女士刮脸有助改善肤色
Angela Garvin's alarm goes off at 6.30am every day. As a legal adviser, she has to be up early, and has a strict skin regime to get through.
安吉拉·加文每天早上6点半被闹钟叫醒。作为一名法律顾问，她必须早起，而且还必须留足时间进行严格的护肤程序。
First, she cleanses her face, then she dabson some toner -- and reaches for a bottle of shaving gel. She applies it across her chin, top lip and a small area around her neck.
Then, using a men's disposable razor, she carefully shaves her face, rinsing the fine, pale hairs down the basin as she goes. To finish, she rinses with warm water and applies moisturiser.
According to beauty enthusiasts -- or pretty much any woman you care to ask -- Angela has committed a cardinal sin.
After all, if shaving your legs encourages hair to grow back thicker, darker and stronger, then, for a woman, face-shaving would appear to invite disaster.
Nevertheless, Angela, 46 has been shaving her face three times a week for the past eight years and couldn't be happier with the results.
And she's not alone; dermatologists also endorse the idea and, astonishing as it may sound, a host of products have been rushed out to cater for the trend of women shaving their faces.
'It's cheap, takes seconds and doesn't irritate my skin, unlike laser or waxing,' says Angela. 'The claim that facial hair grows back thicker and darker is a myth. It's been the best thing I could have started doing.' What's more surprising is that far from causing ingrowing hairs, nasty grow-back or red raw patches, Angela is adamant that regular shaving has improved her complexion.
Dr Michael Prager, an aesthetic clinician who has a practice in London, says: 'From an anti-ageing point of view, home shaving has some effect. It's like a mild form of microdermabrasion, so encourages collagen production, which reduces wrinkles. Whenever there's trauma to the skin, collagen is stimulated to help cell renewal.'