Everything you need to know about sugar waxing
I recently went to SUGARED + BRONZED to get sugar waxed and these are my thoughts! In this blog post I’m going to give you all the details, and yes I got a bikini wax!! It was my first time getting professionally sugar waxed and I was super scared so I’m breaking down the real situation for you. I have always been annoyed by shaving, scared of traditional waxing, and also too scared to get lasered, but I desperately wanted a better method of hair removal. Picture above is me showing you what the wax looks like (I bought some at home wax and have dabbled a little) but at a real appointment it’s super professional and the waxer wears gloves. 😜 Let’s get into it!
What is sugaring a.k.a. sugar waxing?
For the person who has no idea about this ancient practice.Sugaring or sugar waxing is a natural and suposedly “less painful” form of hair removal. The wax is only 3 ingredients: water, lemon juice, and sugar. It’s super easy to make if you want to try at home first! I did, but fair warning if you mess up on the timing or amounts of ingredients you are just left with some candy. :) It’s edible! The technique comes from ancient Egypt and basically no waxing strips or popsicle sticks are used, just fingers to place and remove the hair in a little ball formation that can be used multiple times to keep removing hair. It’s different than the typical wax you think of for hair removal, sugar wax is applied in the opposite direction of hair growth and removed in the same direction of hair growth. People swear hair grows back thinner and even lighter (i guess because of the lemon juice?). Time will tell for me but I’m committed to see if it’s true.
Why did I want to get sugared?
I have super dark, thick hair and pale skin which is not a great combo come summertime when you’re at the beach all the time. Shaving is just the worst for me! I can shower, shave, put on a swimsuit, walk to the beach, and by the time I get there I have little hairs poking out. Always a dark shadow in my armpits and for my legs and bikini area no matter how much I shave I get prickly so fast and I can’t shave everyday without getting razor burn so I have to space it out and go to the beach prickly more often than I’d like. I’m not kidding it’s terrible. And I don’t have that cute “peach fuzz” light colored hair on my arms, I have full thick and dark arm hair that covers that back of my hands and knuckles. I’ve actually been DIYing sugar waxing on myself for about a year now. Only my armpits and forearms. And it’s not for the weak, let me tell you. Making the wax takes like 45 mins, then you have to wait for it to cool and the actual technique took me like 4 or 5 times to figure out. (Here is the YouTube video I followed if you want to DIY!) Also ripping it off your own skin is hard!! The wax sometimes gets too gooey and sticks to your skin, or too dry and hard to maneuver or grab any hair. Then I started ordering wax off Amazon to cut the time in half (amazon link if you serious about this). I was super determined and was keeping up for a little but honestly I got lazy and didn’t always have hours to get rid of unwanted hair before I would go to the beach. I also attempted to do my bikini area and HELL NO. It was a big gooey mess and I did not have the strength inside of me to rip it off. And that leads me to finally booking an appointment to try and get sugared by a professional. 🙃
My honest SUGARED + BRONZED sugaring experience
I saw on their website that you need to grow out your hair for 2 weeks or as long as a grain of rice. I grew out my hair for a week and it was INSANE. So hairy and I felt disgusting but I was going to do this come hell or high water because the constant shaving was pissing me off. I got to a week and a half and I was done and thank God my hair was rice length. I literally just called one of the local SUGARED + BRONZED studios to book an appointment that day 😂. Only problem was they couldn’t do my full body, they only had time that day to do my bikini, armpits, and forearms. I said ok whatever ya let’s get this done I can worry about my legs later. My appointment was at 4pm so I took a shower at like 2pm because I didn’t want to be gross, but also they tell you not to do a lotions or oil or exfoliating before so I did a tiny little bit of body soap and rinsed off really good. I was just feeling so hot and sticky with all my hair ok. On the drive there I blasted the Bulletproof remix by Ian Ashher and popped 2 Advils. I was scared and starting to sweat but no turning back! Once I got there, I filled out a little waiver and they called me back. The waxer (tech? Idk what you call that lady) was so sweet and made me feel so comfortable and walked me through the process. She started with my bikini because that’s normally the most painful, then armpits, and finally forearms. I didn’t go full nude I kept my thong on and my bra. Before she would wax any area she put this white powder (come to find out they use cornstarch) over the area to absorb excess sweat and keep the area dry. And at the very end they give you a washcloth soaked in witch hazel, jojoba oil, and maybe something else? Just to wipe off any left over wax and help the pores stay disinfected and it’s calming on the skin. But for the real deets read below for a play by play of the experience ordered by body part.
