Should I try going for a K-pop idol look?
I Never Met an Arab Female Oil Tycoon
I found shaving my beard every day annoying, and because I have sensitive skin, razor burn was painful. In my twenties, I nervously tried beard hair removal, but since I only treated small areas little by little, the hair gradually came back over time.
Many male idols undergo beard hair removal, but actors sometimes choose not to, since they may need to play bearded characters as they get older. In that sense, it’s a difference in future direction rather than musical style: if you’re aiming for a slightly rugged, mature look, you might not need beard removal.
I’ve also heard that in the Middle East, having a beard can be advantageous in business. But since I never ended up being noticed by a female oil tycoon I once passed on the street and marrying into wealth, I decided to go for beard hair removal again.
Below are my notes on what I learned after two years of beard hair removal.
Medical Lasers Are the Only Ones That Really Work
Even among services that claim to remove hair, some use medical lasers and others do not, so you need to be careful.
Medical lasers damage the skin and can be painful and risky, but they are effective. Treatments at beauty salons that don’t use medical lasers generally won’t eliminate beard hair.
The pain of laser hair removal feels like being repeatedly shot with a rubber-band gun. The procedure itself takes about 10 minutes.
In the past, laser hair removal mostly meant using YAG lasers, but more recently, low-pain “heat accumulation” (SHR) methods have become available.
According to Chapter 5, Hair Removal Treatment, of the Guidelines for Aesthetic Medical Practice (Revised FY2021):
- Alexandrite / Diode / Nd:YAG lasers: Strongly recommended
- Heat accumulation methods: Strongly recommended
- IPL (light therapy): Weakly recommended
Heat accumulation methods use diode lasers, and when comparing diode lasers:
Effectiveness
- Single-shot: 91%
- Heat accumulation: 86%
Pain
- Single-shot: 5/10
- Heat accumulation: 3/10
So while effectiveness may be slightly lower, pain is reduced.
That said, there’s a difference between full-body hair removal and beard hair removal, where the skin is thinner and the roots are deeper. For areas like the cheeks (excluding around the mouth), heat accumulation methods did thin the hair, but around the mouth they weren’t enough—YAG lasers were also necessary.
As for pain, in my case it was honestly too painful without nitrous oxide anesthesia.
You Need to Use Sunscreen
Laser hair removal works by reacting to melanin, so it’s basically intended for people with light skin and naturally dark hair.
Depending on hair color, blond or light brown hair likely reduces effectiveness, and white hair won’t respond at all. Dyeing doesn’t help, so it’s fair to say you should decide to do it while you’re still young.
After laser hair removal, your skin becomes more prone to sunburn, and if your skin darkens, you may no longer be able to undergo laser treatment at all. Using parasols and sunscreen is therefore essential.
Physical blocking >> film-based blocking, so if you’re going outside in summer, a parasol provides better protection. The parasol section at Tokyu Hands is great because you can try many options. I currently use an Esta MAGICAL TECH PROTECTION parasol that works in both sun and rain (except typhoons) and is compact.
Since I work from home on weekdays and don’t get much sun exposure, this may not be very helpful as a reference, but for moisturizing and sun protection, I use Curel Moisture Gel and Mommy UV Mild Gel N (SPF 33). I tried several SPF 50 sunscreens, but because my skin is sensitive, I got rashes from the sunscreen itself. I also don’t wear men’s makeup, so waterproof products that require cleansing oil to remove felt impractical.
Personally, I tend to get rashes from vitamin C–containing serums, but if you have reasonably strong skin, an all-in-one product might be fine for men.
Choosing a Clinic: Gorilla Clinic
As for choosing a clinic, there were many blog reviews online at one point, so I went with Gorilla Clinic, which had many success stories.
Recently, the hair removal industry has issues especially for women. The companies behind Alicia Clinic and Musee Platinum have filed for bankruptcy. In response, Gorilla Clinic has stated its own view that it is financially stable.
On the other hand, recent official gazette reports show that the company is in the red and technically insolvent. It has posted losses for two consecutive fiscal years, but with sales of 12 billion yen and only tens of millions of yen in losses in the previous year—essentially close to break-even. The most recent loss was 500 million yen, but two years earlier there was a 700 million yen profit, so it’s hard to say. They’ve increased current assets to 8 billion yen, and according to ChatGPT, the industry median cash holdings are around 4 billion yen, so if borrowing continues, they may still have enough financial resilience to recover.
I initially signed up for a relatively inexpensive plan, but chose one with fewer sessions. When I extended it, it became more expensive. However, given the increasing instability of the industry, I think that worked out fine in the end.
As a layperson it’s hard to judge, but variability in practitioner skill seemed relatively low, and treatments were consistently high quality. Most of the staff were women, and many were quite attractive.
People Started Complimenting My Skin
After two years, most of my beard is gone, and I sometimes get compliments on how clear my skin looks.
Some people argue that “looking clean” equals having good visuals. As with misunderstandings about male physiology, some women seem to think shaving alone eliminates blue beard shadow. In that sense, reducing blue shadow and skin irritation felt like a successful glow-up—and I think I’ve become healthier.
That said, some fine hairs (or maybe hair deep in the pores) didn’t fully disappear, and after entering my 30s, I apparently had some white hairs without realizing it. In the end, I still lightly shave every day, just in case.
One unexpected pitfall was my sideburns: I should have defined more clearly where the beard ends and the sideburns begin. I usually get my sideburns trimmed with clippers when I get a haircut, but sometimes I want to grow them out. If you leave it up to the clinic while your hair is short, you may end up with permanent hair removal too close to the sideburns. I asked them to avoid the area partway through, but some areas were already thinned out. I really should have planned my hairstyle more carefully before starting hair removal.
Final Thoughts
Reducing daily hassle and skin irritation was a big plus.
My teeth straightening is also going well, so once that’s finished, I’ll write a report on that too.
