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Help me wax my disgusting body hair
Casual Eddy
The Astral PlaneRegistered User regular
The Astral PlaneRegistered User regular
So I'm a hairy dude and I wanted to get my back and maybe my shoulders/upper arms waxed. A couple places around here look like they'll be charging a bundle for such an operation and I was wondering if people have had success with any home products. Remember that this is pretty substantial amounts of hair, and I can get some help with the hard to reach places.
What are products to use/avoid?
How much will this run me?
How often will I need to wax? Will I ever not have to wax?
What are products to use/avoid?
How much will this run me?
How often will I need to wax? Will I ever not have to wax?
Casual Eddy on
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Until I started growing hair stubble. That's not cool. So I had to start shaving my arms. A dude I was seeing was like 'do you shave your arms?! You should wax them!' A summer of shaving my arms left me with arms that had very dry skin. Moisturising your arms is sort of weird. I let it grow back eventually. Never tried waxing.
I can only guess that waxing would be similar, except I imagine you'd have to deal with the arm stubble after a longer period of smooth goodness.... but you'd have to leave the stubble to a point where it's long enough for the wax to grab on to it. Might be a little weird. But I'm not expert.
And I think since waxing rips the root of the hair out it has to come in new so there won't be bad stubble.
haha, I was probably going to get my boyfriend to do it.
That last sentence had me all kinds of o_O For a second I thought you were a hairy chick
If you have a partner then do it but I suggest lasering if you can afford it. I have a friend that did it on the back of his neck and loved it.
If it works half as well as it claims, it would seem to be a significantly cheaper alternative to most other methods.
My oldest brother had his back lasered some years ago and I think it cost him about 2,500 American Dollars.
I come from a family of Welsh Gorillas.
I know various women and trans-women who have had good luck with these. They are sort of like waxing without the goo and strips.
Or you can go the professional laser way, which is expensive, only works well on certain skin/hair types. That will run you minimum $300 bucks a session for your back i'd say, and you would need to do at least 5 sessions for permanent removal (each session generally reduces the amount of hair by ~40%, but its not evenly distributed, so it gets patchy)
A friend just recommended me a Nair waxing kit for my legs. I guess they make one that the strips come pre-prepped, so you dont need to bother with heating up the wax, attempting to not burn yourself etc. you just grab a strip, press it down, and pull. My recommendation would be to enlist your boyfriends help, and go this route first. It will take some patience to get everything.
http://www.comparestoreprices.co.uk/images/na/nair-easy-wax-microwave.jpg
(Not for my back, admittedly, since I'm a chick).
I had pretty bad luck with some other kinds, so this one is great. Nair have a yellowish wax as well as the typical browny one, the yellow one is more expensive here at least, but seems more gentle. Works just the same in my experience though.
This one doesn't require cloth or paper strips, you just tear the actual wax off itself. I have had much better results that way than with all the strip products I've ever tried. The strip products were a waste of time for me, didn't do anything and half the time didn't stick either to the hair or the strip or even both.
I also have tried those strips that come where you don't have to heat them, those were bullshit and did nothing too.
This was sort of my experience too. When it did stick to the hair and strip, it worked well, but I ended up running out of strips before finishing it all. I may have been doing it wrong tho, or just have really stubborn leg hair.
Dang, now I need a third data point for these, as my friend swears by them.
I've never used it, but I've heard nothing but good.
Oh man i got a full torso / groin wax once. It was the worst decision of my life. And im not talking about the wax itself. That was very much like the 40 year old virgin. But OH MY GOD when the hair grows back it is so much worse. I used to have a little hair on my back after the wax I have a forest now. Just one wax doubled the hair back there. All the little no see ums got yanked out and replaced with monster black giant things.
Just revel in your hair dude. You're a man. Men are hairy.
If your boy doesnt like it then get that norelco thing and have him shave it. I have the norelco deal it works great.
Some quick pointers.
If the hair is too long, it'll hurt. It only needs to be 1/4 of an inch, no longer. But, since it's back/arm hair it's probably fine as is.
