History of Personal Epilation and Hair Removal

Modern hair removal can probably be traced back to a French barber named Jean Jacques Perret. In 1762 he invented the first safety razor when he attached a metal guard to his razor blade to prevent the blade from cutting the skin. Almost a century later came another man who can be credited with creating the shaving industry that we know today.

In 1895 a man called King Gillette with his idea of disposable razor blades. He imagined a handle which would be sold under cost and disposable blades which could be thrown out when used and replaced. His low cost blades took off and by 1915 his company was selling 70 million blades a year. Unfortunately he died almost broke due to excessive and unsuccessful real estate ventures; however, in 2005 his company was bought for a whopping $57 billion.

In 1931 the same year that Gillette retired, a new challenger stepped up with his electric razor. Jacob Schick introduced the motorized razor, which was later eclipsed by Remington’s dual head model designed for women.

It was not until the 1980’s when the next big revolution in personal epilation occurred. An Israeli company came up with a stunning breakthrough in home based hair removal. A product call the Epilady (see www.gpcare.com for pictures) was the first electronic hand held hair removal device. The Epilady uses high speed electric tweezers to remove the hair at the root thereby prolonging the period before the hair grows back. The Epilady was an instant success and by 1998 its annual sales reached $340,000,000.

In the 1990’s the Epilady was further improved by changing from tweezers to high speed spinning disks (see http://gpcare.com/discrette.asp for an example). These high speed disks grab the hair while spinning and pull it and the root out quickly and painlessly.

Today the Epilady is available in a variety of styles to focus on specific parts of the body; there are larger models for legs and smaller models for the more discrete places.

Today many hair removal options exist including some expensive newcomers. Electrolysis is special machine which pierces your hair follicle and electrocutes the area to prevent regrowth. This is often expensive and painful and if improperly done can cause infections and lasting skin damage. There is also laser hair removal which burns the hair follicle from inside the skin. It usually lasts two years before a hair re-grows but it not so effective on light hair, and it involves multiple laser sessions which cost on average $459.

If this history was interesting or if you have further questions feel free to visit http://www.gpcare.com to see plenty of examples or to ask questions.