All this time I thought Japanese people are naturally hairless in the right places from when they were born because of their genes. Truth is, hell no. Maybe some very little percentage of the population, but the rest are definitely paying a huge sum for their look.

Body hair is quite a debatable topic. Some of my friends are embracing their body hair and choose not to remove it because, well, it’s natural. Some other friends are so embarrassed by their body hair because, well, maybe the bombardment of beauty advertisements. Then the rest belongs to the in-between: not totally comfortable with the natural hair but also not totally ashamed of having body hair; I belong to this group. I think some parts of my body have hair that is too ‘wild’ and messy, that it often creates problems in my daily life. But the rest like my arms, back, and other parts are like whatever. I’m a human, I have hair and that’s normal, and if they’re not annoying I just let them be.

hair on the floor

I have my first experience with permanent body hair removal this year in January on a small part of my body: my armpits.

Actually, I’ve been researching hair removal since my college days, but all beauty salons rejected me because I have a skin condition called keloid, which can get worse if I do permanent hair removal. I don’t know how they’re related, but I’ve been to 3 hair removal salons and they all said the same thing, so I gave up my dream of hairless armpit.

At that time I didn’t know that there’s another option for permanent hair removal: beauty clinic. Beauty clinic is almost like beauty salon. Your health insurance isn’t going to cover the procedure you get, but they have a dedicated medical doctor to check your skin and advise you on the permanent hair removal, the method, the machine, etc.

Although, in my opinion, the doctor didn’t really do much. They just see my hairy armpit the day I registered, and glimpse at my keloid and said I should do the heat-storage method because it’s weaker and better for my keloid prone skin. The sad thing is, this method is only semi-permanent. When I get pregnant and my hormone changes, there’s a possibility that the hair is going to grow back. But I gave it a try anyway, and I have to say, my life is so much easier after.

Beauty salon vs beauty clinic

I don’t have first hand experience with beauty salon so I asked some friends about their experience.

Beauty salon is cheaper, most of the time they also have promotions like free armpit hair removal for the rest of your life, or something like that. They’re everywhere, so if you need to move to a different city you can still continue your procedure. But my friends said that removing hair in beauty salon takes a lot of time until you can see the result because the machine is weaker compared to beauty clinic.

Beauty clinic is more expensive, most of them only offer full body removal package, or optional but super expensive. Some of the clinics offer 2 kinds of hair removal: permanent and semi-permanent. You might think why someone would do a semi-permanent if there’s the option for permanent at the same price. I did too. The reason is that permanent hair removal is painful, especially if your hair is thick like your armpits and around the private area of your body. I don’t know how painful as I couldn’t try due to my skin condition, but the nurse told me sometimes the patients will cry trying not to scream during the process. WOW.

The consultation

You’ll need to make a reservation either from their website or through a phone call. Then they’ll tell you the available date and time and you will need to spend 30-45 minutes to fill in your data and listen to them explaining. If you decide to register, after the registration you’ll need to see the doctor to check if you have any problem. This is really quick, probably only 1 minute. Then you pay and make a reservation for the first procedure.

First time result

I didn’t plan on writing this when I started the hair removal, so I didn’t take picture, but let me explain in words.

The effect isn’t really visible right after the procedure. Normally it takes around 10 to 14 days for the hair to shed naturally, and the first time it wasn’t that amazing.

My armpit hair growth was still so quick, the hair is still thick, but I noticed around 2 cm diameter was somehow bald. Right in the middle of my armpit.

Second time result

Around 10-14 days, more balding is happening. The hair growth was not as quick as usual, but the hair texture was still thick and coarse.

Third time result

Around 60% of my armpit is bald. I can see small slow growth of thin hair, like the hair on your finger, super thin and almost invisible.

Fourth time result

Hair growth is super slow, hair texture is a lot thinner, but there is still hair. I was hoping that it would be gone completely but it seems like what the nurse said is true: I’ll need around 8 to 10 times the procedure because my hair is the ‘wild’ type.

Fifth time, and final, because I don’t want to pay for more

I can say around 80% of my armpit is bald, and 20% are thin hair. The growth is still slow; I can go hairless after shaving for 2 days (before this my armpit hair grows so quickly, around 6 hours after shaving you’ll see the small hair coming out already). A lot of improvement but not 100% satisfied.

Conclusion

The nurse tried to sell me full body hair removal package, which I respond with smile and “I’ll think about it” which means NEVER.

I don’t regret doing this. My days are easier with tamer armpit hair. It was a nice experience and I might continue this someday when I have enough cash to throw around, but it’s not a priority now. I think it’s nice to try this if you are staying in Japan for at least half a year because you have to wait 4 to 6 weeks depending on the machine, to do the next procedure.

P.S.: All the clinics I’ve been to (I’ve been to several clinics to consult) have no explanation whatsoever in English, so you need to be able to speak Japanese to understand the terms they’re using.

xoxo_anastasia