Subscribe and read
the most interesting
articles first!

Hair removal in intimate places - The best methods, reviews. Epilation and depilation of the intimate area at home

Before the long-awaited vacation, every girl wants to look perfect. This is one of the main reasons why you want to achieve perfectly smooth skin even in intimate places. The bikini area is the surface of the skin and genitals, which is usually covered with underwear and swimsuits. And long, dense vegetation in this area is not only unsightly, but also unhygienic.

Previously, only women tried to get rid of hair in the groin area, but over time, men also began to resort to depilation. Among women, the most common types of depilation are:

  • classic: hair removal along the panty line, the rest of the hair is carefully trimmed;
  • medium: hairs are removed from both the pubis and labia, the hair remains behind;
  • deep: all hair is removed from the intimate area.

For the first time, it is better to resort to the classic type of depilation to check the skin’s reaction to the procedure.

Men can also remove hair only on the pubic area, on the pubic area and from the skin of the scrotum, or make a deep bikini.

Salon procedure

Beauty salons are ready to offer different methods of hair removal, each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages. Before visiting the salon, you need to familiarize yourself with information about the establishment and the qualifications of the master. Despite the fact that many salon managers claim that there is no pain, this is not at all true. Simple, each method has its own brightness of sensations.

Salon depilation options - table

Name Removal method pros Minuses
Waxing (waxing)Hair is removed with hot waxThe most popular method. The result without correction lasts up to four weeks. After such manipulations, new hairs grow thinner and softer.The disadvantages include pain and the possibility of irritation.
SugaringSimilar to the wax procedure, only using sugar pasteLess pronounced pain, each time the pain becomes weaker, light peeling effect, does not cause allergic reactionsHigher cost of the procedure
PhotoepilationThe hair follicle is heated, causing its deathThe effect is achieved in four sessions and remains forever.Pain, presence of contraindications: cardiovascular pathology, oncology, diabetes mellitus
ElectrolysisA thin electrode is applied to the hairs, destroying the rootHair stops growing completelySoreness, possible fear due to the impact of complex equipment in such an intimate place

Despite the emergence of new ways to get rid of unwanted hair, many people prefer to use time-tested methods.

Preparatory stages

It is important to properly prepare sensitive skin before such a procedure. To do this, observe the following rules:

  • The desired areas are moisturized to make the hair softer and more elastic.
  • Scrubbing is carried out, removing dead skin particles with a washcloth or special cosmetics.
  • The hair is not shaved first, otherwise it will become coarser.
  • The recommended length of hair is 5 mm; hairs that are too short will not be captured by wax or sugar.
  • They do not bleach hair; coloring agents make the hair structure loose.
  • Do not visit the solarium and beaches at least a week before going to the salon.

Some salons offer pain-relieving treatments. This is true for those who have a low pain threshold. The availability of such an additional service must be confirmed with managers in advance.

Depilation of the intimate area at home

Not everyone wants to go to a salon to receive such a service. There are options for hair removal at home. Preparing for a home procedure is no different from preliminary preparation before going to the salon.

You can do depilation yourself using wax strips, tweezers, or baking soda. It is worth familiarizing yourself with all the possible options to choose the most preferable one.

Waxing

This procedure is carried out using a cartridge with a narrow roller, it contains wax. The device is ideal for use in the bikini area. With a narrow roller, even small areas of skin can be treated. It will work after heating with a special device (usually sold with a roller in a set, but can be purchased separately). If you don’t have a device, you can use a water bath. Hot wax can expand pores, which reduces pain.

After hardening, the applied wax is removed in strips. Some people prefer to tear them off in one jerk, while others prefer to tear them off gradually. The desired mode is selected individually.

Using tweezers

Not all hairs are equally easy to remove with wax. Tweezers are used when you need to pull hairs out of hard-to-reach places. Sometimes, after a waxing procedure, previously unnoticed hairs remain. There is no need to repeat the procedure, which is why they use ordinary tweezers.

Tweezers will also come in handy for those who wear intimate haircuts. With its help, you can free up areas to create a future pattern. The advantages of this method include accessibility and simplicity. The rod then grows back more slowly.

Using soda

Hair removal with soda is more of a folk method. The homemade product works well with hair on the legs and arms. But the groin area will be more sensitive to the caustic composition. To avoid undesirable consequences, it is necessary to follow the recommended proportions and be sure to monitor the exposure time.

