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I Added Up Every Hour I've Spent Removing Hair. Then I Tested 8 Ways to Deal With It—and the Cheapest One Won.
An honest, no-filter ranking of everything from razors to lasers—judged on one thing only: did the hair actually stop coming back?
I've been removing hair since I was 13. Shaving every other day. The upper-lip pluck in the car mirror before a date. The bikini-line bumps I just… learned to live with.
And here's the part that finally got to me: it never ends. You are never actually smooth—you're just between the next shave, the next wax, the next appointment. When I did the math on the hours (and the money), I felt a little sick.
So last year I did something slightly unhinged: I tested and ranked eight different ways to deal with unwanted hair, judging each on three things only—how smooth it actually got me, how long that lasted, and whether the hair came back the same, worse, or finer.
Here's the honest ranking. Number one genuinely surprised me.
Shaving—The One We All Resent
Cheap, fast, painless. And gone by dinner. Shaving cuts hair at the surface, so the regrowth is sandpaper by day two and you're back at it 48 hours later. It also gave me the ingrown bumps along my bikini line I've basically accepted as a personality trait.
Depilatory Creams—The Smell of Regret
Slather it on, set a timer, try not to breathe. They dissolve hair a little below the surface, so you get a day or two more than shaving. But the smell—and on my sensitive skin, one wrong minute left a red, stinging patch on my upper lip for a week.
Threading—Elite for Brows, Brutal for Everything Else
For shaping eyebrows? Genuinely great. For an upper lip or a whole face? Precise but it hurts, it's a standing appointment, and the hair's back on the same two-to-three-week clock as tweezing. I was paying $80 a month and it was still coming back.
Epilators—The Medieval Option
A handheld device that grips and yanks multiple hairs at once, from the root. Results last a week or two. I'll be honest: the first pass on my legs made a sound come out of me I'd never heard before. It gets less awful over time. But "less awful torture device" isn't a rave.
Waxing—Smooth, But You Pay (In More Ways Than One)
Two to four weeks of real smoothness. When it's good, it's good. But you have to grow the hair out to wax it, so there's a built-in stubble phase, it's pricey at a salon, messy at home, and it left me with the same ingrowns as everything else.
At-Home IPL Devices—Promising, Big "If"
The $200–$500 gadgets that flash light at the follicle to reduce growth over time. When they work, they genuinely reduce hair. The catch: they mostly work on light skin with dark hair, need months of religious twice-weekly sessions, and on darker skin or light/gray hair you can end up with an expensive paperweight.
Professional Laser—The Gold Standard With a Golden Price Tag
I'm not going to pretend laser doesn't work—done right, a lot of hair stops coming back for years. But: $2,000–$4,000 a package, the burning-rubber-band pain, the numbing cream, the schedule, the same skin-tone limits as IPL. And as I learned the hard way, "years" is not "forever." When it grew back, I was out the money with nothing to show for it.
Cyperus Root Elixir—The Little Bottle I Rolled My Eyes At
I almost didn't try this one. A plant oil that helps hair grow back finer? It sounded like exactly the kind of TikTok thing that's all vibes.
Here's what changed my mind—and it's the part nobody else on this list does. Cyperus rotundus is an Egyptian botanical root, and the trick is when you use it. You remove the hair first—shave or wax—and then you apply the oil to the clean, open follicle, right at the source. Used consistently through each regrowth cycle, the hair that comes back comes back finer, softer, and slower.
That's it. It doesn't rip anything out, and it doesn't promise to vanish your hair overnight—which is exactly why I ended up trusting it.
I did their 90-day routine on my legs, bikini line, and the little patch by my ears. Weeks one and two: soft, calm, moisturized skin, nothing dramatic. Around week three the regrowth started coming in noticeably finer. By week six I was shaving my legs about once a week instead of every other day. By the end of the protocol, most of what came back was fine enough that I stopped reaching for the razor and dropped to the occasional touch-up.
Ten weeks in, my legs were smoother than they'd been after the laser. For a fraction of the price. I can't talk about the laser without getting annoyed all over again.
Is it magic? No. Coarse, dark hair takes patience and consistency, and it works with your routine, not instantly instead of it. But it's the only thing on this entire list that made my hair come back less—instead of just cutting it down to start the treadmill over.
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A Few Things I Figured Out Along the Way
Not all cyperus oil is the same. The internet is now flooded with cheap, watered-down versions—thin, oddly-scented bottles that people rightly complain "did nothing." Concentration is everything with this ingredient, and a diluted bottle is exactly why so many people think it doesn't work. I stuck with WellNature's Cyperus Root Elixir because it's properly concentrated, transparently sourced, and blended with jojoba, sweet almond, lavender, and tea tree so it soothes post-shave redness instead of causing breakouts.
Consistency beats intensity. The women getting the biggest results treat 2–3 areas daily and don't quit at week two when nothing's happened yet. One bottle gets you to the "finer regrowth" stage; the full routine is where it really shows.
It's absurdly cheaper than the alternatives. A single bottle is under $30. The multi-bottle routine most people run works out to under $20 a bottle—versus my $4,000 laser that grew back anyway. And it's backed by a money-back guarantee, which is more than my laser clinic ever offered me.
What Other Women Told Me
"I did laser at 34. $4,000. It worked for about three years then every single hair came back. Ten weeks on this and my legs are smoother than they were after the laser."
"Perimenopause came with chin hair nobody warned me about. I was tweezing every morning before the school run. Eight weeks in, I tweeze maybe twice a week now, and what comes back is so much finer."
"I was shaving my upper lip every single morning before work. Checked the mirror in full sun last week expecting the worst… basically nothing there. Nine weeks."
The Bottom Line
If you're staring down another laser package, another salon appointment, or just another decade on the shaving treadmill—this is the one thing off my list I'd actually tell a friend to try first. Lowest cost, no pain, no appointments, and the only one that got me off the treadmill instead of deeper onto it.
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💬 Comments (847)
Megan T. 2 days ago
Okay the laser part hit way too close to home 😭 ordering the 3-pack
Priya K. 3 days ago
been seeing this oil all over my fyp, good to read an actual honest breakdown
Dee 4 days ago
started 3 weeks ago on my chin, can confirm it's coming in finer. not a scam
Carla M. 5 days ago
wish I'd read this BEFORE I spent $$$ on threading every month
Jess 6 days ago
does it work on legs too or just face?
Sandra L. 1 week ago
I'm 54 and just ordered. If this works on my chin I will cry actual tears
Amy W. 1 week ago
the fact that it has a money back guarantee sold me. nothing to lose