Wax Lyrical

Swimsuit season is upon us, which means some personal body grooming is in order – while being total hairless is not mandatory, it is safe to stride between “undergroomed” and “unevenly-groomed”.

- Wilson Lim

Back in 2010, the Boyzilian (male equivalent of the Brazilian where all hair is stripped off the nether region with wax) was all the rage. The super smooth Cristiano Ronaldo was the poster boy of this trend. Fast forward to present time, no self-professed #SelfieJunkie (usually topless) would be caught dead with unruly fuzz. Social media has won, we have been officially conditioned to think body hair is unsexy.

Frivolous aesthetics aside (being hairless down under also creates the illusion of a larger package), there is one important practical reason to groom – hygiene. Because bacteria thrive and “stick” to sweaty body hair, “furry” guys tend to smell bad faster with more potency and are more prone to fungal skin diseases. It is like men were created to smell bad too with thicker hair growth and more active sweat glands. Reason enough to be “on-trend”?

While shaving with a razor is a convenient method to tackle the fuzz at home, men would have to deal with the bristling itch when hair grows back in a couple of days. There is also the option of an epilator, which Wikipedia defines as “an electrical device used to remove hair by mechanically grasping multiple hairs simultaneously and pulling them out”. Oh, how delightful that sounds.

Even though epilating lasts a few more days than shaving (it is yanking hair from the roots after all), why not consider tackling the problem at its roots, literally? Waxing and Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) hair removal are two worthy solutions for consideration. This writer sacrificed his virgin experience at both treatments to give you the lowdown.

IPL AND WAXING