The procedure is performed step by step:

  1. First, mix a teaspoon of baking soda in 200 ml of water at room temperature. If you take too hot water, the active component will lose its properties.
  2. Prepare a thin cloth and dip it in a soda solution for five minutes.
  3. The compress is applied to the intimate area, additionally secured with cling film. It is advisable to carry out the procedure at night, since the exposure time is ten hours.
  4. Then the film is removed, and the solution is left on the skin without washing it off during the day.

After several treatments, the hair will become thinner and begin to fall out. This option is suitable for sensitive skin, as it does not cause pain. The course consists of ten sessions; if possible, these manipulations are carried out every night.

Pain relief for home hair removal

Depilation scares many people away due to painful sensations, so the issue of pain relief is always relevant. There are many ways to make the procedure more comfortable and as effective as possible. You should choose a product based on your preferences and availability:

  • Specialized creams. They contain active components that reduce the sensitivity of the skin. For example, at the pharmacy you can buy Emla cream containing prilocaine and lidocaine. Apply such products a couple of hours before the start of the procedure in a thick layer, covering with cling film.
  • Sprays. At the pharmacy you can buy Lidocaine spray or the drug in ampoules. If you have ampoules, it is enough to pour their contents into a container with a spray bottle. Only the substance is potent, so consultation with a doctor is required. Injections with lidocaine are a more effective method, but also very complex, since the drug is injected under the skin.
  • Anesthetics. Before the procedure, you can take Nurofen, Tempalgin or Analgin. The drugs will begin to work in half an hour. Before use, please read the instructions. Anesthetic drugs can be purchased in the form of a liquid solution or suspension; they are more effective due to their penetration through the vessels into the blood.
  • Steaming. The option is affordable and budget-friendly. You just need to steam your skin by taking a bath or hot shower. You can apply warm compresses to areas of skin with unwanted hair. Thanks to these manipulations, getting rid of hair will be almost painless and more comfortable.

The abundance of hairs in the bikini area not only prevents a girl from feeling confident and attractive. Also, “vegetation” is an ideal environment for the growth of bacteria, which causes an unpleasant odor and various diseases of the genital organs. Therefore, hair removal of intimate areas is a mandatory beauty procedure for women of different ages. Shaving and using depilatory cream can get rid of hair in the intimate area for only a few days, but every woman wants to achieve a long-lasting effect from removing “vegetation.”

Epilation at home

You can easily do bioepilation of the bikini area at home. Thus, wax and sugar paste are successfully used to remove hair. Many women perform bioepilation of the bikini area on their own, as it is a simple task. But still, performing wax and sugar hair removal at home requires compliance with certain rules.

Waxing intimate hair removal at home requires the use of melted wax (it is advisable to purchase one that is designed for removing hair from intimate places). You also need to prepare a spatula, talc, chlorhexidine (disinfectant), wax removal wipes or oil, tweezers, and nourishing cream. A few days before epilation of the bikini area, grow hairs at least 3 millimeters long. Before epilation, you need to perform hygiene procedures. If the hairs are very long, to simplify the procedure they need to be shortened to 4 millimeters.

Intimate waxing is correctly performed as follows:

1. You should take a comfortable position (put one foot on a high chair or on the bathtub bar).

2. Before applying wax, wipe the skin with a cotton swab soaked in chlorhexidine and apply talcum powder.

3. Melt the wax in a water bath and apply it in an even layer to the skin using a spatula (strictly according to hair growth). There are 2 hair removal techniques:

  • bandage: a fabric or paper strip is applied to the wax, after which it must be sharply removed against hair growth;
  • manual: wax is applied along the hair growth with a spatula, and removed in the opposite direction with your fingers.

4. After epilation, correction should be performed - the remaining hairs should be pulled out with tweezers.

5. Wax residues are wiped off with napkins, and cream is applied to the skin.

It will not be possible to remove hair forever in this way, since hairs begin to appear again 3-4 weeks after hair removal. However, waxing negatively affects hair growth - they become sparse and thin. It is worth considering that after waxing, new hairs can grow into the skin, so to prevent this problem, it is recommended to treat the skin of intimate areas with a scrub every three days. Waxing should not be done if you have varicose veins in the groin, an allergy to bee products, or an exacerbation of genital herpes.

