Sugar waxing!

As you may have noticed, we don't eat much sugar these days. However, I was able to kill two birds with one stone today, one of which was using up some of that lonely sack of sugar we've had in our cupboard for ages.

The other? My need for cheap, sustainable, and effective hair removal. As most people have probably also noticed, this isn't something I've concerned myself with at all for the past, oh, two years or so. I've been rocking out completely natural for about that long in just about every way possible.

However, sometimes circumstances (such as a sister-in-law's wedding) call for a concession to popular culture in the body-hair-removal department. So, the search was on for an appropriate message to do so.

Matt and I don't really own a razor between the two of us anymore, and I've always hated the stubble much more than just having fuzzy legs (obviously). Plus, these days everything is both expensive and ultra-disposable, and neither of those made shaving a route I wanted to take. Back in my footloose and fancy-free days, before I was a mother, I used to enjoy (OK, wrong word) a good wax--eyebrows, bikini line. The hefty price tag meant I quit that about the time we started saving up for our wedding three years ago. I've dabbled with at-home waxing kits, but they aren't especially cheap either--and I always found them rather messy and skin-irritating, and the wax was hard to get off when I was done.

ENTER SUGARING.

my sugar wax cooling in the fridge

I am really that excited about it.

There are a number of different tutorials on sugaring, but I used this one. The basic recipe is usually the same--sugar, lemon juice, water--but some, like this one, utilize cloth strips, while others require cooking the sugar to the "soft ball stage" and then just pressing on the wax itself and pulling it off. The first method seemed a little more foolproof, so it's what I went with. What I did was:

Combine 1 cup sugar, 2 T lemon juice, and 2 T water in a saucepan
Heat over medium until foamy; hold it there (without boiling over) for about 5 minutes
Pour into a heatproof vessel and refrigerate until warm and sticky (about 15-30 min)
Cut an old piece of muslin or cotton into strips
Apply the sugar wax with a spatula to the area to be waxed
Press the strip down 2-3 times with the hair growth
Holding the area taut with one hand, quickly pull the strip off with the other.

Note: I could have probably made about 1/3-1/2 as much and still had plenty to do my legs, but I'm guessing it will keep awhile in the fridge.

Here's what I love about sugaring:

1) It's incredibly cheap--I used 1 cup of sugar and 2 T of lemon juice, plus an old piece of scrap cloth, for a cost probably under $1. Compare that to the ~$60 and upwards you would pay to get your legs waxed, or the $6-10 you'd pay for a home waxing kit, and you're saving some serious money. Even compared to shaving, the weeks of hair removal I'll get from this single sugaring can't be bought for $1 if you're using conventional razors.

2) It's really effective. While there are still stubborn leftovers that require a quick pass with tweezers, this is also the case for professional waxers, who also utilize the tweezers.

See for yourself:


3) It's long-lasting. I can't say yet how long it's going to last for me, but I'd anticipate at least a few weeks, and summer will probably be over before the regrowth gets serious enough for me to contemplate doing it again. What an investment compared to shaving!

4) It's so easy, and there are absolutely zero chemicals involved.

5) I hesitate to use the word painless, but compared with threading, tweezing, and waxing, it's the least uncomfortable method I've ever used, by far.

6) It's SO EASY to rinse off! Just plain water and that's it! Compared with wax, which you have to painstakingly rub off with oil (which then gets on your clothing), this was a total revelation.

7) Unlike shaving, your hair can (and should) be really long to start with! This might be a possible con for those who like to maintain that sleek appearance, but clearly I don't--so it's perfect for someone like me!

Here are some pointers I learned while doing it:

1) The sugar solution is easier and less uncomfortable to spread on when it's warm and runny, like warmed honey. (I used a rubber kitchen scraper to spread it on, and I poured it from the stove to a Pyrex measuring cup for use.) It also doesn't seem to work as well when it starts to get cooler and stiffer. Pop it in the microwave for 10-15 seconds and it will warm right up.

2) The efficacy really depends nearly entirely on how taut you're able to pull your skin before ripping off the cloth strip. For my calf, this meant smoothing on the strip, then using one hand to grab circumferentially around my leg and pull it as tight as possible, then ripping the strip off with the other hand. With, ah, looser body parts, you're going to want a second pair of hands or likely risk some serious bruising.

3) While your legs (or whatever) will look totally hairless, they may not feel as silky as freshly shaven legs will--since it doesn't scrape the surface, there are tiny hairs that may escape the wax, and it also doesn't provide the same level of skin exfoliation that shaving does. But then again, it also doesn't provide the ensuing bumps and redness, either. I had pretty much zero redness/rash following the sugaring of both legs, which is not something I can say for shaving or waxing.

Happy sugaring!!