Let’s start!
So, you already known how to make all the necessary preparations, and now we’re about to start the procedure of waxing. Let’s begin with cold wax. I want to point out once more that it’s advisable to use it only on your legs as it’s quick and quite easy in use, but it is not the best method for more sensitive areas.
Before waxing take a shower with a soft scrub if it’s possible. Use it on the area you’re going to wax. Besides thoroughly cleaning it, you will remove dead skin cells, make wax strips fit closer to your skin and lift any ingrown hair.
Having dried your hair, rub the areas for waxing with a cotton wad and a special tonic. When the tonic dries out, apply a thin layer of talc onto your skin.
Take a wax strip and rub it in your hands to warm it up. In the instruction they usually say to warm it in your hands, but personally I can’t cover all the length of the strip with my hands as they aren’t big and often cold. So, I warm the wax strips on a heater, for example, a towel dryer. I have an electric one and it can work at any time of the year. But if it’s a water pipe towel dryer, you can also use a bowl with hot water and hold the strip over it for a few minutes. While the wax strips are connected, water drops from the steam don’t get onto the wax. If there’re drops on the wax, the strip doesn’t stick to your skin in the right way.
Then, everything is simple. There are no interesting secrets on how to do it. Divide the strip into two and stick it to your skin in the direction of your hair growth (on your legs move from the top to the bottom). Smooth the wax strip onto the skin well and whisk back against the direction of your hair growth (from the bottom of your leg to the top). If everything goes right and there’s no hair left, you can begin to work with the next area. To tell you the truth you needn’t take a new strip every time. If you don’t have much hair, you can use the same strip several times. Sooner or later you’ll see that the strip doesn’t take your hair away. Then take a new one. Don’t forget to use talc every time before sticking the strip onto your skin.
Clean Up
Now, let’s discus what to do if there’s some hair left. You can remove it with a pair of tweezers or try the following trick. In the shop you can buy not only big wax strips, but small ones as well. They are suitable for face skin areas, but I don’t advise to using them there. At the same time they’re quite good to correct small hairy areas during the waxing. You can take these small strips between the depilations. After waxing new hair can grow unevenly and sometimes there’s no use for big strips.
After your legs become smooth, you need to remove the rest of the wax. Cold wax is like honey and it can easily stick to your skin. So, there’s a special oil which can help you to get rid of it. This oil is usually included in a set together with wax strips. But I go through it quicker than wax. So, I’ve bought the oil separately. Remember not to wash the wax up with water. It can be done only with the oil. After applying it all over your skin, it becomes not only clean, but smooth and soft. The oil takes care of your skin and reduces skin irritation.
In fact, that’s all. Then you should just look after your skin between waxing, apply some special cream which can prevent your skin from ingrown hair. You can also use the oil as much as you wish. It will do your skin lots of good.
I’m not going to discuss cold wax as I haven’t used it for 10 years, so I’m not very good at this question.
Hot Wax
Let’s have a look at hot wax, the most comfortable for your skin. It’s difficult to believe that the hot wax has such an effect. But it’s true.
First, warm the wax up. I’ll tell you how to do it with the help of a hot wax warmer. You can also use a pan with boiling water, and this method is quite easy. You should just be careful and shouldn’t let water from the pan get into the wax.
The first question is for how long we should warm the wax. I won’t tell you the exact temperature, as I think you’re clever enough not to put a thermometer into the wax. If you warm it in a pan with boiling water, you can’t take its temperature anyway and special hot wax warmers also have just a plain scale. It can have several points without any figures or look like a pointer with cold and hot parts. So, have a careful look at its consistency.
It’s often said in the instructions to warm the wax until you get the mixture of thick cream-like consistency. As for me, such instructions are rather vague. Moreover opaque wax can somehow remain creamy, but sheer wax is quite different. To melt wax squares disk cartridges you need to start with the maximum temperature, but don’t apply such wax onto your skin at once or you’ll definitely burn your skin. Start to reduce the temperature and warm the wax until it flows from the spatula. Its consistency should be like honey, but not like syrup. Very liquid wax will be too hot, and colder wax will be very thick and can hardly be applied onto the skin.
How to Apply the Wax
There’s one more important thing to know. When it’s summer outside and the temperature is warmer, your skin (especially underarms) will become wet at once. It’s quite difficult to apply wax onto wet skin. That’s why I switch on the fan and wax in front of it. It looks rather funny, but it works.
So, apply wax onto your skin which has been treated with special lotion and talc. To take the necessary amount of wax with the spatula you can make several circular motions with it as if you are twirling it. Wax should be applied at once before it cools too much. Apply it in the direction of your hair growth. A thin layer of wax takes hair off better than thick coats, so don’t put too much wax onto your skin. You should pull it up at once before it becomes hard and fragile. If the wax becomes hard to pull up due to cooling, press the end of the spatula with little amounts of wax left on it to the edge of applied wax. This will help create a little handle which will help you pull it up. Always be sure to pull in the opposite direction of the hair growth.
