Waxing

When you come in for a waxing appointment, your esthetician will first prep your skin to ensure that it is clean and ready for the treatment. She will use either strip wax or hard wax.

Strip wax is applied in the direction of hair growth. A paper or cloth strip is applied over the wax to facilitate its removal. Hard wax does not require strips because it hardens on the skin to the point of being solid. Once hard, it can be pulled off with the fingers.

To remove the wax, your esthetician will gently tug opposite the direction of hair growth. The wax is only applied to the same area of skin once, and any remaining hairs can be quickly tweezed. As a final step, your skin will be gently massaged and pampered with soothing oils.

When you wax frequently enough, the hair follicles become weak. After several sessions, you will find that they are easier to pull out because the follicle cannot hang onto the root as strongly. Eventually, some of the follicles will become altered to the point of not being able to produce hairs.

For these reasons, scheduling appointments consistently can give you thinner, lighter, more manageable hair. As an added benefit, your skin gradually becomes less sensitive to the process.

The right length of time to wait between waxing appointments depends on your body and the area you would like to treat. Your hair must be a certain length before the treatment is done because the wax needs something to grab onto. ¼ inch to ½ inch is a good length.

The frequency with which you should schedule your appointments depends on how fast the hair grows. This will vary person to person because everyone’s hair grows at a different rate.

While you need to achieve a certain hair length to wax, hair that is too long will make the process more difficult. If the hairs are long enough to overlap one another, some will be covered to the point that the wax cannot grip them.

Instead of waiting as long as possible between sessions, follow the guidelines above and wax when the hair is between ¼ inch and ½ inch long. If the length of your hair exceeds ½ inch, your esthetician may trim it. Alternatively, you can trim it yourself before your appointment.

At any given moment, about 85% of your hairs are in the active, or anagen phase. After you wax, the first hairs you see following the appointment are not the same hairs that you removed. Rather, they are hairs not in the anagen phase at the time of your appointment.

By scheduling regular appointments according to the guidelines above, you can ensure that all of your hairs are eventually treated. Regular appointments can also cause most of your hairs to synch up their growth cycles, meaning that more of them can be removed in a single session.

Shaving, using depilatory creams, and tweezing all come with certain hazards. Shaving involves running a sharp razor over slippery, wet skin. Naturally, people who shave inadvertently cut themselves from time to time.

Depilatory creams contain harsh chemicals that many people don’t want to use on themselves. With tweezing, there is a high risk of breaking the hairs as you extract them. This can lead to ingrown hairs. By contrast, when you schedule an appointment to get waxed, your esthetician can remove your unwanted hair without using razors or chemicals. The fact that this treatment doesn’t need to be done as frequently as other methods means less stress on your skin, and in turn, less irritation.

During a waxing appointment, your esthetician can treat you safely and efficiently with no clean-up on your part. While at-home wax kits are available, we don’t recommend them. Performing this treatment incorrectly can irritate your skin.

Usually, the wax in these kits is of a lower quality than the wax in spas, meaning that it doesn’t remove all of the hair. Needless to say, using runny wax and disposable strips in your bathroom also requires a lot of cleaning afterward. Customers have questions, you have answers. Display the most frequently asked questions, so everybody benefits.

Before you come in for your treatment, you should let your hair grow to at least ¼ of an inch. Do not shave before your first wax or in between appointments. You should make sure your skin is clean, but avoid showering immediately before your session. This is because soaking your hairs in warm water makes them soft and more difficult to remove.

You should avoid some products, including Retin-A, Renova, oral acne medications, blood-thinning medications and cortisone. They can make your skin more sensitive.