Depilatory products have been used for hair removal for several hundred years.  TRI Princeton now offers a method for testing the efficacy of these products for hair removal through the creation of a skin-like model with embedded hair fibers.

The skin model consists of fully cured, 8 mm thick silicone.  Hairs are embedded individually using a punch needle technique with 6.34 mm of exposed hair left showing.  The skin models are heated at 40 degrees C for 1 hour to mimic natural body heat before the application of depilatories.  After product removal, the number of lost hairs is recorded, including partial losses.

This model allows for the repeated testing of depilatory products without the need for human subjects. It can be customized by skin model size, hair density, hair length, and product application/removal.