Epilation

One of the down sides of breastfeeding is that the amount of time spent in close proximity to the top of your baby's head means it is impossible to avoid noticing the horrible waxy, scaly stuff that is cradle cap - also known as infantile or neonatal seborrhoeic dermatitis, crusta lactea, milk crust or honeycomb disease. Such poetic names for a scabby head! I am a consummate picker - I cannot resist attacking my baby's scalp with my fingernails when the poor little fellow is just trying to have a nice peaceful, comforting feed. I feel terribly guilty when his skin goes red - but it doesn't stop me. Last night I gave him a warm moisturising bath and a good old head massage which seems to have worked wonders - and he enjoyed it  a lot more than my usual method! I also noticed that his skin was quite dry and scaly between his eyebrows. I am hoping this is not indicative of future monobrow development, otherwise I will have to introduce my little man to the wonderful world of epilation.


I would never criticise anyone for going au naturale when it comes to body hair but the hairy look is not for me. Plucking works a treat but it is a bit slow to be considered an effective method on anything much more than eyebrows. I am not a fan of shaving because of the bristly regrowth and I can't bear the smell and mess of depilatory creams. Waxing is too sticky and sugaring just sounds weird. So my preferred method is my trusty epilator. I have been epilating my legs for years now with reasonably good results. When I first started it felt like I was ripping the flesh away from my bones. It was toe curling, cringe inducing agony. But it is true that you can get used to anything and the more I did it, the easier it became. I must have forgotten just how excruciatingly painful it was that first time when I made the decision to epilate my armpits.


It was some months before my wedding and despite using a whole variety of different razors, I could never get my armpits as smooth as I would like to feel completely confident about wearing a sleeveless wedding dress. It was a brave moment when I first put epilator to armpit and it was an even braver moment to make the decision to persevere with it. The toe curling agony was back with a vengeance. It took me four sessions to complete my preliminary epilation - half an armpit worth of pain was enough for one day. By the time the bleeding had stopped and the swelling had gone down (!) the result was pretty good. Good enough to know I was doing the right thing. Regrowth was slow and patchy and each time I repeated the procedure, it was considerably easier.


Wearing the sleeveless dress at my wedding was no problem and the pain endurance was good practice for the day I gave birth to my lovely little son! 


There is something about having smooth hair-free armpits that makes me feel ready for anything, which is just as well because news in from the Wendy House is that my sister has made it into the final three in her Superhero competition to win a car. Photographers will be arriving at my house this afternoon to do a photo shoot of my 'Superhero' parents and we need to have our party planning machine on full throttle to be ready to throw a big bash next weekend. It's all starting to feel like just another day in the life of a QWERTY Mum!