Anyway...what people were talking about before the "strip wax" vs the not strip wax. The one that doesn't use the strips is called hard wax typically. It dries and gets hard and doesn't adhere to your skin, it sticks only to the hair. The problem with this is low quality/really cheap ones can give mixed performance...but if you don't want to go to a professional I doubt you want to pay a whole bunch for wax and a warmer to heat it up. The hard wax is often for more sensitive areas as well, where your skin is tender so you don't want wax pulling it.
I'd recommend using soft wax, the kind you use with strips, since you're wanting to wax a large area it will be more cost effective. You will want someone else to do this for you. You put the wax down with an applicator(a fat popcicle stick usually) smoothing it in the direction the hair grows, that is important. Then, they should place the strip on, rub it a could of times down in the direction the hair grows as well to ensure good contact and spreading.
To pull it off pull it in the opposite direction that the hair grows. This is an important part...have the person stretch your skin tight with their off hand while they are pulling the strip off. This will reduce the pain A LOT.
Those are the quickest tips I can give. Oh, also make sure to clean your skin before you do this, since waxing does open up your pores and some of them will bleed you don't want to get an infection. Keep some oil and cotton balls around. If wax gets somewhere it shouldn't, you can remove it by rubbing the oil on it. Don't make the wax too hot, you don't want burns and ripped up skin.
Dear god don't use that thing. I just bought one for 100 bucks, and now the hair on my legs is coming back ingrown. It's full blown torture.
I think waxing will probably give me the same evil results, so I suppose I'm back to a razor. Thankfully the epilator can double as an electric razor/trimmer so I didn't waste too much money.
Man that is awesome (so are the virals I found looking for a better page). So tempting.
I will recommend, if you can save up for it, laser hair removal. Also pretty painful, but PERMANENT. Not cheap though.
Hair doesn't grow back thicker, that's just a wives tale.
http://www.snopes.com/oldwives/hairgrow.asp
Anyway, those black things you're talking about are probably ingrown hairs. You should probably do some exfoliation to take care of that problem.
I have to say I had the complete opposite experience. I got the whole treatment done last month - full torso / full bikini wax. In all honesty, I'm a pretty hairy guy with some coarse hair - it wasn't even half as bad as I thought it would be. The whole bikini part went by quickly and while chatting with the lady doing the job, I barely noticed much pain. The chest was slightly more painful, but only for the first few strips - once you know what to expect, it's quite fine. No teeth gritting, no bleeding, no screaming - at worst, a wince.
As for the hair growing back - no in grown hairs and it didn't really itch. I didn't exfoliate until two days after the waxing was done, and during that time I used some cream they gave me to keep the whole thing from itching. Also, as it grows in...it's not stubbly - best way I can describe it is, well, its just small hairs. A month later and it's barely grown in fully yet. I'd say if you're up to it - and have the funds to do it - just get it professionally done. It'll be over quicker, likely be less painful (not to mention less chance of something going horribly wrong) and at worst you'll have a fun story to tell.
Also trimming doesn't damage your skin at all so no need to moisturize or ever worry about stubble and ingrown hairs.
For it's cost the norelco is a great razor.
oh it's on
that norelco seems interesting. Trimming it very short would probably be a better option since I certainly can't shave my back. The main problem with my back and upper arm hair not that there's too much of it, but it just grows in such a way that it looks completely awful.
I'm a poor student so lasering and salon waxing are probably out of the question. Will this norelco device leave my hair bristley if it's trimmed?
Well, then you're a freak of nature. Congratulations.
Also, I agree with Wootloops. At least for the first time getting it professionally done would be worth it. Closely watch what they do/ask questions and you can pick up a lot of pointers. Generally waxing lasts 4 to 6 weeks before you need to get it done again.
I can, but isn't the norelco more for trimming than shaving? I'm confused about it. And also straight up like shaving will take forever give the square footage and density we're talking about
It doesn't need strips which I think is a lot easier, and it comes with a wax warmer so that you can keep it at the right temperature without having to nuke it/heat the wax again.
