Umbra-

The slightest disagreement on one comment about shaving.  The shower.  I shave in the shower as it feels easier with a well soaked beard and provides easy clean up, I offset enviro purity issues by using a flow valve and stop the water while I shave as well as the usual Navy Shower routine.

If I was a woman I would definitely go this route.

Save water, shower with a friend or a friendly stranger.

is to remove hair with just plain tweezing, or another use for the ubiquitous duct tape, although less worthy than saving oneself from terrorist attack, is to use it for the latter part of the frightening 'sugaring', adhere it to the skin and pull.  
Tweezing doesn't coarsen the hair like shaving; the Native American used this method and lo and behold they didn't have tweezers or duct tape!

Women's shaving seems to me to be catering to men's perverted sexual appetite for little girls.  

Wax is not necessarily chemically.  I use an organic wax 3 times a year and for the cloth strips I cut up an old pair of jeans.  One small tub of wax costs about ten dollars and lasts for a year.
As far as the reasons why women shave, the reasons are multifarious, just like the reasons why people get tattoos, dreadlocks, piercings, botox or whatever.  I prefer to show my respect of women by not questioning their judgement.  As Naomi Wolf says, "A woman wins by giving herself and other women permission: to eat, to be sexual, to wear a boiler suit or a Balenciaga gown or combat boots- to do whatever she chooses in following her own aesthetic."

This is more of a thing to pass on mother to daughter, as my mom did to me, but I'll try to use modern technology to explain my waxing regime - very similar to the "sugar wax" recipe.

Here goes:

Put 12 tablespoons of sugar and 6 tablespoons of lemon juice (from real lemons) in a medium saucepan on high heat. DON"T STIR, but 'swoosh' by moving the saucepan by the handle in a circular motion.

Prepare a glass or ceramic baking pan and spread some lemon juice on it.

Allow the caramel to get to a dark caramel/ amber color, but not too dark - not to the point of seeming like burnt caramel (may have to practice a few times to get this right).

As soon as the color is right, pour the caramel onto the baking pan - keeping it gathered in one part. Put some lemon juice on a spoon and bunch up the caramel in one corner with this. Put a little lemon juice on your hands. Let the caramel cool until you can pick it up.

What you should get is a clump of tan caramel that you can hold in one piece in your hand. You can knead the caramel to soften it a bit. If the consistency isn't right even after kneading -it is under or over cooked and you need to try again.

You should use this glob of caramel right away to wax by slopping it on a higher part of your leg and pushing it down in a strip pressed against your leg. Push down and pull up fast on the bottom edge of the caramel mass stuck to your leg and pull the whole strip up towards you as fast as possible. Repeat for the rest of the area. This is enough for your whole body when you get good at it (my Aunts do arms, armpits, bikini - you name it).

The best way is to spread the caramel very thin at the end.

AND the real trick is spit, yes, spit -- the caramel will start to harden and if you spit in it and knead it it will soften.

This is a great method - I really recommend it. I love the fact that it is all natural -- even compostable! and these are ingredients you can find in any corner store. It may seem messy, but it washes away very easily under warm water & soap - just put some old newspaper down under where you are sitting to wax - oh, and don't try to answer the phone!