Well, that one I requested.

Anyways, while we get all this stuff dropped off daily, it is truly rare that I find something new and awesome and totally worth writing about. Because I’m not gonna write about just anything the mailman drops on my desk while I’m out for my mid-morning brownie run. But I recently received a package that intrigued me and has since changed my life. And I not exaggerating.

I have a bikini line problem. It doesn’t matter if I maintain it myself or leave it to the waxing professionals, I get terrible in-grown hairs. I’ve used old razors, new razors, hard wax, soft wax, blue wax…you name it, I’ve tried it. And I’ve ended up with big, ugly bumps. Not really the look you’re going for when you spend $50 to beautify your nether regions.

I’m desperate to fix this and will give just about anything a try (well, anything that doesn’t cost $1,200 and use red, hot lasers on my va jay). So when I recieved a package from Hair Care Down There, I stuck that sucker in my messenger bag and took it home. Yeah, so it was only 2pm.  I just had to try it.

The Ultimate Shaving Kit came with everything I’d need to take matters into my own hands:
- A new, super sharp razor with refills
- Safety scissors for trimming without fear of lobbing off some important parts
- A mirror for getting at all those hidden places
- Clear shaving gel that protects your skin while you shave, but also lets you see through to what you’re doing
- A soothing spray and a smoothing cream to make everything feel better after the fact

And maybe a few things I didn’t need quite as much:
- A heart-shaped stencil for a more romantic look
- Bikini bindis, in case I felt the need to bling out my bush

Anyways, I set up shop in my bathroom and went to town. I had to see for myself if this shaving gel was as good as the promotional materials boasted. And it was. As was the awesome razor it came with. But the best part of the entire kit was the Skin Fix spray you use after shaving. It soothes and almost numbs the area so you don’t itch or burn. And it prevents ingrown hairs! Seriously, it’s been 2 weeks and for the first time in my life I don’t have any!

Now, I didn’t use the stencil or the bling included in the kit, but I was intrigued. There is an entire book explaining how to do everything and do it right, so there may be a little heart (or perfect landing strip) in my bikini line future.

The kit isn’t cheap – it’s a hefty $65 – but it’s totally worth it when you think about how much you spend (and how much pain you endure) getting those monthly bikini waxes. And you don’t even need to buy the whole thing. If you don’t need the extras like the razor or the bindis, you can just buy the shaving gel, cream and spray by themselves.

The Hair Care Down There products are truly amazing. After years of painful ingrown hairs (and one guy who freaked out thinking I had herpes….) I am forever indebted to the women who solved my biggest and most embarrassing issue.

We thought we’d help and every Thursday our friend Dr. Lissa Rankin will be answering your questions. The ones you couldn’t ask your doctor in person. Just leave your questions in the comments, or send em over to us. (We’ll keep it all anonymous for you.) Dr. Lissa will answer anything – really, anything – about sex and other lady things. Don’t be shy; she’s waiting for ya!

Q: Whenever I shave my bikini line or get waxed I get MASSIVE bumps down there. We’re talking HUGE. They hurt a ton and are super gross looking. Oh, and sometimes they pop (like a zit) and I get nauseous just looking at them. I can’t NOT wax/shave, but I also can’t handle these things. What is the cause and how can I prevent them?

A: I hear you, sister!  Sounds like you’re suffering from what we call folliculitis, infected ingrown hairs that can be caused by shaving.  We’ve all been there: it’s a hot, sunny day, and the beach beckons. You don your pink polka-dot bikini, only to discover that your Fabulous Furburger is flowing over the bikini line.  Bathing suit still on, you grab the razor and maybe a little hand soap, and set to work scraping the pubes off your inner thighs. Problem solved, right? Maybe not.  Two hours later, you’re covered with fire-engine red bumps advertising your bikini shave to the universe. And you can’t even swim because you’re so raw that the salt water makes you want to rip out your whole genital region and sling it into outer space.

And even in non-emergencies, when you do it right- soak in the bathtub first, lather up your pubes with the best shaving cream, and use a fresh, sharp razor, shave against the grain of what pubic hair wants- razor burn, ingrown hairs, itching, and burning often follow.

Why do we get razor burn? In addition to slicing through hair, razors shave off the top layer of the epidermis, resulting in tissue injury. The skin responds as it’s supposed to, by increasing blood flow to the area in order to heal the tissue injury, leaving you looking like a sunburned, plucked goose. Then there are the bumps, which result from shaving off puckered hair follicles that were damaged by the razor.

The easiest way to relieve the red rash of razor burn is to stop shaving and grab some boy-short swimming trunks. However, if the bikini beckons and you’re not interested in exposing your Furry Monkey to a beach full of hair-gazers, don’t fret. There are ways to shave safely and relieve the raging redness.

