Final answer:
Chemical depilatories can remove hair as short as 1/8-inch long. They use active ingredients to break disulfide bonds in hair, making it easy to wipe away. Hair removal creams like Nair, Magic Shave, and Veet are common examples.
Step-by-step explanation:
The type of hair removal that has an advantage of removing hair even if it is only 1/8-inch long is known as a chemical depilatory. These are available in various forms such as gel, cream, lotion, aerosol, roll-on, and powder, and can effectively break down the protein structure of hair, making it easy to remove even short lengths of hair. Popular brands include Nair, Magic Shave, and Veet. The active ingredients are usually salts of thioglycolic acid and thiolactic acids, which work to break down disulfide bonds in keratin.
Chemical depilatories are formulated with calcium thioglycolate in a cream base, alongside calcium or strontium hydroxide to maintain a high pH level, usually around 12. This high pH is necessary for the thioglycolate to effectively break down the hair, which typically takes about 10 minutes. After the hair has been broken down, it is important to rinse the skin thoroughly and apply conditioners to normalize the skin's pH.