There is provided a device for imaging a skin object (7) near a skin surface of a body part, comprising a light source (1) and a detector (8) for detecting radiation returning from said object (7), wherein the device further comprises an elliptical, preferably circular, polarizer (4, 19) between the source (1) and said skin (6) surface, the device comprising a 5 ratio increaser means (3, 4, 19) for increasing the ratio of radiation from said object (7) to radiation from said skin (6) surface. The ratio increaser may be an additional or the same elliptical polarizer. Using elliptically or even circularly polarized light makes hair detection independent of the orientation of hair (7) with respect to light or polarization, which renders 10 the detection more reliable. The invention also provides an imaging method and a hair-shortening device and method.