Waxing: it's a hair ripping experience!

At one point in our lives we have to deal with hair removal one way or the other. Unless you are totally oblivious to our obsession for being hairless at the right places in this society or have been living in a cave and looking like it's dweller! We have come a long way and have many options to remove hair. You can shave it, wax it, tweeze it, trim it, have little shocks given to the hair shaft through a hair fine needle (electrolysis) or get hair laser removal done.

Now, what ever means you try to remove it, you have the option on how long the treatment will last once you get it done. Hence, shaving is less painful and grows out quickly and getting laser hair removal done is more pricey but permanent after a few treatments. Waxing is middle ground to getting a longer lasting treatment all in meanwhile of having less and less that grows back in the long run.  The returned growth in between waxes vary from 3-5 weeks till your hair is long enough to wax again. If you live where the climate fluctuates with the 4 seasons, you will notice that it will take longer to grow back in the winter months than in the summer months.

Today is all about wax and what you need to know before ripping hair off. Either you do it to yourself, have a professional do this procedure or some of you will trust a friend to inflict pain on you. What you must know is this first and foremost: you hair must be long enough for it to catch in the wax, a quarter of an inch is long enough but if it's too long, like closer to an inch, it might snap off or give you an extra yanking sensation that is not to pleasant. Next, you want to make sure your skin is dry and has no lotion on it what so ever. The wax will not adhere to your skin or hair making it pointless to try to rip it off.

Mini hard wax pearls and gel wax with essential oils.

Here are some tips on waxing yourself with a drug store wax kit for first timers and occasional wax users.

1. Read the instructions all the way through first, someone took the time to explain the use of the product, hopefully properly and then read it a second time just to make sure you really understand the directions. It's like a carpenter, measure twice, cut once.

2. Make sure your skin is dry and free of any lotions and your hair is longer than a 1/4 of an inch, if it looks like your hair is stuck underneath a layer of dead skin, it will not come off easily. You'll have to exfoliate your skin the day before to make it easier for hair removal.

3. Get all your equipment ready in an area where you have good lighting, it is not recommended to wax in a carpeted area either or where cleaning it up won't damage any floors or cover up the area with an old bath towel. You will need tweezers and some type of afterwax lotion that is sometimes provided with the kits, if not, a soothing body lotion should work well too. If the wax needs cotton strips to remove it, get them ready also.

4. Turn off the ringers and bells that might distract you from doing the job.

5. When heating the wax, make sure you follow the instructions, always make sure the product is well stirred to distribute the heat evenly. Test the wax on your inner wrist to check the temperature of it, better your wrist then your face to figure out it was too hot.

6. Always apply the wax in the direction the hair is growing, apply the cotton strip to the area leaving about 2 fingers wide of the cotton where you finished applying the wax, at this point you want to rub and press at the same time the cotton strip into the wax.

7. You should have a "lip" of cotton left where you will pull it in the opposite direction that the hair grows. When you do this, don't think about it too much, it's like a band aid, all in one piece and commit to the strip!
Follow through in the motion, not in an upward or away from the skin motion but in a paralleled motion with the skin. As fast as you have removed the strip, apply pressure with your free hand to the waxed area to relieve the sting.

8. Apply wax to a small area at a time. Always.

9. If you are in a jam and you're backing out of a sticky situation and have no clue what to do. Body butters and most cooking oils in the kitchen will help to dissolve the wax.

10. If you are being disturbed and need to heat the wax a second time, make sure you test it again. You never know if it can burn you and you better be safe than sorry.

I hope these little tips helped make the home waxing experience a bit better for some of you. If you have any  comments, stories or questions about waxing or hair removal, let me know about it.