From expert tips to best hair removal products.

No matter the time of year, many people want the look and feel of silky-smooth skin. But when it comes to hair removal, there are different products and techniques for all the areas of your body, the Good Housekeeping Institute Beauty Lab has found: underarm fuzz, coarse arm hair, leg stubble, the bikini area and more. Here’s everything you need to know to stay fuzz-free.

How to Remove Hair From Your Bikini Line

If you want to feel extra-smooth around your bikini line, you’ve got a few options. First, shaving: While it’s not a particularly long-lasting method, it’s typically pain-free, and you can do it in the comfort of your own home. To avoid the dreaded razor burn that plagues so many who shave, waiting until your skin is hydrated from the shower or bath.

Soften first with shaving cream, foam, or oil (like our GH Beauty Award winner below) to guard skin and improve glide, rinse the razor’s blades often to unclog, and replace them about every two weeks for maximum safety and efficacy, the GH Beauty Lab recommends. Dr. Kim also suggests applying Tend Skin skin-calming treatment if you tend to get ingrown hairs or razor bumps easily.

Waxing is another option for your bikini line. “The hair in the bikini area tends to be coarse and thick, which is ideal for waxing,” says Katherine Goldman, owner of Strip Bar Wax in San Francisco. “And since the hair is pulled out from the root, it grows back thinner over time.” There are multiple types of wax, including strip wax (applied hot and removed with cloth or paper sheets) and hard wax (applied hot, then removed after cooling and hardening).

If a long-lasting method is #1 on your priority list, a bikini wax may be your best option. “It lasts around three to six weeks,” says Noemi Grupenmager, founder of Uni K Wax. The GH Beauty Lab advises making sure skin is completely dry before waxing (try soaking up moisture with baby powder if needed).

How to Remove Hair From Your Legs

The most common method for removing leg hair is, of course, shaving. If you don’t mind dedicating a bit of time to it every few days (depending on how quickly your hair grows), this is a great option. Using a sharp razor as well as a moisturizing foam, cream, or gel, like her pick below.

“Exfoliating with a body scrub twice during the week or up to two days prior to any form of hair removal will help” prevent ingrown hair and bumps, says Grupenmager. Just be sure to avoid exfoliating directly after you shave, when your skin is most sensitive.

Another hair-removal method many know and love: depilatory cream. You may recall the potent-smelling formulas of years past, but new-and-improved concoctions promise to be less irritating and more nose-friendly, like the GH Beauty Lab’s top-tested pick by GiGi below.

“Depilatory creams use chemicals such as calcium thioglycolate or potassium thioglycolate, which break disulfide bonds in keratin, thereby weakening the hair,” Dr. Kim explains. Just be sure to do a patch test before applying one of these to your skin, and don’t leave it on for longer than the instructions direct, the Beauty Lab recommends.

If you have a higher pain tolerance and prefer to keep regrowth at bay, consider waxing, as it normally lasts between three and six weeks.

1. Epilation

Epilators are electric hair removal devices that pull out facial hair (or body hair) right from its roots. This may sound painful, but it is actually a relatively painless and mess-free way to remove hair when compared to waxing. It is also more effective than shaving as it removes the white facial hair from the roots, thus reducing hair growth over time and with repeated use. All you need to be mindful of is that the white hair has grown to at least a ¼ of an inch in length before using an epilator on it.

To prep your face for epilation, start by softening your facial skin with lukewarm water and applying a very thin coat of moisturizing cream to the area where you want to remove the white hair from. Then, glide the epilator in the direction opposite to the hair growth to pluck off your white facial hair. Rinse off your face and pat dry.

2. Tweezing

Now, here’s another method that will remove your white facial hair right from the roots. Tweezing your hair with a stainless steel and sanitized tweezer can prevent it from growing back for at least 4-8 weeks.

Start out by sanitizing your pair of tweezers with isopropyl alcohol or sterilizing it in hot water. Then, simply pluck out your white facial hair, one strand at a time. Since this is a little more time consuming method, it’s better to tweeze out facial hair when you just want to clean up a few strands or between sessions of other hair removal treatments.

3. Waxing

Waxing white facial hair basically involves the same procedure as that of waxing hair from any other part of your body. Hot wax is applied to the facial area from which you want to remove white facial hair. A waxing strip is then stuck on and ripped off to remove the white hair right from its roots. While waxing your white facial hair regularly can reduce their growth over time, it is also a painful method to undergo that can leave your skin feeling quite sensitive.

4. Hair Removal Creams

Before you use a facial hair removal cream, wash your face with warm water to soften the hair follicles. Then, apply a layer of the cream on the area that you want to remove the white hair from and leave it on for the time duration recommended on the box. Then, wipe the cream and hair away with a warm, damp washcloth. It is best to do a patch test before using these hair removal creams to make sure you are not allergic to them.