One day in the past, my friend told me that he will no longer use chemical depilatories as it irritates his skin, that word encourages me to share with you the reason why that cosmetic product may damage your skin while you are using it and the way to minimize such risk.

Frankly, Chemical depilatories are similar to shaving in that the hair is removed at the skin surface, except that shaving removes the hair physically and depilatories remove the hair chemically. Depilatories function by softening the hair shaft above the skin surface so it can be gently wiped away with a soft cloth. Presently marketed chemical depilatories are available in pastes, powders, creams and lotions with formulations specially adapted for use on the legs, groin area, and face. the depilatories act by degrading the hair keratin. As it is known that keratin is sensitive to the action of strongly alkaline aqueous solutions and reducing agents, most of the depilatories consist of such agents. The alkaline reducing agents cause the swelling of the hair fibres and break the cystine bridges between adjacent polypeptide chains as a first step to the complete degradation of the hair. As stratum corneum also contains keratin, depilatories may cause local damage of the skin by also affecting skin keratin when applied for hair removal. This effect can be avoided or minimized by using the preparation that it can preferentially and rapidly reacts with hair for selective degradation of hair keratin without damaging the skin.

References

1.      A. Ejersted; A. Orloff; Analysis of chemical hair-removal products; Survey of Chemical Substances in Consumer Products Survey no. 31 2003; the Danish Environmental Protection Agency.

2.      Andre O. Barel; P. Marc; Howard I. Maibach; Handbook of cosmetic sciences and technology; USA, 2001; ISBN: 0-8247-0292-1

3.      B.M. MITHAL; R.N. SAHA; A Handbook of Cosmetics, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, PILANI, India; First Edition 2000; ISBN 81-85731-22-5