This Weird Video of Depilatory Cream Is Going Viral
By Sarah Kinonen. Photos: Getty Images.
After a gorgeous spring weekend (at least like the one we experienced here in New York City), it's safe to say that, spring has officially spring, ya'll. And along with tacos, tulips, and tequila, warmer temperatures also indicate the arrival of bare legs season, and the corresponding impulse to rid our legs of the hair, dead skin, and whatever else accumulated during the dark days of winter — if you're into that sort of thing.
Luckily, if you are worried about unwanted body hair, there are a handful of hair-removal options to choose from (shaving, waxing, lasering, etc.). But there's another sneak category a lot of us forget: depilatory creams. Depilatory creams, or chemical-smelling lotions created in the first half of the 1900s, "dissolve hair at the skin's surface, so you can wipe it away with a cloth," Rosemarie Ingleton, a dermatologist in New York City, previously told Allure. While the process is virtually pain-free, sometimes the formulas can cause allergic reactions. "The main downside to depilatory creams is that many people are allergic to the active ingredient, calcium thioglycolate and/or potassium thioglycolate," says Ingleton, which is why, if you're interested in trying the technique, we recommend patch-testing before jumping in. But we digress...
More recently, though, it seems like the Internet was just introduced to the magic that are depilatory creams because a hair-removing video using the substance has gone viral — with 6.3 million views and counting. Over the weekend, Refinery29 pointed out that a 24-second Facebook video of someone having hair removed from their leg was straight-up witchcraft, as it was captioned, "This cream literally removes hair in SECONDS!"
We've got to admit that the video itself is pretty dated — it looks as though it was taken with the first-ever webcam, no? — which means that the origin of the clip could be from years before. But still, the video has racked up more than 20,000 comments of awe, shock, and disbelief, with the last one from just seven hours ago. And you know, seeing a full calf of hair — thick, long dark hair, not itty bitty springs of light stubble — whisk away in mere seconds is pretty jaw-dropping. (And satisfying...!) And even if you'd experimented with Nair, Veet, and Completely Bare in your past, we're guessing it didn't go exactly like that. Which is exactly why we implore you to check out the video here.
This story originally appeared on Allure.
More from Allure:
10 Celebrity Hairstyles That Make You Look 10 Years Younger
Find the Best Haircut for Your Face Shape
The 9 Prettiest Date-Night Makeup Looks
7 Weird Tricks Stars Use for Looking Great in Photos
