I was recently approached by a good friend who asked me whether it is worth the time, effort, (and often times) money, to get hair waxed off. I thought this was an awesome question, since I have experience with waxing both at home and at a spa.
First off, what is your tolerance for pain? Waxing any area of your body is not exactly a relaxing spa treatment, and certain areas of the body hurt more than others. There are a couple of ways that can help you avoid as much pain as possible.
1) Take a hot shower before waxing. Your skin definitely needs to be completely dry when waxing, but the steam from the shower will open your pores, thus the hair is slightly easier to remove.
2) Take a small dose of ibuprofen about 30 minutes beforehand. This will help dull the pain.
3) Always exfoliate at least the day before you wax. This will help you avoid pulling off any dead skin which would cause additional pain.
4) Relax, breathe, and don’t tense up too much. The process will be much smoother (no pun intended) if you are at ease.
Also, if you wax compared to a professional at a spa, there is a chance you will feel more or less pain. Do you like to know when the pain is coming? Or do you prefer to have to it done quick without warning? These are questions you need to ask yourself
It’s important to let your hair grow out about a quarter inch. If the hair is not long enough, the wax will not be able to hold on to anything. Alternately, if the hair is too long, the hair will just slip right through the wax.
Types of wax
There are multiple different types of wax and you can experiment with all of them to find which works best for you. There is hot wax, cold wax, wax strips (which I prefer since they’re less messy), and sugar wax. All different forms can be found in sensitive skin formulas and natural formulas.
Now you may be wondering, should I wax at home, or at a spa or salon? Well there are definitely pros and cons to both. I’m going to go over specific body parts one by one and share my experiences.
Legs
Waxing your legs can be a really good alternative to shaving if you have really dark and thick hair. However, leg hair grows back quickly and the time and money you invest may not be worth it. I’ve waxed my legs at home and will not pay over $30 per leg at a spa, especially if the hair will grow back in less than a week. I always shave my legs. I used Sally Hansen strips when I waxed once, but it took so long that I gave up halfway through one leg and ended up shaving. However, if you have going on a short vacation and don’t want to be bothered with shaving for a few days, waxing is definitely the way to go.
Bikini area / Brazilian
Yikes! This hurts the worst, ladies! Especially a Brazilian! This is something I would definitely recommend getting done by a professional. This is because you can’t see down there very well (unless you’re a contortionist) and you want to make sure you get every last hair and do a bad job. Now, the pain is intense, since this area of your body is especially sensitive. If you shave, make sure you’ve grown your hair out for about a week or two, depending on how rapid your hair grows. And I know it can be nerve wracking, letting someone wax you down there, but trust me when I say that they’ve seen it all! No need to be embarrassed.
Facial Hair
Let’s face it, most women have small fuzzy hairs around their chin or lip line. This is easily taken care of by waxing. This is a pretty easy process and I would recommend doing this at home. Be sure to buy wax for sensitive skin, as the skin on your face is delicate and the hair is very fine.
Eyebrows
There are so many ways to get your eyebrows done now-a-days. You can wax, tweeze, or get them threaded. I personally opt for threading, but still occasionally get them waxed. Please go to a salon and get them waxed! There is so much that could go wrong if you wax them yourself, including waxing off your entire eyebrow. Unless that’s the look you’re going for, doing this yourself could end up in a nightmare. Spa workers, estheticians, and even most hair dressers have been trained to wax eye brows. Please leave this to the professionals.
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Now, obviously, you can wax away the hair on any body part if desired. It is not limited to the ones I have listed above, but I believe those are the most popular.
Keep in mind, waxing is not for everyone and by no means should you ever do something you are not comfortable with.
As a side note, please be careful if you are using hot wax. It can get extremely hot and you definitely don’t want to burn yourself.
If you have any question, please leave a comment! Happy waxing!
~Sara
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