You might think that hair removal from the human body is a modern concept. It is not. There are histories going back thousands of years where women used sharpened clam shells to shave and remove body hair. Many women in India and Middle Eastern countries had to be almost completely shorn of their body hair on their wedding days. So, you can see why culture is still so obsessed with removing body hair. The only difference now is that there are lasers that can remove it, and remove it permanently.

It begs the question then, "If you spend money on hair removal, which method costs the most over one's lifetime?" That is a good question. Here are the answers.

​Razors

​Razors, no matter what type you use (i.e., disposable versus reusable), are costly. If you buy a reusable electric razor, you still have to replace blade heads, and the razors themselves start at around forty to fifty dollars. Replacement shave heads cost a minimum of twenty dollars, but the more expensive the electric razor, the more expensive the razor heads. If you pay seventy-five dollars for an electric razor, and you replace the heads twice a year at thirty-five dollars each time, you are spending seventy dollars a year for a minimum of forty of your adult years to remove hair. That is a whopping $2,800 for replacement heads. 

It does not get better if you use disposable razors either. If you use the kind where you keep the handle and toss the heads, you are paying the initial twenty to thirty-five dollars for the starter kit, followed by another twenty dollars minimum for a three-pack of replacement heads that you will have to replace three times a year. That is sixty dollars a year times forty years for $2,400 a year! Disposables that you use two or three times each are the cheapest razor option, but you are throwing out razors faster than you can replace them.

​Laser Hair Removal

​Laser hair removal sessions start around the cost of a mid-grade electric razor ($75-$110, each). You will need between five and eight sessions per area of the body, which amounts to about $450-$600 on the low end for each body part. If you are having your arms, arm pits, upper legs, lower legs, and groin done, that is typically counted as nine areas. Nine areas multiplied by the lowest possible cost is about $4,000. That may seem like a lot until you take into account that this hair will never grow back. It will never bother you ever again, and you will never have to waste time, energy, or money on products and services to remove it.