Radio DJ Delamar C. Arias, whose friendly voice perks up morning commuters stuck in traffic, has a stock answer for that: "If we were close, I’d show you my armpits." (Alas, we had just met and she didn’t show them to me!) Seriously, in her yoga classes, she’d notice women staring at her doing stretching and would wonder why until some of them asked what she did to make her underarms look so smooth.
Actress Ana Roces recently saw a friend from her teenage years who’d witnessed how she would go through all these painful processes to get rid of her hair on her upper lip and legs. Her friend practically shrieked, "What did you do?"
Model and VJ Amanda Griffin , one of the most beautiful women on TV and print, recently had a photo shoot and she heard the photographer say, "Her armpits are nice, we don’t need to PhotoShop them."
Thank goodness, these women are candid and good-humored about their body hair that they sat down with us to talk about the hassles of having to shave, wax, and bleach for years and now not having to do these anymore, thanks to Facial Care Centre, the clinic that first brought LaserLight to the Philippines in 1999.
It’s easy to say that if you’re a man, you wouldn’t understand what’s it like to have hair where you really don’t want it – like the face, underarms, and legs, or even the bikini area. But Facial Care Centre has done treatments on lots of men, too – many of them doctors who are very meticulous about their hygiene. And they have one client, a Swiss guy, who had his beard lasered away. So, yes, men who have to shave every morning, who get a five o’clock shadow as early as noon, also benefit from this procedure.
For women though, it’s a totally different thing. Not only is it a matter of inconvenience, it’s also a source of embarrassment. You wouldn’t believe that women whose pretty faces we’ve been seeing on TV and print ads since they were just kids – Ana started in show business when she was 12, Amanda started modeling when she was 12, too – would be embarrassed about any of their features, but facial is a big deal to them – for any woman for that matter.
Ana says, "When I was young, I used to sing on TV and they would do these extreme close-ups, and my mom would say, "Hey, let’s do bleaching, let’s do waxing, let’s do electrolysis." In fact, it was my mom who saw the ads of LaserLight, and she was so excited that it was here already because we had heard of it when it was available only in the States."
The idea of permanent hair loss to her was like this great gift that God sent down from the heavens. As a young girl studying hotel and restaurant management at the International Hotel School in England, Ana was so self-conscious about it and her secret rituals. She would sneak down to her dorm’s common kitchen when nobody was around, microwave her depilatory cream and run back to her room to wax the area above her upper lip.
And her legs? "Hairy, too!" she says with a laugh. "When I was at Montessori, we had to wear these knee-high, white stockings until Grade 7, and I was so inis because when you remove your stockings the hair is in all directions. I started waxing at 15. I don’t think the kits were available here so I had to get them from abroad. After three years of waxing, I opted to shave, but my hair would grow so fast I had to do it every other day. I really hated it."
Amanda took to bleaching the hair on her upper lip area, which she had to do every three weeks. Waxing might have been more convenient, but her sensitive skin would break out every time she did. "I also tried threading which was super painful on the upper lip."
Facial Care had been trying to get Delamar as an endorser for the longest time, but she was skeptical about it. "Honestly, I just thought spending that much money seemed unjustifiable, but maybe because of my earning capacity as well. I was thinking, I can’t recommend it to an ordinary person just to zap all that hair form their armpits." (It costs P5,600 per session in the underarm area.)
In 2002, they got in touch with her again and she said, "I’m going to do this, but since the pictures are coming out after only two sessions, I would say I’m undergoing it and that it works only if it does for me."
After the first session? "I was a convert! The skin was so smooth, I had no problems raising my hands. It’s total freedom!"
According to Facial Care, of the body parts that can be treated with Laser Light, the underarms are the most appealing for women. It’s their priority, so to speak. "Because it’s the part of you that’s exposed when you’re wearing sleeveless," explains Delamar. "The chicken skin effect, I had it. The worst part for me when you do the waxing or shaving is that you will enjoy the no-hair look for only about five days, then new growth starts, but you can’t do the waxing yet because you have to wait for it to grow longer. So you have this period where you can’t wear sleeveless and hail a cab, you know what I mean?"
When Facial Care first offered LaserLight, the bikini area was not so popular, but times have changed – women have become more comfortable about what they can do with their own bodies, and how! Why go through waxing every so often when they can remove hair permanently? Last year, the clinic showed a spike in the demand for their bikini package and if you want to get ready for summer 2007, you’d better start your treatments now.