Bikini wax
I was by far the most worried about this area as you can imagine since I’ve never waxed. You get in a butterfly position and the tech starts on the outside going in. If I had to rate the pain on a scale of 1-10 I would give it a 6. Not the worst ever but not comfortable. The tech is so quick and it’s way less painful than doing on yourself. Some areas are more sensitive than others. Also this was my first time ever on that area and they say after shaving for a while it’s most painful for the first wax. She was super easy to talk to, made sure I was comfortable and checked-in on what I was comfortable with. The pain is super brief, and doesn’t radiate afterwards which I thought it would. After a few mins you feel like nothing was done in that area. Obviously it was slightly uncomfortable but really not that bad! And to not have to shave for weeks its soooooo worth it.
Armpits
I had done my own armpits before with sugar waxing but it had been a while and I had gone back to shaving so this was basically like getting waxed there for the first time again. Pain was more like a 4 compared to the bikini area? I noticed at this point that the AC was blasting in the room and I don’t know if it was the pain kicking in or I was just cold but I started shaking a bit. Once she was done waxing there must have been a few really tough hairs because she went back with some tweezers to get a few more hairs.
Forearms
I was the least worried about this area and it was the quickest, but still decently painful. The hair is thinner than the other areas but also sensitive in some spots. I was really shaking at this point but was trying to play it off. I chatted pretty much non-stop because for some reason I thought if I went silent the pain would hurt more. I just tried to get my mind off of it.
Final thoughts on the experience at S+B
At the end I was feeling really good, super proud of myself, glad it was over, and happy to be hairless. There was a tiny bit of blood in the bikini area and underarms and also slight redness that looked like a chemical burn, but very mild and honestly way less swelling than when I had done it myself. Then I got to the register to pay…. I was SHOCKED. Maybe it was on me to have looked before I got all this done, but I thought maybe all of that would have been $80? No. It was way more. For torture and pain that will keep hair away for max 4 weeks guess how much I paid. $200!!! 😫 That was a big bummer and has me rethinking my DIY at home experience. I actually booked to get my legs done at a different location later that day but after I saw how much that cost and it would have been another $150 to do my legs I cancelled it. I’m super torn about this because the results are actually amazing and the pain isn’t that bad. Also they got me in same day! But for the price I don’t know. I’m curious how it will grow back, if it really is much less hair then I will try to DIY but I’m thinking maybe I’ll just keep going back for bikini. Just not reasonable to pay $350 a month to be hairless. Maybe one day!
I’m 4 days fresh off this wax and the results are really amazing. Arms and armpits are so smooth, totally hairless and I love it. Bikini area did have some follicles that got a little irritated and I have witch hazel at home so I kept putting some on and all the irritation is gone now and I am also LOVING this. Feeling so good in my bikini let me tell you. If you are thinking about it, I say do it!! (If you have the spare change lol). If you want $10 off your first appointment at SUGARED + BRONZED use code BFF10 (psst. give my name - Shelby Morris - as your referrer and I get $10 too). Enjoy!
Legs
After the sticker shock, I got home and still had the hairiest legs ever. I found my old bucket of amazon sugar wax so I finished the job myself. 😝 I also felt inspired by the waxers technique and wanted to try on myself. She would get a much bigger ball of wax than I was used to and spread it all over my arm then flick off in like two big flicks. I only managed to to the front of my legs up to my knees, then shaved off the rest. The pain when doing it on yourself is so much worse. I really gave it all my effort but my skin started getting irritated and I had to keep getting new wax because it was melting so fast.
That’s it!!
I love sharing about all things skin and skincare. My real passion is helping women get clear skin naturally. Clear skin was my dream and I was able to heal my acne naturally and on my own because I discovered the root cause, and now it’s my mission to help others do the same! If you struggle with acne take the quiz below and receive a free personalized 7-day skin reset plan tailored to you!