Tips For a Safe and Sane Bikini Shave

1. Before you shave, soak in a warm bath, which softens the hairs and allows for a gentler shave. Then exfoliate your bikini region with a loofah or shower puff to remove old, dead skin cells that could clog your pores. Bath products containing salicylic acid or glycolic acid may help prevent ingrown hairs, but some people are very sensitive to chemicals in this delicate region.

2. Purchase high quality razors and discard them after a few uses.

3. Choose a shaving cream with aloe or other soothing ingredients, and avoid shaving with bar soap, which further dries the skin, rather than hydrating it. An old fashioned shaving soap with a badger brush can work wonders. Try leaving the shaving cream on for a few minutes before you shave to further soften the hair.

4. Hold the area to be shaved taut, but not stretched.  Shave in the direction the hair grows- with the grain, rather than against. Clean your razor with water between each swipe. If you must double back over an already shaved area, apply more shaving cream.

5. Apply ice to your freshly shaved bikini line to hasten the closing of your pores.

6. Try following shaving with a product like Tend Skin, which you can buy at the drug store. Aloe vera gel and tea tree oil sprays offer natural relief.

7. Wait at least 30 minutes after shaving to apply moisturizing lotion. This allows the pores to close after shaving, minimizing irritation.

8. Treat redness and irritation with over-the-counter hydrocortisone cream. This topical steroid cream acts as an anti-inflammatory and constricts raging blood vessels. But don’t get hooked on it – chronic use can thin the skin and cause problems. Save hydrocortisone for serious irritation.

9. If you break out into pimples where you shave, zap zits with benzoyl peroxide cream.

10. Ingrown hairs can lead to pustules. If you are plagued by them, apply warm compresses to the pustule twice a day to encourage the hair to bust through. If this doesn’t work, or if the overlying skin is thin enough that you can see the hair, you can try unroofing the pustule yourself. Clean the area with hydrogen peroxide and use sterile tweezers or a needle to fish the wayward hair out of the pustule. Minimize squeezing and other trauma that can further damage the hair follicle and cause the ingrown hair to recur. When you locate the offending hair, don’t pluck it, which can further inflame the area. Just free it and encourage it to grow in the direction of the other hairs. If a pustule is especially large, surrounded by a lot of redness, or severely painful, or if you develop a fever, call your gynecologist or dermatologist right away.

[Like what you read here? Dr. Lissa's got a new book coming out in September: What's Up Down There? Questions You'd Only Ask Your Gynecologist if She Was Your Best Friend. Be sure to check it out for all the answers you want but were too afraid to ask.]

However, neglecting your sheets for too long can result in some icky, unwanted guests– and I don’t mean the one-night mistake you made last Saturday. Here are the five nastiest things that should inspire you to grab the Tide and make a date with the washing machine.

1. Bed Bugs

Reports of bed bugs are rising on college campuses and even if you’re particularly clean, you may not be safe. The little bastards can catch a ride to your room on luggage, clothing, and old furniture (e.g. your hand-me-down futon). Plus, they can live up to a year without a feeding, so they could have been hiding out in your empty dorm room for the whole summer just waiting for you to move in and unpack. Luckily, pest control on college campuses is prepared to snuff the buggers via steam, extreme heat, or pesticides. If you wake up with little red welts from bedbug bites report it immediately before the infestation spreads down the hall.

2. Your Personal Sheddings

When we hit the sack every night, we shed dry, dead skin and hair. Gross. I gag at the site of a hair-clogged shower drain, and sleeping with hairballs seems just as unappealing. Girls with long hair shed a lot, so there’s also the chance that you’ve left your mark in your man’s bed as well. Of course, dead skin and strands of hair are a breeding ground for microorganisms, so bacteria can escalate after just a few nights of shedding in your sleep.

3. Bodily Fluids

Not only do we lose skin and hair while we sleep, but we also sweat every night. And that’s just one of the many bodily fluids that can collect in our sheets. We’ve all heard horror stories of hotels that don’t pass the black light test, but all of the things that go down in smarmy motels go on every night in college dorms, where there’s no maid service. Whether you’re snoozing in a sea of sweat or semen, or you are notorious for drooling on your pillow, soaking your sheets after a particularly hot night (or a hot one night stand) will flush out the bacteria.

4. Scabies

Another member of the bug family, scabies is caused by eight-legged parasitic itch mites. Though it is hard to catch scabies from brief physical contact, it is still possible to contract them from shaking hands or sharing infested bedclothes. Speaking of which, the most common form of transmitting scabies is through sexual contact, an act we all know runs rampant through college campuses. Scabies can produce small bumps or blisters, which are accompanied by relentless itching. Luckily, scabies can be treated fairly easily through mite-killing creams and sprays, and your sheets and clothes can be taken care of with one simple wash.

