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*Overview of the best according to the editors of Healthy Food Near Me. About selection criteria. This material is subjective, is not an advertisement and does not serve as a guide to the purchase. Before buying, you need to consult with a specialist.
Waxing and sugaring are modern methods of depilation, that is, getting rid of unwanted vegetation in almost any area of the body. Techniques involve removing hairs from the root, therefore they are considered more effective than using a razor.
Method name | Pros | Cons |
Waxing | Fast and effective hair removal. You can eliminate vegetation in almost any area. You can do it in the salon and at home, with a master or on your own. | The procedure is quite painful. There is a possibility of injury to the skin. The technique is effective if a person with experience works. |
Shugaring | A safer technique. The chances that side effects will occur tend to zero. | Hair removal takes longer than with waxing. High price. Low efficiency in case the hair is too coarse. |
Hair removal with heated wax – description, contraindications, advantages, disadvantages
Waxing, also known as waxing (the term was also used) is a technique for removing unwanted vegetation on the arms, legs, back, bikini area and armpits using cosmetic wax. The technique is based on the ability of wax to capture and firmly fix the hair shafts. With a sharp removal (separation) of the wax strip from the skin, unwanted hairs are pulled out by the roots. This technique is much more effective than shaving, as effective as shugaring or hair removal with a household electric epilator, but it gives a less lasting result than professional laser or electrolysis procedures.
How is waxing done at home or in a beauty salon:
The skin is cleansed of possible impurities, you can additionally carry out light peeling, then the likelihood of ingrown hairs after epilation will decrease.
If a person has a lower pain threshold, increased sensitivity of the skin (including during critical days in women), you can ask the master to use a local anesthetic.
The surface of the body in the treatment area is disinfected, then it can be treated with talc. Specialists always use talc, as it improves the “coupling” of the removed hairs with wax, optimizes the process of hair exit from the follicle. Talc also protects the skin from damage to the surface layer of living cells.
Wax is applied to the prepared area of the body – strictly in the direction of hair growth, and not against growth. Wax can be hot, cold or warm (depending on the technique used). The application of a cosmetic preparation can be carried out in several ways:
manual method – wax is applied to the skin with hands. This is inconvenient, since the hands need to be quickly cleaned in order to have time to fix a strip of special non-woven material on the wax layer.
Spatula method – wax is applied using a special spatula – plastic or wooden, having a flat surface. Hands do not get dirty and the strip can be glued in time.
bandage method – a special fabric strip is glued to the skin, on which wax has already been applied. Before fixing the strip, it must be heated in the hands.
Cassette method – wax enters the skin from a special device – a cartridge with a roller at one end.
A strip of cloth or strong paper is applied to the wax layer, with the help of which the sticky mass, which has absorbed unwanted vegetation, will be removed from the skin.
When the wax sticks to the skin and the strip of material, the master, with one sharp movement against the direction of hair growth, tears off the strip from the surface of the body, removing all the hairs at the same time, if they are not too short.
After the waxing procedure, you need to clean and soothe the skin by applying a special cream.
The waxing process can use hot, warm or cold wax. The first option is considered the most effective, since under the influence of a plastic substance heated to a temperature of 55-65 degrees, the skin softens, the pores open, and the extraction of hairs from the follicles is the least painful. However, experts warn that waxing with hot wax at home on your own, without the help or control of a qualified master, is categorically not recommended. There is a possibility of unpleasant and even severe side effects – burns, ingrown hairs, trauma to blood vessels, etc. Waxing with warm wax heated to a maximum of 45 degrees (cartridges) is quite safe and effective. A similar procedure, carried out using ready-made strips, which need only be slightly warmed up in the hands, is the least effective, since after removing the strips, areas may be found where the wax has not softened enough and has not affected the hairs to be removed.
Preparation for waxing includes the following activities:
The optimal length of hairs for waxing is from 3 to 7 mm. If they are shorter, then the wax simply will not capture and will not help to remove them. If the hairs are longer, when tearing off the strip from the skin, it will not only be unpleasant, but also really painful. Moreover, long hairs, most likely, will not break out with the root, but will simply tear in the middle or closer to the surface of the skin, where the degree of tension is higher. Therefore, 1-2 weeks before the waxing procedure, you need to start monitoring the rate of hair growth in order to have time to grow them to the desired length. If the hairs are still too long in the end, the specialist may suggest shortening them with a special trimmer. At home, this can be done using a manual hair clipper with a length step of 1-3 millimeters, using a manual trimmer to correct eyebrows or hair in the intimate area.
Immediately before the procedure for removing unwanted vegetation, you need to take a shower, cleanse the skin, including peeling. Applying any care products (creams, serums, etc.) is prohibited. But treating the skin with a Lidocaine spray or drinking an anesthetic (Ketanov, for example) will not hurt, the procedure will cause less discomfort.
After the procedure, it is recommended to protect the skin from the sun for 1-2 days, it is very desirable to use soothing and regenerating creams.
The effect of waxing lasts approximately 14-30 days. Gradually, this period will increase, the hairs will grow back more and more slowly if waxing is done constantly. Those elements that will grow will become thin and light. But at first, while you just started waxing, the result can last only 7-10 days. Therefore, it is believed that the key to the high efficiency of the procedure lies in the regularity of its implementation. At the same time, it is highly not recommended to use a razor between waxing sessions, as the cumulative effect will simply disappear. But you can use alternative methods for removing unwanted hair – shugaring, electric epilator or traditional tweezers.
