Hair: It’s a natural part of being a human. But when the temperature climbs, and skin is exposed, it’s one of those things that a good many of us want to control. This week, we’re tackling hairlessness, not just the process of hair removal (electric shavers and ingrown-hair treatments and aesthetician-recommended tweezers and such) but also what to buy when you’re losing your hair, and even how to take care of a sphynx cat. Stay tuned as the week progresses. Welcome to Hairless Week on the Strategist.
Over the past year, a young South Korean woman who goes by Tweezist — she won’t reveal her real name — has filmed around 400 close-up videos of herself, extracting ingrown hairs from her legs. In most of them, Tweezist plunges a lancet straight into her skin, fishes around for the hair, and then pulls it out with a pair of straight-edged tweezers. Then she dangles the often-bloody hair in front of the camera. Depending on your constitution, the videos are either stomach-churning or addictively compelling.
Tweezist is no Dr. Pimple Popper (who now has her own TLC show, This Is Zit), but her videos get a respectable 200,000 views each, plus a steady stream of comments from sated viewers (“so freaking satisfying!”) in English, Spanish, Korean, and emoji (heart eyes, shocked face). Recently, after a spate of messages from fans asking for product recommendations for their own ingrowns, Tweezist shifted some of her focus away from her work and on to the actual tweezers. Her captions often read like mini reviews: “These are good for short hairs, but not for ingrown,” she’ll write. Or, of a pair tipped with tiny rings, “the tip on this pair is too thick — my thin hairs were broken when I tried to pull them out.”
While it’s reasonable that a person might find a Tweezist video revolting (“It looks like a snake!” Tweezist has been known to say, while pulling a particularly curly hair from beneath several layers of skin), its irrefutable that the woman knows hair removal. So I emailed Tweezist (she lives in Seoul) and asked for her recommendations on the best tools for ingrown hairs, facial hairs, and regular old plucking.
For tweezing ingrowns, Tweezist likes the not-sold-in-America brand Lucanus. You can find a couple of pairs on Ebay. Lucanus is (in Tweezist’s approximation, at least) the perfect tweezer. “They are great for dead ingrowns, and fine, short hairs. They can pluck even just-shaved eyebrows or leg hairs.”
Tweezist says you could also go with a more-readily-available Rubis pair. “Rubis is one of the best,” she says. “Though they lose some of their quality with time. You might need to buy a new one after a year or two, or get the tip refined.”
For cleanly breaking skin to get to the ingrown, Tweezist likes Majestic Bombays for their super sharp tip. “I’ve used them for awhile,” she says. “And they worked great.”
The perennially popular Tweezerman tweezers are okay, says Tweezist, but not ideal for digging out ingrowns. “Tweezerman tweezers are good for plucking,” she says, “but for digging, their tips aren’t sharp enough. They make a big wound on the skin.”
For facial hair, Tweezist loves her electric shaver. “I use a Flawless Rose Gold Hair Remover for my upper lip and chin hair,” she says. “It doesn’t make my skin irritated or red, and now I never need to grow my facial hairs out for waxing.”
When it comes to preventing ingrowns, Tweezist likes to scrub her legs. “To prevent ingrowns, I do a lot of scrubbing. I use a Korean viscose rough scrub glove. It makes my skin like a baby’s.”
She also uses aloe to heal and moisturize. “I like Allongs,” she says. “Plus a homemade scrub with black sugar and lemon.”
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