Author: Andrea James

Veet has run an ad commemorating the start of the Obama presidency.

Full article (brandrepublic.asia)

Wilkinson Sword has announced a new product launch:

The Wilkinson Sword 2 in 1 Quattro for Woman Bikini will combine a battery operated waterproof trimmer at one end, which can be used in the shower, with an adjustable length comb. When flipped over, there is a Quattro for Women razor head, with four blades and two conditioning strips with aloe and vitamin B complex.

Full article (marketingweek.com)

The Green Bay Press-Gazette profiles Robin Smet of Aesthetic Spa in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin:

Fifteen years ago, she started a very small, one-person shop and did everything. The building was razed to build a Walgreens store at Cormier Road and Oneida Street, Ashwaubenon. She moved Ashwaubenon Electrolysis to Ramada Way and began doing laser treatments. Four and a half years ago, she diversified and changed the name to Aesthetic Spa to encompass all of the result-oriented skin care her business provided.

• Aesthetic Spa
• 2372 S. Oneida St., Ashwaubenon;
• (920) 497-6246;
• www.aestheticspa.com

Full article (greenbaypressgazette.com)

Suzanne Harrison at the South China Morning Post has a story about a Hong Kong spa that badly burned a client with an intense pulsed light hair removal device.

A beauty treatment at a luxury Hong Kong spa wouldn’t normally result in burnt skin and scarring. But that’s exactly what happened to Carol Lo.

Full article (scmp.com)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a Public Health Advisory to alert consumers, patients, health care professionals, and caregivers about potentially serious and life-threatening side effects from the improper use of skin numbing products. The products, also known as topical anesthetics, are available in over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription forms.

The FDA strongly advises consumers not to:

• make heavy application of topical anesthetic  products over large areas of skin;
• use formulations that are stronger or more concentrated than necessary;
• apply these products to irritated or broken skin;
• wrap the treated skin with plastic wrap or other dressings; and
• apply heat from a heating pad to skin treated with these products.

I have discussed these potentially dangerous side effects here:
Risks in hair removal pain management

Topicals over large areas: should be avoided

Risks:

impairs ability to gauge overtreatment
dangerous in combination with pain medications
can cause severe allergic reaction
use on a large area can reach toxic levels of drug absorption

Topical preparations are generally a very good option to reduce hair removal pain, but it’s important to be careful when using them on large areas like the back or legs. Do a test with the product on a small area, then wait a few days before undergoing a procedure using a large dose. If you have a noticeable skin reaction to the test dose (itching, blistering, skin color change lasting more than a few hours), you should not use the topical over a large area.

Full article: (fda.gov)

Maria Jorica B. Pamintuan at The Philippine Star has a cute essay filled with observations about hair removal:

This brings us to the two types of body hair: the hair we like, and the hair we don’t…. Professional hair removal is a good, albeit expensive, option as well. Bottom line is we shave, we wax, or we pluck because we feel better about our bodies when we do so. We desperately try to remove the hair we don’t want, and try to multiply — or preserve — and primp the hair that we do.

Full article (philstar.com)

From a press release announcing Aesthera Isotip in the United Arab Emirates

The Isotip™ is based on Aesthera’s breakthrough photo-pneumatic technology (PPx) and is ideally suited for acne treatment, hair removal, pigmented lesions and vascular lesions.

Full press release (arabianbusiness.com)

Steve Mills of Daventry Today profiles Maninder Bhandal, owner of The Haven in Sheaf Street, Daventry, who has added an Apilus electrology machine to her salon:

The Haven has had the Apilus technology since October and Mrs Bhandal said it had gone down well with her customers.

She explained: “It has been absolutely wonderful. Previously, some customers could only cope with five minutes of electrolysis, but using this new method, people feel they can have their hair removed.

Full article (daventrytoday.co.uk)

website: http://www.epilsoft.co.uk/apilus_technology.html

Richard Connelly at the Houston Press has some snark for a 2008 blog post by NBC newscaster Jane McGarry, which reads in part:

With summer around the corner, the subject of the bikini wax came up. Do you get one or not? I offered that I have before, but I can’t see the point because you have to let the hair get long enough to wax again, which means, you’ll need to shave! So why wax to begin with?

Before long the bikini wax conversation had turned into a debate about shaving, vs. waxing, vs. laser hair removal….and then, how much hair to remove. Well, that depends on your generation.

Our 5:00 anchor Meredith Land says these days, to younger women like her little sister, good grooming means…a complete wax, if you get what I mean.

Personally, I think it’s no biggie, and hair removal is something almost everyone does in one form or another.

Full article (janestake.wordpress.com)