I have grown tired of women always saying men don’t know what they go through. Sadly, this cliché may be true and I think it is high time one of us dudes takes the plunge into the world of women.
What this means is over the next five weeks, I will put myself through several practices that are commonplace for women, but taboo for men. Obviously, I cannot experience childbirth or the more intense sides of the menstrual cycle, but I can go through all the common beauty practices women go through.
With this in mind, I figured the best place to start was by practicing the age-old art of hair removal. I picked three types of hair removal procedures: waxing, plucking and shaving.
Waxing I found to be an interestingly painful procedure. I am a hairy gentleman, so from the get-go I figured this process would sting a bit. Nothing prepared me for the pain that ensued.
I waxed several areas of my body including my stomach, chest, arm and even the dreaded bikini area. What I found is waxing hurts, but definitely produces a different amount of pain for different areas. For instance, removing hair in this manner from the pubic area is slightly less painful then having your lip pierced by a fishing hook. Personally, I commend women for this practice. It’s even more amazing that women do this more than one time in their life. I was honestly amazed at the amount of discomfort involved in waxing, but as they say, beauty is pain.
After I forcibly removed several patches of hair from my body I decided it was time to jump into the world of plucking. Although not as painful as waxing this process is still insanely irritating and equivalent to the pain level of getting a tattoo. Different hairs hurt more or less than others, just as different portions of the body respond to tattoos. The one upside to this practice is hairs are removed for upwards of a month, which will keep my pesky uni-brow from being a problem for quite some time.
Lastly, I ventured into the world of leg shaving. As I said earlier I am a hairy fellow, so shaving is no mystery to me, but I have never once shaved my legs. I decided I should shave only one leg so I could compare the success of the razor afterwards and then I removed all the hair from my left thigh to the top of my left knee.
Honestly, I don’t see what the big deal is about shaving. I can see how if not careful a blood fest can occur, but the eventuality leaves your leg feeling smooth and soft.
Afterwards I applied some cocoa butter and was able to enjoy that wonderful smell for the rest of the evening.
In retrospect I have to say I am ultimately impressed by anyone who will wax or pluck hairs from their body regularly.
Although painful, you can’t really argue with the results. I am talking hairless bliss. Shaving however feels good and is not really that big of deal. The only downside is the amount of time it takes to shave an entire leg can be somewhat daunting.
Still, when all is said and done I believe I will deal with the hair on my body instead of practicing any of these hair removal procedures.