Plucking vs Shaving: Is Plucking Better Than Shaving?

Did you ever wonder if you should pluck your facial hair or shave it? If you should remove the body hair from the roots or trim it at the surface of the skin? Which of the methods is more suitable for which part of your body and which can be applied for your lifetime with minimal adverse effects?

If you are new to both methods and want to know comprehensive details about them before buying the equipment, we got you. In this article, you can find all you need to know about plucking and shaving. Also, we ensure that you would pick out your favorite one by the end.

Plucking vs Shaving

1. Definition and Basics

Plucking means plucking the hair from the roots with the help of a tweezer. It works on individual strands of the hair and can even pull the shortest of the undesired hair out as long as you can hold it with the tweezer. The trick is to stretch the skin in a way that hair becomes visible and then remove it in one go.

On the other hand, shaving is the use of safety razors to cut off the hair from the surface of the skin. It trims several hair strands in one stroke. Here the trick is to use a sharp shaving blade and regularly change the blades before they get dull. With shaving, it is important to use a shaving gel or cream to protect your skin from sharp blades.

2. For Face

Both methods of hair removal can be used on the face. But out of both, plucking is better for the face as it allows you to remove a few stray hair strands more meticulously. For example, chin hair and eyebrow hair are better groomed with a tweezer.

The benefit of shaving only lies in the removal of dead skin cells with unwanted hair when you are using a derma planning tool with a good technique.

3. For Body

Imagining the removal of body hair with a tweezer would make you think how impossible it is to remove each hair strand with a tweezer when the full body has millions of hair. Plucking is possible in the underarms, bikini lines, and maybe on the pubic region as explained in Can I pluck my pubic hair? However, you would have to spend long hours tweezing the rest of the body.

Shaving is super feasible for the body as it is quick. It takes 30 minutes to 1 hour to shave the full body making it more suitable for body hair.

4. Pain and Precision

Fortunately or unfortunately, plucking is both painful and precise. It helps in the removal of the individual hair strands ensuring that no unwanted hair is left behind but it is extremely painful and you have to prepare yourself courageously to take the pain.

In contrast, shaving is nearly painless. However, you might miss a section of hair or two while shaving. Also, it is difficult to shave areas like eyebrows or a unibrow as it does not offer symmetrical hair removal and you might shave the brow more than you want.

5. Time Taken

It will take 15 minutes to an hour if you are only plucking facial hair like stubble, sideburns, chin hair, and eyebrows depending upon the hair on the area you are treating. The time taken in plucking body hair is unimaginable and waxing can be a better option to remove body hair from roots.

Shaving is super fast. It only takes 10 minutes for shaving the full face and about an hour to shave the full body. Furthermore, you can check the difference between trimming body hair and removing them from the roots in waxing vs shaving

6. Results And Hair Regrowth

The results of plucking lasts for 4 to 6 weeks. And even 8 weeks when you have been plucking the hair regularly. Also, the hair that regrows back is soft and thin.

In contrast, hair begins to peak out of your skin within 3 days after shaving. And become the tapered ends of the hair are trimmed, you see blunt ends underneath which makes the hair appear thicker. Also, there is no effect of shaving on the regrowth of the hair.

7. Tools Required

For plucking, you simply need a tweezer and some alcohol-based product to sterilize the tweezer before and after using it. This ensures that your hair removal goes without any infection or ingrown hair.

With shaving, you need shaving cream and a razor. The razor must be sharp if not new and the cream must be gentle on your skin. This is to prevent razor burns, cuts, and ingrown hair. You can find good quality razors at hair removal razors for women.

8. Cost

Both are one of the most pocket-friendly methods of hair removal as both can be done at home with a single tool and a single treatment product. Both cost somewhere between $5 to $20.

The only difference is that tweezers last for months to years once you buy a good one. However, you regularly have to replace your safety razor or its blades which adds to the whole cost.

9. Advantages

Below are the advantages of plucking and shaving side by side to help you determine which one is better.

10. Disadvantages

Below are the cons of plucking vs shaving to help to decide if any of the methods are worth it.

What Could Be Better Than Both?

If the pros of plucking vs shaving are making to try out both while their cons make to want to stay away, it is your sign to choose a method that takes the lead from both. This method is IPL hair removal. One of the most feasible devices you can use for a lifetime is the Ulike Air 10 IPL hair removal device .

Advantages of IPL over Plucking and Shaving

Below is why IPL is a preferred method of hair removal over plucking and shaving.

1. Time-Saving

If you use IPL devices, you do not need to spend hours plucking your hair or go through shaving sessions every three days even if it does not take much time. Ulike Air3 can treat the full body within 7 minutes.

2. Nearly painless

Whether it is pain caused by pulling hair out from the roots in plucking or razor cuts and burns caused by shaving, IPL saves you. Especially, the ice-cooling technology of Ulike AIR3 IPL handset ensures that your hair removal goes comfortably.

3. Long-lasting Results

Unlike results lasting for 3 days in shaving or 3 weeks in plucking, hair removal with Ulike Air3 IPL last for 6 months providing semi-long-lasting results.

4. Gentle on Skin

With Ulike Air3, there is no forceful stretching of the skin and irritation of the nerves like plucking or risk of the cuts and redness like shaving. Rather, the comfort modes and intensity لیوا of Ulike allows you to adjust the settings and make it gentle on the skin.

5. Lasts For a Lifetime

Even though Ulike Air3 seems expensive when considered at first, it is more economical as compared to plucking and shaving in the long term. This is because there is no change to blades or buy tweezers all your life as Ulike comes with unlimited flashes.

Comparison Table

Conclusion

Plucking is a more suitable method of hair removal when it comes to stray hair on the chin, eyebrows, or upper lips. It also works well for armpits and full face. But might be too time taking for the body making shaving a better method for arms, legs, chest, and back.

However, the need for repetition of shaving sessions can be frustrating. So, it is up to you to try and decide which of the both suits you more and in which areas of the body and face.

Moreover, if you want to consider a third method that works wonderfully for both face and body, IPL hair removal can be your go-to option.