One more thing should be mentioned concerning wax removing. In the user’s manual for waxing it’s often said to pull the wax up at an angle of 90 degrees. At the beginning it is really 90 degrees, but if the wax covers a big area, the angle will reduce little by little during the process of wax removing. This can lead to some problems: some of hair can hardly be pulled up or they can break. To prevent it you shouldn’t tear the wax off with one sweep and a loud cry “ouch!”, but do it in several steps with small pauses. Pauses should be very short, just enough to keep the right direction of the wax strip. To make it clear for you I’ve prepared a small video where I’ll show you the procedure on my arm. It isn’t a feature motion picture, of course. It just shows you the basic idea.
You should notice a thick layer of wax there. I usually make it thinner, but this take is the best. So don’t focus on the wax thickness there.
Now let’s talk about the problem which any beginner can have. You successfully pull the wax up, but there’s still some of your hair left. Ideally you should remove all the hair, but it can be rather difficult to do the first time. So what are we to do? First of all, treat you skin with talc again and apply some wax onto the area where are some hair is left. It isn’t easy, as your skin is already very sensitive after the first pull, but there’s nothing to be done. That’s why it’s very convenient to have spatulas of different size handy. They help you to cover skin areas of different size. If there are some single hairs, you’d better use pincers. Firstly there’s no need to irritate your smooth skin again. Secondly, every new tearing off stimulates your hair follicles.
Underarms
I’ve decided to not dwell on the question of underarm waxing. Having learnt that I do waxing on my own, many beauticians ask me about underarm waxing. In fact it isn’t difficult. Put your arm behind your head so that your underarm skin becomes as even as possible. Apply some wax onto it with your free hand (don’t forget to leave some area near the edge of your hair growth in order to create a tip to pull it up.) Before removing the wax hold the skin tight to make hair removing easier and people say it’s the most difficult part of underarm waxing. But it’s quite simple. Shorten your arm so that you can touch the skin near the waxed area and slightly stretch it. Tear the wax off. That’s all. As for me there’s nothing difficult about it and I don’t understand why people are so surprised.
Now Let’s Sum Up
It’s important to say that I’ve gained some experience and learned some tricky secrets over the course of time. Now I can successfully remove undesirable hair and get beautiful smooth skin. Here are the most important things to remember:
- Skin treatment before waxing (with talc, for example) is very important and will help you reduce damage to your skin.
- It’s also necessary not to apply a thick wax layer. It will get cold unevenly. Outside it’ll become fragile, and inside where it touches your hair, it’ll be soft and can’t take all the hair.
- A thin wax layer gets cold very quickly. So, don’t try to apply several wax strips on different skin areas. Complete one strip pull at a time. Create the tip with the help of which you’ll pull the wax up at once after applying and tear it off. The wax should be flexible, but at the same time your fingers shouldn’t stick to it.
- Pull it up with short pauses, trying to do it at an angle of 90 degrees to your skin.
- It’s advisable to treat your skin with a cream against in-grown hair or a hair growth inhibitor. After it soaks into your skin and then use talc to reduce friction. During the first few hours after the waxing you can repeat this procedure again and again if your skin feels painful.
And, of course, nobody forbids you to go to the beautician and learn how to do it right. After you begin to do it on your own, you will watch the beautician more attentively and know what to pay attention to.
Skin Treatment After Waxing
After your hair is removed, you should take care of your skin in order to prevent skin irritation and in-grown hair. First of all, treat your skin with a cream against in-grown hair. Rub it into your skin until it soaks into it. Use talc after it to prevent friction. I usually treat my legs with oil which is used to remove the rest of the applied wax. But if your skin burns, you’d better refrain from doing it (as oil creates a film which doesn’t let your skin normalize heat exchange). Beauty Image has a good hair growth inhibitor which is usually produced in small plastic bottles. It has oil consistency, but soaks into your skin very quickly. After waxing you can apply it onto your skin (before talc, of course) as well. It can also produce a soothing effect.
There’s one more important thing – your clothes. The worst thing you can do for your skin after waxing is to put on skinny clothes. I usually do waxing in the evening and then wear a loose silk dressing gown (the best clothes after waxing for the ages).
Skin can and should be treated with soothing cosmetic products as often as possible. If you feel discomfort, skin burning or irritation, apply some cream again. If you feel the same in an hour, use it again. Some time ago I treated my skin with a cream twice a day during the week. But now I don’t have such skin irritation and use it only once after waxing. If you notice some ingrown hair in a week or two, you can gently tease it out of your skin with a sterile needle and then remove it with tweezers as usual.
That’s all about waxing at home. I hope the information will be of use for you. If I’ve forgotten something, I’ll try to answer any question in the comments.
Are you ready try waxing at home? Or do you prefer beauty salons? Let us and our readers know what you prefer!