Contraindications for waxing: period of pregnancy and lactation; severe chronic or acute diseases; infectious and inflammatory diseases; varicose veins; violation of the integrity of the skin in the affected area; the presence of voluminous moles and other neoplasms on the body in the treatment area.
Pros of waxing:
Waxing is a method that allows you to remove unwanted hair on almost any part of the body quickly, relatively painlessly.
With regular use of waxing, hair density decreases, growth rate decreases.
Waxing can be done both in a beauty salon and on your own, at home.
There are many varieties of waxing techniques, including the use of almost completely ready-to-use wax strips or cartridges.
Relatively low cost per procedure.
The skin stays smooth for 2-3 times longer than regular shaving.
The likelihood of side effects, including ingrown hairs or pustules, is low (if you follow the rules for preparing for waxing and the rules for skin care after the procedure).
Cons of waxing:
When using wax for epilation, you need to heat it properly. If underheated, the wax will not stick and will not remove hairs, if overheated, you can get thermal injury.
Wax cannot be reused – one application and the strip goes to waste. Therefore, with insufficient experience in waxing, the method may seem quite costly.
If the wax strips are torn off in jerks or in the wrong direction, if the hair is too long, the gripping occurs too far from the root of the hair. As a result, the hair does not pull out by the roots, as it should, but simply break off in the middle or at the point of exit from the skin. In this case, new hairs appear already in 2-3 days, and not after 10-14 days.
The use of wax for epilation is, in most cases, an injury to the skin. Especially if a person does not use talc.
Sugaring – what is it, how is the procedure, the pros and cons
Sugaring is a hair removal method that is very similar to waxing. The differences are as follows:
Instead of wax, sugar paste is used, which is prepared according to a special recipe in a cosmetic clinic or at home.
Sugar paste is applied and rolled off the skin against the direction of hair growth.
You can use the paste within the same procedure repeatedly. It rolls over the skin like dough, torn hairs penetrate it, but the mass can be used to treat new areas of the body.
Sugaring paste does not stick to the skin at all, it captures only hairs, more delicately than wax.
The paste captures the hairs not at the level of the skin, it penetrates deeper and covers the hair shafts at the very roots. Thanks to this, the hairs do not break off and are completely removed.
Unwanted hair is removed with gentle movements in the direction of growth. Due to this, the degree of pain of sugaring is lower when compared with waxing.
The minimum hair length for applying the sugaring technique is 2 millimeters. Therefore, you don’t have to “grow” the vegetation for a long time before the procedure, you only need to spend a few days on it.
The sugar mass used in sugaring can have a different degree of density – from soft to very thick. The softer the mass, the finer hairs it can remove. High-density sugar mass is used in intimate areas, and a lightweight version is used to remove unwanted facial hair (above the lips).
How sugaring is similar to waxing:
Application techniques – manual, spatula and bandage application of sugaring paste.
In terms of the duration of the effect, sugaring is equal to waxing, as well as in terms of the ability to gradually stop the growth of unwanted hair.
Restrictions, contraindications for shugaring are similar to waxing.
Precautions and skin care during the recovery period are similar.
Advantages of shugaring:
Sugaring causes less discomfort. Firstly, the detachment of the mass goes in the direction of hair growth, the resistance of the skin and hairs is lower, the pain is almost not felt. Secondly, in contrast to waxing, during shugaring, small areas of the body, 5-10 cm each, are sequentially treated.
The method of removing unwanted vegetation is considered safer (in terms of the composition of the mass for hair removal). Various additives can be included in the wax, which can potentially harm the body. The composition of the sugaring paste is sugar, water, citric acid, like the famous Soviet lollipops.
The temperature of the sugaring paste is not much higher than the temperature of the human body, there is no chance of getting burned.
During exposure to sugar paste, the skin is not injured, and after the session there are no side effects such as ingrown hairs, pustules, irritation.
It is not necessary to buy sugaring paste, it is not necessary to go to the salon for the procedure. A few videos from video hosting will help you learn how to cook and use pasta at home on your own. You save not only on the preparation for hair removal, but also on the services of a specialist. Sugaring paste can be used many times within the same hair removal procedure. By applying, tearing off, rolling into a lump and applying the paste repeatedly, you reduce the cost of the procedure to a minimum.
Cons of sugaring:
The procedure takes longer than waxing.
Sugar mass can not do well with coarse thick hair, especially men’s. In this case, the same part of the body has to be processed several times in a row in order to achieve perfect body smoothness.
Sugaring paste (not purchased) will have to learn how to cook. Not all girls are ready to spend their time learning new unfamiliar and strange technologies.
The cost of the procedure in the salon may exceed the cost of waxing.
Important differences between waxing and sugaring, which is better
Waxing will help to remove 100% of unwanted hairs, even very hard ones the first time. The technique can be used for both women and men, the hair removal procedure does not take much time, it is not so expensive, but it causes quite strong discomfort. Sugaring is a light version of waxing. The technique takes more time, is not as effective, less painful and non-traumatic, but is more expensive than waxing.
Attention! This material is subjective, is not an advertisement and does not serve as a guide to the purchase. Before buying, you need to consult with a specialist.