Intimate hair removal at home is known to many ladies as sugaring. If a girl, before carrying out such hair removal at home, removed hairs from her bikini area with a razor, after which they became stiff, it is recommended to undergo several waxing sessions. The paste may not grip thick and thick hairs well, so the bristles need to be “loosened.”

To do sugaring at home, you should take care of high-quality sugar paste. You can not only purchase it, but also prepare it yourself using this recipe:

  1. Take 10 tablespoons of granulated sugar, 3 tablespoons of water and juice from half a lemon. All products are placed in a metal pan.
  2. Place the dishes on low heat and cook the pasta, not forgetting to stir it.
  3. As soon as the mass acquires a shade of caramel or honey, remove the bowl with the paste from the heat.
  4. The paste is poured into a plastic container and wait until it cools down.

Before sugaring with paste prepared at home, you should check its consistency. Normally, the material for doing bikini sugaring yourself should easily roll into a ball. If the paste is too thick or, conversely, liquid, it is not worth epilating.

Sugaring experts recommend using several types of pastes to perform Brazilian hair removal. For example, to remove hair along the panty line, on the pubis and labia, a moderately dense one is suitable. To remove hairs between the buttocks and around the anus, you should use a thick paste.

The duration of the procedure depends on how radically hair is removed from intimate areas. Thus, designing a bikini line takes no more than 10 minutes, but in order to completely remove hair, you will have to spend 40 minutes or more.

Before performing sugaring, you should disinfect your skin. If the hairs are more than 5 millimeters long, they should be shortened with a trimmer, otherwise the paste will simply get tangled in thick “vegetation.” To control the process of hair removal with sugar paste, you need to squat in front of a mirror or place one foot on the edge of the bathtub.

There are 2 basic sugaring techniques:

  1. Manual: the essence of this technique is that only the fingers are used to carry out the procedure (hands can be with or without gloves).
  2. Bandage: according to this technique, the paste is applied to the skin using a spatula, strictly against hair growth. A strip of fabric or paper is glued onto the paste, after which it is sharply torn off the skin.

After epilation is completed, the skin is rinsed with water, washing off any remaining paste. To prevent irritation and pustules from appearing, you need to apply a soothing agent to the skin. To protect yourself from irritation and pustules, in the first few weeks after hair removal you should not visit the pool or sauna, or swim in bodies of water.

Hair removal in intimate places is a rather delicate problem that almost every woman faces. The perfect bikini line is in fashion, and it takes a lot of effort to achieve it. Salon procedures, razors, special creams: all this does not always bring the desired result. Which method should you choose and what should you do to keep your skin smooth and soft for as long as possible? You will learn about this by reading this article.


Is it worth removing hair in intimate areas?

This issue is considered quite controversial. On the one hand, many argue that depilation is not just a way to become more sexy and attractive: hair removal is a hygienic procedure. Opponents of removal believe that hair is present in certain places of the human body for a reason. In particular, hair in the pubic area protects against harmful bacteria. It’s not for nothing that our grandmothers didn’t even know what hair removal in intimate places is called, but they didn’t have any problems with it: infections were less common, and women gave birth much more often than these days, when many women diligently get rid of from the “natural barrier” in the intimate area.

However, there are no convincing studies indicating that depilation of “delicate” areas of the female body leads to an increased likelihood of urogenital infection. Therefore, you can safely remove hair (if, of course, that’s what you want).

Advice!You can limit yourself to just hair correction: remove it on the sides and straighten it in the center using a special trimmer. This way you will minimize the risk of irritation.


What hair removal methods are there?

The skin in the intimate areas of the human body is tender and sensitive. Therefore, choosing a depilation method can be extremely difficult. As a rule, the following methods are used to remove hair in intimate places at home:

  • shaving using a machine;
  • hair removal with special creams;
  • hair removal with wax;
  • sugaring;
  • using a household epilator.

Let's talk about the pros and cons of all of the above methods.

Advice! To help your hair grow slowly, regularly wipe your skin with nut decoction: it helps increase the time between depilation procedures.

