Cultural beauty standards encourage permanent body hair removal
By Nate Karlin,special to Jayplay
When Nicky Mitchell raised her arms in the locker room to take off her shirt and put on her basketball jersey, the other girls jokingly reminded her that she forgot to shave her armpits. The Lydon senior tried to laugh it off by joking back, but those embarrassing reminders and comments would continue until her 19th birthday.Although she shaved every morning, Mitchell's hair quickly grew back. By the time she put on her jersey for an early-evening game, her teammates thought that she'd forgotten to shave.
Mitchell's mom, Laura Rillamas,
decided to pay for laser hair removal as a
19th birthday gift to her daughter. Rillamas, along with Mitchell's aunt and grandmother, have also undergone laser hair removal.
For some people, shaving and waxing no longer cuts it within a culture that increasingly stresses the unattractiveness of body hair. Although permanent methods of hair removal are more expensive than conventional methods of shaving and waxing, and men are turning to electrolysis and laser hair removal.
"Today, hair is just not in," says Dr. Lee Bittenbender, a dermatologist in Lawrence who performs laser hair removal. "That's just one of those things
that is no cool to have necessarily a hairy chest when you go to the beach or for women, hair legs."
Naomi Schulman,
Sugar Land, Texas sophomore, who started shaving her legs in the fifth grade, feels pressured to maintain the cultural standards of beauty. "As a woman," she says, "you get the impression that guys think it's unattractive." Schulman says shaving every day is a pain, but she continues to do it because of comfort and today's cultural influences. "I don't feel comfortable walking around like a mammoth," she says. One of these cultural influences; her boyfriend. Schulman says he wouldn't like it if she didn't shave.
"TODAY, HAIR IS JUST NOT IN. THAT'S ONE JUST OF those THINGS that IS NOT COOL TO HAVE NECESSARLY A HAIRY CHEST WHEN YOU GO TO THE BEACH OR FOR WOOM, HAIRLEGS." —Dr. Lee Bitterneider, a Dermatologist, at the Hairstyle Hair Removal Center.
Some men also feel the pressure of today's beauty cultural standards. Ryan Scarrow, Humboldt senior, says one recent trend — girls shaving their chest hair – went too far, but he does acknowledge that magazines and advertisements lean toward a softer concept of masculinity. "It's like a competition," Scarrow says. "When you are around other people, get dates with girls, you play by to these ever-changing rules." People have to go along with these beauty trends, he says, even if they don't like them.
Kathy Mears, a certified professional electrologist, says cultural standards make more beauty requirements for women than men. Mears, in the '80s had electrolysis done on her face, says woman with noticeable facial hair need to do something to get it temporarily removed to meet societal criteria.
These cultural pressures have also taken their toll on Tanya Johnson, Dallas sophomore. A dancer age three, Johnson is annoyed with having to shave her armpits every day because of sleeveless dress uniforms. But she continues to do it because she knows the American culture deems hairy armpits on women as unacceptable. "I don't want to be the one that people stare at. I don't want to be 'the Meredith Brooks,'" she says, referring to the pop-singer who has the natural look for her armpits.
If students of both sexes are concerned with their body hair, electrolysis and laser hair removal are the two most common methods used to permanently treat unwanted body hair.
Electrolysis has existed since 1875 when Dr. Charles E. Michel, a St. Louis ophthalmologist, used it to destroy ingrown eyelashes, according to the American Electrology Association Web site.
Tiny needles, big rewards
Electrolysis destroys the follicle, which is the actual living tissue of the hair. Tweezing and waxing only pull hair out; they do not destroy the follicle, which will continue to make new hair if it remains alive.
The hair must be in its growth stage for
electrolysis to produce its best, long-lasting results. Hair goes through three stages: growing, resting and shedding. An example of the shedding stage occurs when a hairbrush pulls hairs from a person's head without having to tug at the scalp. The
growth stage occurs when the hair follicle actively grows. This stage can last anywhere between three weeks to eight years, depending on the area of the body. For example, scalp hair will continue to grow up to eight years, while upper lip hair on a woman may grow for only three weeks.
Mears, who has performed electrolysis in a basement office in her Lawrence house for 16 years, slides a hair-fine needle alongside the hair into the hair shaft. Then a one-thousandth of a second-long discharge of electricity zaps and destroys the cells in the follicle area.
Mears says bleeding from electrolysis rarely occurs because the hair shaft acts as a natural opening in the skin so the patients aren't poked or stabbed with the needle. After the electricity discharges, Mears pulls out the dead hairs with tweezers. "If it's been treated thoroughly, the hair should slide out with all the anatomy intact," she says.
Electrolysis produces only mild side effects. Redness occurs right away, but could last from a few minutes to a few hours depending on the skin's sensitivity. Wetting, which lasts only for a few min utes, also occurs immediately, along with CONTINUE NEXT NEXT
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Jayplay 10.7.04