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Waxing

What is it?
Method of removing unwanted hair with hot wax.

Timings
Takes 15-30 minutes; repeat every 4-6 weeks.

Cost
From £10, depending on area treated.

What is waxing?
Unwanted hair is painted with hot wax and pulled out by the roots when the wax is removed. This treatment can be used on legs, bikini line, underarms, upper lip and chin. A Brazilian wax removes hair from a larger area of the pubes. It can be done at a salon, or you can buy kits and do it yourself at home.
Waxing is also becoming more popular with men, who can have chest, shoulders, back, stomach, arms, legs, ears, nose and even bum cheeks and 'cleavage' plus scrotum ('crack and sac') treated.

What waxing can do.
Waxing quickly removes unwanted hair.

What waxing can't do.
Some people find that hair re-growth starts to show through after around 10 days.

What happens during treatment?
Waxing can be quite painful, especially the first time it's done, and for this reason many people prefer to have it done professionally. The beauty therapist will cleanse the skin to be treated, and apply a special oil to prevent the wax from sticking to the skin. The hot wax is painted over small areas, one patch at a time. A cloth is pressed down on to the wax, then sharply drawn off, away from the direction of growth, bringing the wax and hairs with it. When the whole area has been treated any traces of wax are removed and a soothing lotion is applied. The therapist may remove any single stray hairs with tweezers. The treatment needs repeating every 4-6 weeks.

Results
Skin may look reddened or have a faint red rash for a few hours after treatment, but this quickly fades. Re-growth hairs are usually finer than before. Subsequent treatments become less painful as the hair follicles are weakened.

Risks
If hairs are quite long they can break off just under the skin instead of being cleanly pulled out. Ingrown hairs can form when hairs, growing back after waxing, curl over inside the follicles under the skin which become inflamed and create sore red spots on the skin. Creams are available to prevent this problem, and these have to be applied daily. You can also exfoliate the area daily in the shower, using a special cream to help prevent ingrown hairs.

Where to get treatment
Widely available at beauty therapists' clinics.

Cost
Expect to pay around £10 for lip, underarm, chin or bikini line. A half-leg wax (ankle to knee) is £15-20, full-leg £30.
Men pay from around �15 for the back.

Removing unwanted hair without waxing
If you want to remove hair permanently, consider laser hair removal. To remove hair temporarily, you can shave or use depilatory creams. Hair growth on the upper lip can be disguised with cream bleaching.

Waxing – help and info
Channel 4 Television takes no responsibility for the content of any third-party sites.

Links

Association of Professional Sugaring
www.sugaring.org.uk
Information about this traditional and apparently less painful alternative to waxing. Includes a list of practitioners.

The Consulting Room
www.consultingroom.org
Good UK site that provides a wide range of impartial and independent cosmetic and medical information and demystifies the world of cosmetic treatments.

Guild of Professional Beauty Therapists
www.beauty-guild.co.uk
Key in your postcode to find a list of guild members' salons near you.

Hair Facts
www.hairfacts.com/index.html
Information on the many ways one can remove body hair, including sugaring and waxing.

How to Wax Your Legs
beauty.about.com/cs/summerbeaut1/ht/WaxLegs.htm
Easy-to-follow instructions if you fancy having a go at home and saving money on the salon wax.

Leg Wax Recipe
www.homemakingcottage.com/pamper/legwax.html
Simple but apparently effective, this recipe is a mix of sugar and lemon that can be used for body waxing.

Men's waxing
www.menshealth.co.uk/talk/thread.phtml/post678815
Personal experiences from men who've had body waxing.

Books
Milady's Hair Removal Techniques by Helen Bickmore (Delmar, January 2004)
Explains the evolution of methods of hair removal, with anecdotal historical information; tells how each method works to remove hair, including the length of time before re-growth. Step-by-step procedures are shown with photographs and illustrations for each stage.
Get this book from Amazon

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