Shaver

Most women use a razor to get rid of unnecessary hair. This is indeed very convenient, but in order to achieve the desired result, it is important to comply with a number of conditions:

  • You can shave your hair only on steamed skin; it is advisable to do this after a bath or in the shower;
  • You cannot refuse special creams and gels for hair removal in intimate places: they soften the hair and protect the skin. Otherwise, irritation and inflammation may occur;
  • To protect delicate skin from irritation, hair should be shaved not against the hair growth, as many do, but diagonally.

The main advantages of the procedure include complete painlessness, low cost and the ability to quickly remove all unnecessary hair. But there are also disadvantages: shaving with a machine often causes quite severe inflammation in the intimate area due to the fact that the blades damage delicate skin. Therefore, the machine is not suitable for everyone: for women whose skin is particularly sensitive, other methods are suitable.

Advice! Use only new machines for hair removal in the bikini area! If the blades become dull, you risk damaging your skin quite badly. If this does happen, wipe the wounds with hydrogen peroxide or another disinfectant: this will avoid the development of inflammatory processes.

Wax for depilation

In order to remove hair with wax, you will need the wax itself, special spatulas for applying it and strips of non-woven material.

The procedure is extremely simple: wax is applied to the hair and a fabric strip is glued to it. After this, the strip should be torn off with a sharp movement. It would seem that no difficulties should arise. However, wax depilation also has a number of subtleties:

  • the hair must be at least 5 mm long: otherwise the wax will not be able to “grab” it;
  • the strip is torn off against the hair growth with a sharp movement. Not all women are able to cope with this task: when removing the wax from the skin, quite painful sensations arise;
  • one day before waxing hair in intimate places, the skin should be thoroughly treated with a scrub: this will make the procedure more effective.

Using wax, you can remove hair for a long time: wax, unlike a razor, does not just cut the hairs, but removes them along with the root.

However, due to the fact that the procedure is painful, many women simply cannot perform such an “execution” on themselves. In addition, the intimate areas of our body have a rather complex “relief”, so dealing with hair with wax is quite a difficult task. If you want to try waxing of intimate areas, visit a beauty salon: specialists apply special compounds to the client’s skin that reduce pain. In addition, you will be able to learn the basic principles of wax depilation and ask the master all the questions that interest you.

Advice! There are special strips for removing hair in intimate places: wax is already applied to them. This strip is glued to the skin like a plaster and is removed with a sharp movement. Using wax strips makes the hair removal process much easier.

Epilator

The most popular device for removing hair from intimate areas is undoubtedly the epilator. Removing hair in intimate areas using an epilator is a rather painful procedure, so it is advisable to buy a special cooling model or an epilator that can work in water. If your hair is thick and quite dark, you should avoid using an epilator.

Using the epilator is very simple: it grabs the hair itself and removes it from the root. As a result, the skin remains smooth and soft for a long time. In addition, thanks to regular use of the epilator, the hairs will become thinner and thinner, and the pain will become less intense over time. However, for the procedure to be more effective, it is necessary to regularly exfoliate the intimate area and depilate after a bath, when the skin becomes soft and steamed.


Advice! After using epilators, many women notice ingrown hairs. To avoid this, scrub your skin regularly and dry it with a stiff towel after showering. For even better results, use moisturizing and softening creams.

Depilatory creams

A private hair removal cream seems to be one of the easiest ways to deal with excess hair and achieve a perfect bikini area. After all, what could be simpler: the cream is applied to the skin, and after a few minutes it is removed along with the hairs. However, this procedure has a number of nuances:

  • Depilatory cream is not suitable for everyone. If your skin is irritable and sensitive, you should avoid the cream: it contains aggressive chemicals;
  • the cream should not be applied to the mucous membrane: this can provoke the development of a serious inflammatory process;
  • The cream can only remove fine hair. In addition, their length should reach 3–4 mm.

Depilatory cream is not suitable for everyone. However, it can indeed bring quite good results: the effect lasts for a long time, and the hair grows thinner and thinner.

Advice! Before using a purchased depilatory cream, test it on a small area of ​​skin. If the skin is red, you should avoid using the cream as directed.

Sugaring

Removing body hair using sugar paste has been known since ancient times. This method is quite effective and simple, because you can prepare the mixture for sugaring even at home. You will need granulated sugar, water and a little lemon juice. All components are mixed and melted in a water bath until the mixture resembles caramel. When the mass has cooled, it is applied to the skin and torn off along with the hair.