The thing about Laser Light is that it takes long to totally remove hair. After all, we are talking about permanent hair loss. Amanda puts it in the right perspective when asked if she didn’t get impatient with the length of the entire treatment: "You just have to realize that you never have to shave or wax or pluck ever again."
The length before achieving total hair loss depends on each patient. For some, hair is gone in three to five treatments – or at least significant enough for you to stop shaving –while for others, it could take eight or more. Each treatment is done every two months or a little less time in between because you have to wait for the growth of the new hair and because hair grows in different stages and cycles. Some patients insist on lessening the waiting time between treatments, which is a waste of money because monthly treatments are not necessary – and they’re ineffective, too. Just follow the LaserLight program and the doctor’s recommendation to achieve maximum results.
Laser Light uses LightSheer, a high-power diode laser technology that emits pulses of light energy that are absorbed by the pigment or melanin in the hair follicle. This targets the hair root and disables it from growing new hair. The machine has a ChillTip handpiece that cools on contact, protecting the skin while directing the laser energy to disable further hair production.
Asians are perfect for LaserLight because they have dark hair. For women with fair hair, like Amanda, Facial Care has the Comet Hair Removal or Laser Light Plus, which has a broader spectrum, effectively targeting light to dark hair. Amanda at first had two sessions with the LaserLight machine, then switched to Comet, which proved to be more effective for her type of hair.
The next question the girls are often asked when they reveal that they’ve had LaserLight treatments is, "Is it painful?"
Okay, when it comes to beauty, there isn’t a whole lot people won’t do to achieve it. Anybody ever seen that scene on Sex & the City where Carrie has a Brazilian wax, or The 40-Year-Old-Virgin’s chest-hair-waxing scene where the only sound effects are expletives flying around and hair being ripped?
"It’s bearable pain," the girls agree. And because people have different thresholds for pain – Amanda says she has a low tolerance, Delamar has high – it really depends on the individual.
"I’ve done threading on the upper lip, and that is really painful;" says Amanda.
Says Ana, "So is electrolysis," which is a process where each hair strand is targeted."
Delamar, who is currently undergoing LaserLight on her bikini line, laughingly relates that during her first two sessions, she didn’t have a topical anesthetic applied. "When people ask me if it hurts, I tell them it’s not familiar pain like plucking because you can feel the pull of the hair; here, it’s light and it goes inside. You get used to it. Then you smell something burning, so it kinda scares you, but they do explain everything to you."
On her third session, she had emla applied to numb the area and says she didn’t feel as thing. "So, can you take it without anesthesia? Yes, you can. Should you take it with anesthesia? No, because it’s unnecessary pain."
Ana explains, "As the hair lessens, it’s less painful. When I had my legs done, I felt discomfort only when they were doing the bony parts. After a while, I didn’t have emla put on my calves anymore."
For the most part, female friends ask Delamar, "I don’t care how much it costs, just tell me the truth, does it work?"
"I tell them yes, absolutely, without a doubt."
Another indirect benefit patients get when they their have hair permanently removed is the skin looks and feels better. The underarm area especially benefits from the lack of skin trauma – the pores close, it becomes whiter with some patients, and it becomes smoother.
The best thing about it, the girls say, is that hair removal is not part of their everyday concerns anymore – no more plucking, shaving, waxing and being so self-conscious about their hair – never mind if other women are forever trying to get a peek of their underarms and legs in public.
AMANDA GRIFFIN, model and VJ
What’s in your makeup kit?
Nars crème blush, MAC concealer, L’Oreal blush, Shu Uemura eyelash curler.
What makeup secret do you want to share with other women?
Wear blush. A sun-kissed look always looks great.
If you could change any of your facial features, what would it be?
When I was younger, I would have said my freckles. But now, I love them. You have to be comfortable with what God gave you.
ANA ROCES, actress
What’s your beauty regimen?
During the day, I use cleansing gel and toner. At night, I use the same, but if I have makeup on, I use a makeup remover first.
Between a bag and a pair of shoes, what would you buy?
A nice bag anytime!
What’s your favorite shade of lipstick?
Nars’ Dolce Vita.
DELAMAR ARIAS, radio DJ
What’s the best beauty secret you learned from your mom?
None at all. She’s so low-maintenance when it comes to beauty regimens.
When do you feel most beautiful?
When I’m loved for who I am and when I’m in a good mood.
What won’t you leave home without?
Definitely, lipstick and lip gloss.
What eye shadow color would you never be caught wearing?
Green.