Methods of hair removal have been developed due to societal, cultural, religious traditions, health reasons, and the pursuit of aesthetic standards. Hair removal methods can be categorized into two groups: depilation, which removes the hair shaft and includes shaving, chemical depilatories; and epilation, which removes the hair shaft as well as follicle, and bulb, and includes methods like waxing, tweezing, threading, enzymatic hair removal, laser hair removal, and electrolysis.
In the thesis, we evaluated the impact of different cosmetic hair removal products and further also various cosmetic forms on transepidermal water loss values, which represent passive water loss through the healthy stratum corneum, and thus indirectly impact skin irritation. We assessed eight different hair removal products from four different brands within a similar price range. These products were as follows: sensitive skin shaving oil, intimate area shaving gel for sensitive skin, aloe vera and avocado oil shaving gel, sensitive skin shaving gel, avocado oil and vitamin E shaving foam, shea butter depilatory cream, sensitive skin depilatory cream, and dry skin depilatory cream. Tranespidermal water loss measurements were conducted using the Tewameter® TM 300 before applying the product and after its removal. A formulation was considered irritating if the difference between baseline and final values of transepidermal water loss was greater than or equal to 6 g/hm². In vitro experiments were carried out on porcine skin mounted in a Franz diffusion cell.
Our findings revealed that all tested shaving cosmetic products exhibited transepidermal water loss differences between baseline and final values of less than 6 g/hm², categorizing them as non-irritating. Considering the results, the sensitive skin shaving oil appeared to be the most favorable cosmetic hair removal product, as its final values were approximately equal to or lower than baseline values. When evaluating depilatory creams, the sensitive skin and dry skin depilatory creams were identified as potentially irritating hair removal products, likely due to the presence of potassium thioglycolate or thioglycolic acid. The depilatory cream with shea butter demonstrated comparable final values to baseline values, indicating no significant irritation effects observed after both minimum and maximum exposure times.
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