The undoubted advantages of sugaring include:

  • hypoallergenic composition;
  • Additional components can be added to the mixture to nourish and soften the skin, for example, honey;
  • the composition captures even fairly short hairs;
  • the paste does not cause irritation to the skin, which is very important when removing hair in intimate areas;
  • The effect of sugaring lasts for a long time: many women compare it with laser hair removal in intimate places.

Smooth skin lasts for several weeks, during which time it has time to fully recover after a rather traumatic procedure.

However, in order to learn how to make a mixture with the correct consistency, you will have to practice. In addition, sugaring is quite painful: not all women can withstand it.

Advice! You don’t have to cook the sugaring paste yourself, but buy it at a beauty salon. They sell pastes with various additives that nourish and moisturize the skin. In addition, the consistency of the purchased paste is ideal for the procedure. However, carefully read the ingredients: if the paste contains preservatives and dyes, it is better to refuse the purchase: look for a higher quality option.

Trimmer

This method is suitable for those girls who do not want to injure their skin. The trimmer delicately cuts hairs, so the risk of irritation or inflammation is minimized. Using a trimmer, you can create a bikini design without causing any harm to the skin or mucous membrane.

However, the trimmer is not suitable for everyone: perfect smoothness cannot be achieved with its help - the hair is preserved, but the bikini area takes on a more neat, well-groomed appearance. So if your skin is sensitive, you may want to skip shaving and opt for a trimmer.


Advice! On sale you can find special women's trimmers with various attachments. Using these attachments, you can remove hair in the armpit area, create intimate haircuts, and even trim eyebrows. Therefore, it is worth paying attention to such multifunctional devices: they allow you to solve several problems at once.

Regular hair removal of legs and armpits today accompanies the life of any woman. But intimate hair removal causes ambivalence. Some do not remove such hair at all, others epilate only the part that can be seen from a swimsuit, some prefer to have a narrow strip of hair, and some decide to creatively cut the bikini area. Many women regularly completely remove all hair in the intimate area: they consider this more hygienic and aesthetically pleasing.

QUICK NAVIGATION THROUGH THE ARTICLE

Where and how

A modern woman has a large number of ways and opportunities to remove hair in such a delicate area. Some visit specialized salons, others prefer to carry out the procedure themselves, at home. Both options have their disadvantages and advantages, so the fair sex should rely on their own preferences.

The skin of the intimate area is highly sensitive. For this reason, it makes sense to have your first hair removal in a salon. The risk that an experienced professional will damage the skin is minimal, and in his arsenal there are special lotions and other products that help reduce the discomfort of the process.

Having received the first experience and formed her own idea of ​​​​a particular method of hair removal, the girl can continue to visit salons or, taking advantage of the accumulated experience, begin intimate depilation at home. There are several different ways to get rid of unwanted hair, but laser and photoepilation are exclusively the property of salons.

How the hair removal procedure occurs in such a delicate place is in this video.

Intimate hair removal at home

Carrying out hair removal at home is not such a complicated procedure as it might seem at first glance. There are many ways to remove hair, from which you can choose the most suitable one for your skin and hair type.

The most common hair removal methods and tools:

  • machine for shaving;
  • depilatory cream;
  • electric epilator;
  • wax;
  • sugaring.

The choice of depilation method, in addition to personal preferences, may be influenced by the characteristics of the skin of the intimate area, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of the listed methods that are to be considered.

Shaving

Almost every person has used a razor at least once in their life: it is not for nothing that this method enjoys the fame of simple and cheap hair removal method at home.

The machine is affordable, does not require large financial costs and removes hair in a matter of minutes.

Shaving allows every woman to get rid of unwanted hair at any time. However, using a razor has a number of disadvantages that push people to use other types of hair removal in intimate areas.

The main disadvantages of shaving:

  • cuts;
  • the appearance of irritation;
  • ingrown hair;
  • redness.

The razor removes hair only from the surface of the skin, without affecting the hair follicle, which is why it grows back quickly. This leads to the need frequent repetition procedures that provoke irritation and dry skin. This may not be felt when shaving your legs or armpits, but the skin of the intimate area will respond to damage especially acutely.

To reduce the unpleasant consequences of shaving, you can use special ointments, gels, creams and lotions. Skin care is especially important with this type of hair removal.

