Survey Reveals Complex Attitudes Toward Hair Removal

March 31, 2009 – Pleasanton, CA – Almost all (96%) American women shave unwanted hair on their legs, underarms and bikini line every week – with most (70%) doing so at least once and up to four times a week – totaling up to 48 hours a year. According to a survey commissioned by TRIA Beauty, women devote so much time and energy to this aspect of their beauty regimen because the overwhelming majority (91%) wish their unwanted hair “was just gone forever.”

The TRIA Beauty survey, conducted online by Zoomerang, revealed provocative insights and attitudes about hair removal, suggesting it’s one of the least enjoyable yet most important elements of a woman’s beauty regimen, regardless of age.

“We commissioned the survey to learn more about the complex relationship a woman has with body hair,” said Drake Stimson, Executive Vice President, Sales & Marketing for TRIA Beauty. “The findings are consistent with our own research that indicates removing unwanted body hair is an essential part of looking and feeling beautiful and that women invest a great deal of time removing unwanted hair, but that the current methods are not very appealing.”

Among key survey findings:

Majority of women (93%) “Feel more beautiful” when their unwanted hair has been removed and “enjoy the silky smooth feeling” of their skin (97%)
More than eight out of ten women (84%) say unwanted hair on legs and underarms
affects their choice of clothes – especially Southern women (93%)
Most women agree that shaving is “an endless chore” (86%), “inconvenient” (77%) –
yet an essential part of their beauty routine (82%)
Most women (88%) agree waxing is painful – yet 20% of women wax regularly
Northeast women feel the strongest about the importance of managing unwanted body hair; slightly more than half (60%) of Midwestern women agree
“It’s ironic that most women still resort to such ancient tools as hot wax and metal blades to manage such an important aspect of beauty,” said Stimson. “We are delighted to bring that part of their beauty regimen into the 21st century with effective at-home laser hair removal that eliminates the need to shave or wax while providing smooth, beautiful skin.”

Zoomerang Methodology

Zoomerang randomly sampled 1,000 women age 18-49 via an online questionnaire. Respondents from the West, Midwest, Northeast and South were pooled and are representative of the U.S. population. Zoomerang is a pioneer of independent, online surveys that provide sophisticated functionality and professional solutions to thousands of organizations around the world. Zoomerang's customers have created and sent more than 100 million online surveys including customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction and market research surveys. Zoomerang’s customized surveys recruit and select custom groups of survey respondents to satisfy customers’ individual needs.