5. Whatever You’ve Been Carrying Around Campus

Good Morning America recently tested the sanitary habits of University of Maryland students. The students rubbed some lotions on to their hands and continued with their day. Hours later, the students’ hands were put through a black light test, which revealed how often the students had washed their hands after touching doorknobs, using the bathroom, eating lunch, and working on computers that thousands of other hands have touched. The black lights revealed remnants of the lotion around fingernails, crusted around bandages, and caked next to rings and watches. The lotion also proved to spread like bacteria, and showed up on clothes and other parts of the students’ bodies including near eyes and noses where infections could develop.

That said, all of the germs and bacteria you encounter each day as you trek from class to class sharing desks, computers, and books with hundreds of thousands of other students can ultimately end up in your sheets. Your bed is your final destination at the end of the day, so while it’s a good idea to keep your linens fresh, it’s also a good idea to go to bed clean yourself.

We all know we don’t want hair down there, but red bumps; not really the look I am going for. Not to mention the in-grown hairs, the itchiness, or all the other problems that come with taking care of the situation. As if getting our bodies bikini-ready wasn’t challenging enough – now we are stuck with what is often times a force to be reckoned with: Bikini Hair Removal.

So in efforts to prepare you to grin and bare it this summer (hey, you didn’t spend all that time doing extra crunches for nothing, lady!) here are some pro/cons on the latest – as well as the tried and true – hair removal tips for your bikini line.

Shaving:

Pros: This method is great if you are in a pinch. It’s quick, easy and cheap.

Cons: Shaving only removes the hair above the surface, so hair can show up again the very same day (thank your foreign, hairy grandmother for inheriting her genes). Shaving often times leads to in-growns and those icky razor bumps. If you choose to go this route: hold skin taught while shaving, change the razor often, and trim before shaving, if needed. Also, shave in the direction that hair grows and wait to shave until after the shower when your skin has been softened by the warm water.

Waxing: While I personally do not recommend do-it-yourself waxing, there are people (crazy bitches) who do it. Waxing is best accomplished by a professional.

Pros: Since waxing removes hair from the root, it should last anywhere from 4-8 weeks, and the more often you do it, the slower the hair grows back.

Cons: No one ever said pain was cheap (though I constantly wonder why I spend so much to be abused)… bikini waxes can run from $30-100 dollars per wax, depending on how much you take off. Waxing can also cause in-growns, so it’s important to exfoliate. Other things to consider: Not only is it painful (take a pain reliever an hour before you go and avoid waxing a week before your period when you are the most sensitive, due to heightened levels of estrogen), it can be nerve wracking if you are a first-timer and relatively modest. What I tell my friends: your waxer has seen more vagina’s than she can even remember. So just put your dignity aside and (try to) relax.

Depilatory Creams: Depilatories use chemicals that react with the protein structure of the hair to literally melt the hair away. I am sure everyone remembers those lovely commercials, “Nair wears short shorts!”

Pros: Hair removal creams (like Nair) are inexpensive, easily accessible, quick and painless (you leave them on for 3-15 minutes and then wash off).

Cons: The awful smell. Seriously, it is like rotton eggs on your hoohah. Not sure it is worth the misery. Also, many people find that their skin becomes irritated from Depilatories, so make sure to do a skin test before using it.

Laser: How it works: the laser targets melanin, which is found in the hair, and breaks the follicle preventing further hair growth. Laser is said to work best on light skin/dark hair combination and is not recommended for those with darker skin tones.

Pros: An effective way to completely remove bikini hair once and for all. Relatively pain free (it’s said to feel like a small rubber band snapping your skin), and sessions are usually pretty quick.

Cons: Very expensive. Laser costs around $400 a session – and the average woman requires 5 sessions, plus once a year maintenance. You also can’t shave or be exposed to the sun in between sessions, which totally ruins your summer plans of sitting poolside. This would be a good option to consider starting in the winter, so that, come bikini season, you are already swimsuit ready.

Interested in laser? Visit the hair removal forum to get all the information you need before you go. Seriously, you don’t want any surprises. They even have a full list of local providers so you can find someone now and get that business taken care of.

Whatever option you choose, there is one must-have product for bikini zone happiness: Tend Skin. When that hair starts making a comeback, this is the best product for reducing and preventing those infamous in-grown hairs.

Got any other bikini zone tips to share? We can use all the help we can get…

[Photo courtesy of the Sydney Morning Herald]