perfect.
It did tingle a bit and it did seem to lighten my skin in areas (you always want to make sure to do a patch test to make sure you're not allergic), but both of those cons were not relevant compared to the unbelievable plusses of smooth hairless skin.
This trick is a way to instantly transform your face. Even if you feel like you have just light peach fuzz that isn't that bad — seeing is believing.
Nair your face today and thank me later.