Do you wax your bod at home? Please tell me about it.

August 11, 2015 1:13 PM

I'm looking for product recommendations, advice on best practices, and any other info you think would be useful, especially re: leg waxing.
posted by stellaluna to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (14 answers total)

I've been using SURGI Brazilian no-strips wax for years. It's all right. I used to use a sugaring wax that was discontinued and that was amazing. There's no real comparison between that and SURGI, but it works, and I haven't really had a selection of home waxing kits int he countries I've been living in, hence sticking with SURGI. It is extremely painful, and the the sugar wax wasn't. IF you have money for experimenting then I would suggest trying out some sugar wax, and if nothing else, SURGI works.

Make sure you put some kind of numbing agent on your skin before waxing. (The SURGI Brazilian kit comes with one.)
posted by Enchanting Grasshopper at 1:39 PM on August 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I have been using this setup for five years. This is a European brand, but you can probably get something similar where you live.

Waxing your own legs is not difficult, but you'll need a little practice. The first couple of times you might end up with some bruises (this is why I stay away from DIY bikini wax, lol). The knee area is particularly problematic. Apply the strip to very small patches around the knee. For legs you can get away with bigger patches.

Be sure to hold the skin taut when removing the strip. I have always done this and believe waxing would be mostly ineffective otherwise.

I also remember the advice that you shouldn't wax the same area more than once in one session.

After waxing, wait a few hours before putting lotion or cream on your legs, with the exception of aloe vera to calm the skin. It's really important to keep your skin moisturized to avoid ingrown hairs. You might also try scrubbing with a shower glove after 1-2 days. This supposedly removes the upper layer of the skin so new hairs don't get stuck under it.

There are many serums to prevent ingrown hairs, to be applied just after waxing, but I've found them too harsh for the skin and full of weird chemicals. This was five years ago though. There might be something better today.

Have some baby oil and cotton pads at hand to remove small patches of wax from the skin once you're done.

Before waxing, hair length should be at least 5 milimeters, but not longer than 1 centimeter. This is also why eventually you might ditch waxing as your preferred method. Let's say that you'll go 2 weeks between waxing. After one week, new hair growth will be visible, but you'll have to let it grow for one more week so it reaches the length necessary for waxing. If you have an important event coming up and want smooth legs, you'll just grab a razor and shave. This is how you stop waxing yourself without even noticing.
posted by frantumaglia at 1:50 PM on August 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

I used to.

I don't have a microwave, so I used a double boiler to warm the wax. One thing to remember is that after you apply the wax, pat down the muslin strip and then wait a moment to give the wax time to cool off and harden a bit before pulling it off. Apply the wax in the direction that the hair grows. Pull the muslin strip off quickly, all in one tug, in the opposite direction from the direction the hair grows.

I never used any numbing agent. It doesn't hurt that much.

Remember to let your hair grow to about 3/8 of an inch so that the wax will have something to hold onto.

Make sure to buy water soluble wax. Non water soluble is a huge pain in the ass for cleanup.

Be prepared before you start. Get all your tools together, the wax warmed, and find a comfortable place to sit that will be easy to clean, in case you drip wax, like maybe the closed toilet. You need good lighting and some patience.
posted by janey47 at 1:52 PM on August 11, 2015

I've tried it and failed miserably. It's just too difficult for someone like me. Professionals ALL the way.
posted by JenThePro at 1:53 PM on August 11, 2015

I found that you get used to the pain fairly quickly, and now I barely feel it, I think maybe some people have more sensitive skin and find it too painful to carry on but it did seem quite painful for me at first.
I use nair wax strips and find them fairly effective if a bit on the small side.
Wash with a mild soap or shower gel first as oil on your skin makes the wax much less effective. I remove wax residue with coconut or plain vegetable oil rubbed lightly over the skin afterwards and this is handy to get wax off your hands too. Make sure you wash them before you carry on though.
I also find that if I smooth the strip down a couple of times and also lightly tug it down in the direction of hair growth that it means I get better results. Pull back not up, as fast as possible.
Make sure your skin is warm and don't wax in a cold room as the wax goes brittle. Also folding the strip in on itself and rubbing it can give you a few more goes with the same strip. Don't go over the same area more than a couple of times and avoid skin tags and moles by dabbing a bit of vaseline or other oil on them.
Don't even consider using hair removal cream on the same area for at least a week. Oh my goodness that was a rash from hell...