Depilatory cream

The use of cream is not inferior in popularity to a razor. This method can easily be called the second most popular among methods of getting rid of hair at home. Like the machine, the cream does not require much effort or a lot of money. It is enough to apply the composition to the skin and wait for the time specified in the instructions. Then, depending on the cream, it is removed with a special spatula or washed off with water.

This method of depilation is more pleasant and safe for the skin of such delicate places, but there is a certain risk when using it. Firstly, the cream may cause allergies or skin irritation. To avoid this, before depilation you need to check for possible reactions on a small area of ​​skin.

Well, the constant scourge of all such products for hair removal at home: hair grows back very quickly when depilated with cream.

Shaving with a machine and using a cream will relieve a person of hair for a short period of time, but the process itself does not cause pain, which cannot be said about hair removal using an electric epilator.

Few people risk using an electric epilator for depilation of the intimate area. Although the quality of such shaving will be higher than when using a machine, and you only need to spend money on the device once, pain from this procedure will cover all visible advantages. Ingrown hairs, which are at risk with an electric epilator, are also an unpleasant and difficult aspect of this type of hair removal. Of course, you can use various painkillers, such as anesthetic sprays, but in such sensitive areas the pain only dulls, but does not disappear completely.

At home, an electric epilator is ideal for removing hair on the legs, sometimes in the armpit area, but intimate hair removal with its help is akin to torture.

Wax

Depilation is done using wax both at home and in salons. At home it will be a good help special machine to warm up the wax. It will greatly simplify the process of preparing material for depilation, and all that remains for the woman is to apply the wax using a spatula.

A simpler solution would be to buy cold wax applied to strips, but this procedure is rightfully considered one of the most painful. This method is practically inapplicable for hair removal of intimate areas. But wax in cassettes usually turns out to be “weak” for coarse hair, although, of course, this issue is largely individual.

The best solution would be a low-melting wax in bean granules: when applied hot, the skin softens, making hair removal easier and pain reduced to a minimum.

Sugaring

Sugaring is a relatively new procedure, but every day the number of its adherents is increasing. At its core, sugaring is similar to waxing: this procedure also involves applying a certain mixture to the skin and then removing it.

The main advantages, especially important in the matter of intimate depilation, are the painlessness of the procedure, which is achieved by pulling out the hair according to its growth, and not against it.

Sugaring does not injure the skin: the sugar mass does not damage the top layer. At the same time, the disinfecting properties of sugar help avoid the appearance of acne or irritation.

Depilation is a procedure for removing hair from the skin, which does not affect the hair follicle, unlike epilation: in this case, the hair is removed along with the follicle. Many girls prefer depilation. This method is gentler on the skin and less painful. It is also suitable for those women who are afraid or embarrassed to go to the salon, because depilation is easy to do at home.

The issue of removing hair from the intimate part of the body has long been controversial. Many believe that removing hair from the bikini area is a direct path to the appearance of various diseases and sexually transmitted infections in a woman. After all, hair serves as a natural barrier against harmful microflora. But doctors have long established that this is a fallacy. On the contrary, long hair in the intimate area contributes to the appearance of an unpleasant odor. After all, hair accumulates drops of sweat and sebum. The absence of hair in intimate places fills any representative of the fair sex with confidence.

There are also disadvantages, probably as in any other procedure. Ingrown hairs often occur. The skin becomes irritated and feels uncomfortable. But if you properly prepare the skin and then properly care for it both before and after the procedure, then these consequences can be avoided.

How to do depilation in intimate places

Before getting rid of hair in intimate places, you need to decide on the type of depilation. There are several of them, namely:

Ways to do it at home

Today, there are many means to ensure that depilation of the intimate area at home is as painless as possible. The most popular of them:

Regardless of which type of hair removal procedure you choose, it is best to use several hair removal methods.

Proper skin care after the procedure

To prevent irritation from spoiling your mood and causing discomfort, you need to know how to properly care for for the skin of the bikini area after the procedure. To do this you need:

Choosing the right method removal of unwanted vegetation- hair removal or depilation is purely individual. Every woman has her own pain threshold and skin type. Therefore, if one of the methods does not work, it is better to try another, less aggressive option.

Join the discussion
Read also
Flames of God 7 main rays
When to cut your nails by day of the week
How to congratulate a man on his fortieth birthday Wishes from colleagues or employees