Three ways to banish peach fuzz from your face

It can be both frustrating and embarrassing when your face is covered with unwanted hair. The short, fine, often light in colour hairs that have a ‘fuzzy’ appearance are more commonly known as ‘peach fuzz’ and the only place it looks ‘cute’ or ‘adorable’ is on the skin of the fruit.

The most common places you’ll get a bit of peach fuzz is on the face — the sides of your face, along the jawline, and your upper lip area. It’s very normal (and quite common among the over-60s), but that doesn’t make it any more attractive and women the world over have investigated their options for getting rid of it.

What can you do?

Instead of spending hundreds of dollars on epilators, waxing kits, electrolysis or laser therapy, we’ve gone into the vault and pulled out three natural ways of getting rid of that unwanted facial hair that actually work.

These home remedies have been tried and tested, and it might surprise you just how effective they are.

Read on if you are looking to remove that facial hair, rid your upper lip of its moustache or trim those whiskers.

Sugaring

Believe it or not this is an ancient hair removal remedy. It’s as effective as wax, but is without the pain or irritation to your skin, which is great if you suffer redness or have sensitive skin.

Here’s how you do it:

• In a saucepan place 1/4 cup of water, and put the saucepan on the stove.
• When the water is hot, add 1/4 cup of lemon juice and 2 cups of regular table sugar (white, brown, raw… it doesn’t really matter).
• Continue heating as you mix the ingredients together. When it begins to bubble you want to turn down the heat to a simmer. When the mixture turns amber in colour, turn the heat off entirely.
• Remove the saucepan from the stove and allow to cool slightly.

As the mix cools, apply a dusting of baby powder or cornstarch to your skin. This will prevent the mixture from sticking to your skin and thereby reduce any irritation.

Apply the slightly cooled past to your face, remembering to go in the opposite direction to the growth of the hair. Then, place a cotton strip or a clean cloth over the past.

Allow it to sit for a few minutes, or at least until the paste has hardened. Remove the hair by pulling the cotton strip in the direction of your hair. Repeat until all the facial hair has been removed.

Basil and onion paste

It might sound like the start of a great pasta sauce but this is a surprisingly effective remedy for removing unwanted hair. It’s a bit fiddly though — you will need to remove the thin membranes from between the layers of the onion, because that’s what you’ll be using to get rid of the hair.

Here’s how you do it:

• Slice two onions in half and then use the knife to remove the thin membranes from between the layers of the onion.
• When you’ve got the membranes removed, add 10 to 12 fresh basil leaves (don’t use dried) to a mortar and pestle and crush the two together until it forms a smooth paste.

Apply the past to your unwanted facial hair and let it sit for up to 20 minutes. If it starts to burn you may have left it too long.)

Use warm water to remove the paste from your skin.

It’s a remedy that will require a couple of applications throughout the week, but after around a month you’ll start to notice your unwanted hair disappear!

Potato and lentil mask

You must think we’ve really lost the plot now, but this remedy has been used in India for centuries and has been found to be an effective way of removing facial and body hair at home.

Here’s how you do it:

• Soak 1 cup of yellow lentils in water overnight. Then using a food processor, crush the soaked lentils until they become a thick paste.
• Peel three potatoes, and grate them (we know, this could very well be the start of a hash brown mix, but it’s not).
• Place the grated potatoes in a sieve and press them to extract the juice, which you will be using.
• Then mix the potato juice in with the lentil paste and add 1 tablespoon of honey and 4 tablespoons of lemon juice.
• Stir together until it forms a thick, smooth paste.

With your paste ready to go, apply it to the area where you have the unwanted hair and let it sit for up to 20 minutes. You’ll notice it tightens on your skin as it dries, but don’t panic.

Once it is fully dry, rub the paste with your fingers to remove it. The dried lentil past will fall off and should take your unwanted hair with it.

Do you have unwanted hair on your face or body? Have you used natural remedies such as these to treat it, or do you prefer more cosmetic options. Share your tips with us.

IMPORTANT LEGAL INFO This article is of a general nature and FYI only, because it doesn’t take into account your personal health requirements or existing medical conditions. That means it’s not personalised health advice and shouldn’t be relied upon as if it is. Before making a health-related decision, you should work out if the info is appropriate for your situation and get professional medical advice.