Good luck!
posted by RandomInconsistencies at 1:57 PM on August 11, 2015

Best answer: I occasionally wax at home, using the unfortunately-named Nads product, which comes as a pot of goopy stuff you spread on and then apply a small cloth to to rip off the hair. (I think it's technically sugaring instead of waxing, but whatever.)

--I have found it easier on myself to wax small strips of hair at a time, rather than the full length of the cloth.

--Pull your skin taut as you rip it off.

--For the love of God, do not wax right before or during your period if you find your perception of pain changes. (I have found that Novocain does not work on me during that part of my cycle, and waxing at this point is almost unbearably painful and leaves bruises, when it merely stings a lot at other times.)

--If you use Nads or a similar type of product, and it's a bit too cold in the house for the stuff to get properly goopy, you can nuke it in the microwave. Only do 5 seconds at a time, and stir it up before testing--being sticky-goopy, if it's too hot when you put it on, it'll take far too long to get off while it's burning. I have also read an article with horror story about 3rd degree burns an a woman nuking a home wax product too long and spilling it on herself when taking it out of the microwave. Extreme caution is recommended in any case, and maybe just warming it up by dipping the container in very hot water if you're paranoid.

--Products like this will get sticky stuff EVERYWHERE. I put a movie on Netflix, drape my immediate surroundings with large towels, and put a roll of paper towels nearby so I can get my hands more-or-less clean when I need to touch something else.
posted by telophase at 2:14 PM on August 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

I use an epilator. Takes longer than waxing, but the bonus is that you don't have to wait for the hair to be as long. I can usually go four days without shaving, then epilate on the next two days.
posted by LauraJ at 2:37 PM on August 11, 2015 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I use the Nads (gah! the name!) brand wax strips. These specifically.

No messy heating up. You just rub them between your hands to warm them up, and then rub them on and rip them off. They aren't perfect, but they are low-stakes as far as figuring them out.

Other brands make them and they work jut about as well, I just find this one less irritating.
posted by pixiecrinkle at 6:20 PM on August 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

Another vote for an epilator. Much much easier and cheaper and less messy. Most importantly, you can shave in between if you want and don't have to let it get very long.
posted by amaire at 6:41 PM on August 11, 2015

Epilator all the way. Hurts way less than waxing (to me). The first go was rough, but it's been no big deal ever since. It's nice that you don't have to commit to the whole project - you can go in stages and quit whenever.

Works best on very short stubble - just barely long enough to grab, around 1-2mm. Longer is fine, but hurts a little more.

The technology has come a long way since brutal Epilady thing with the scary coil of yanking. I found an amazingly efficient one on amazon for about $40. It's lasted for years.
posted by jessicapierce at 7:55 PM on August 11, 2015

Best answer: I've tried the epilator and it was much more painful than waxing for me. Hard wax worked better for me than the soft wax and has the added bonuses of not requiring any cloths and being gentler on sensitive skin (the hard wax only sticks to the hairs). However, there is a steeper learning curve with the hard wax: The wax has to be applied in a thicker layer so that you can get a good grip and rip the whole section off at once after it's solidified. Otherwise it's an excruciating hair-by-hair removal process. The hard wax requires a little wax warmer, but they're not overly expensive.
posted by zenzicube at 8:59 PM on August 11, 2015

I am a hairy yeti who has been waxing off and on from puberty thanks to my aestitician mother. In spite of knowing proper technique thanks to her, it always hurt too much to do it myself until I fell down a YouTube k-hole of Arabic sugar waxing. With the sugar wax I can even manage to do my bikini line relatively painlessly. I make up a batch and keep it in the fridge. I let it warm up to room temp and pull off a hunk when I manage to get the toddler and the newborn down for simultaneous naps. And I find that I can wax the regrowth much sooner than with other types of wax.
posted by romakimmy at 2:19 AM on August 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

I usually use the paper-backed wax strips, they are just way more convenient than the other options, and my two cents are that Veet strips are usually half the price of everything else and seem to work equally well. The hot wax kits with actual cloth strips do a better job covering awkward spots like knees and the backs of my calves, but were too much of a PITA to bother with. Caveat, I am not very hairy and only occasionally wax just my legs, YMMV.
posted by yeahlikethat at 12:06 PM on August 12, 2015

Response by poster: Thanks, all, for the advice!
posted by stellaluna at 2:07 PM on August 13, 2015