If you do get one of these it takes a little bit to get used to how messy things can be so I'd get someone to help you do it and spread some paper towels down to catch drips. Also, feel free to PM if you want more info on the kit.
The Norelco will shave it completely and will not take any time at all. Just buy it.
I (embarrassing at it is) have some experience with this. I paid $800 for my back, and it includes 12 sessions that last a little over an hour each. I'm 10 sessions in and have almost no hair left on my back, even waiting 6-8 weeks between treatments. I suggest shopping around, I bet prices are better these days.
how does it wax if you don't use any strips?
and where have you been waxing? Can you verify that these will work on heavy duty body hair?
oh and I would probably get the laser thing if I weren't a broke ass student.
I also am curious about the wax described above. Brazilian waxing kits are supposed to be for the hair around your [redacted] and those fuckers root deeeeep. I don't have a lot of upper body hair, but below my navel to my ankles I look like a fucking Satyr.
My brother has it worse, of course, in that his hair is mainly concentrated above his navel and below his ankles--as in on the tops of his feet. He looks like a hobbit.
Well, I've waxed various parts with the kit and it's seemed to work well (admittedly I'm not an expert) but I've done peoples' chest/nipple hair with it, between the eyebrows hair, finger hair, arm hair, leg hair, and parts between the navel and knees hair. As long as you don't crank the wax up to ridiculously hot it doesn't hurt that much.
The only hair it hasn't worked very well on is face hair, my theory is because the guy who asked didn't have long enough hairs on his face at the time.
o_O
Was dude one of those tabloid wolfmen or what?
Laser hair removal smells like burning hair. Its nasty. It hurts too. All the places I've seen say it feels like a warm rubber band snap. I say it feels EXACTLY like what you think getting shot with a high powered laser feels like. The laser I'm familiar with is the LightSheer (tm) diode laser, but there are many different kinds out there. Excellent information found here.
The basic concept behind laser is that, you shoot high powered light at your skin and the pigment in the (dark) hair absorbs the light and heats up, destroying the hair follicle. The beam is a few mm in diameter so it gets multiple hairs at a time, and the thicker the hair in that particular place, the more it hurts. They use short pulses of varying intensity, so they can tailor it to your skin/hair type and your pain tolerance. Some hairs will literally explode out of your skin, others will sort of get fried and eventually fall out a week or so later. Afterwards the skin is tender and a bit red, similar to a sunburn, but this varies person to person. One session usually reduces the amount of hair by ~40% or so, so multiple sessions are required, spaced usually 4-6 weeks apart. The number is of course different for everyone. You also sort of have to become a vampire and avoid sun on the area you are treating. Make friends with SPF 50 if you are outside.
If you are considering laser there are a lot of gotchas to look out for because a LOT of the places seem sort of shady. Most are tied in with lots of other cosmetic or spa type places, and regulations vary from state to state. Its a good idea if the place is overseen by a doctor and the procedure is actually done by the doctor or a nurse. During the consult, ask who will be doing the procedure, and how long they have been doing it. Ask if they have experience treating people with your hair/skin type. Lots of places offer numbing cream which they apply to your skin about a half hour before the actual lasering begins (this is usually the point when I pop a few extra strength Tylenol). This helps a LOT but most places charge you extra for it. There are hidden costs sometimes, for example they will quote you a price for, say your face, but charge extra if you want your neck done too, so be sure to go in for a consult and explain EXACTLY which areas you want done. During your consult, ask them to do a test patch to see how your skin will react. Some places offer a 'guarantee' but be skeptical of these. Think of it like 'extended warranty', Its sort of the too good to be true type deal many times. Its usually better to go with someone who is honest and up front about the capabilities and limitations of laser. However, most places offer a discount if you buy multiple sessions upfront, and, if everything else checks out with the place, this is a good idea. The biggest thing: go there for a consult, and if it gives you a bad vibe, walk away.