In the last several years, sugaring wax has become a common and popular service. Whether it’s the armpit, arms, upper lip, eyebrow or someplace more intimate, sugaring provides longer-lasting hair removal. For those who have never experienced sugar wax treatments, it can seem a bit daunting. If you are in the Salt Lake City area and would like to book a sugaring at our Sandy, UT location, please book online or call today! Below are a few before and after sugaring wax tips to help you better prepare.
Body sugaring is the preferred hair removal method over waxing for many reasons, most notably it is typically less painful or irritating to the skin than body wax. Below are more details and differences:
Pulling WITH direction of hair
One of the biggest differences between sugaring and waxing is that sugar is laid AGAINST the direction of the hairs natural growth and pulled WITH the direction of the hair. Whereas wax is the opposite; laid WITH the hair, and pulled AGAINST the hair. Pulling WITH the direction of the hair, as with Sugaring, results in more hairs being pulled from the hair follicle itself and way less hair breakage or ingrown hairs. Sugaring is ideal for sensitive skin; the risk of getting a rash is much lower (hardly ever) compared to waxing. Best of all, it results in longer lasting hair re-growth times!
Shorter hairs extracted
During application, the sugar paste seeps into the hair shaft (grabbing hair deeper than wax ever could). This results in shorter hairs being extracted in addition to more hair follicles being pulled. You only have to have about 1/6 hair growth vs the 1/4 hair growth needed for waxing.
Cannot adhere to live skin
Sugar paste cannot adhere to live skin cells. This means less discomfort for you & less trauma to your skin. Since wax can adhere directly to live skin cells, it has been known to remove more than just the hair, which makes waxing more painful & irritating (especially in the most sensitive areas like Brazilians). Sugaring does remove dead skin cells ? so as the hair is removed, your skin is also getting exfoliated - leaving you with silky smooth skin every time!
No hair left behind!
Wax cannot be applied to an area more than twice before the skin is too damaged or sensitive to continue. Plucking the remaining hairs is your only option with wax. Since sugar paste cannot adhere to live skin, you can go over the hairs as much as you want with the same ball of sugar (which comes in handy for stubborn hairs).
All natural
The sugar paste is made up of 100% pure and natural ingredients. Since it is water soluble, it is easier to clean up and won't leave you feeling sticky. Wax contains resins so chemical solvents are required to remove it?s residues (a painful process after just getting your hair pulled!). Sugar is only heated to room temp and cannot burn the skin (unlike wax). It is also more sanitary than waxing; by using the same ball of sugar, there is no double dipping and it's a natural antibacterial! The risk of infection is greatly reduced with sugaring.
Adjust to your pain tolerance
Instead of using longer strips to remove large amounts of hair all at once, sugaring allows us to chip away at smaller areas. This is useful for persons with a lower pain tolerance (especially in the more sensitive areas). Waxing is typically done in one large strip per section (OUCH). But if you prefer to have it go faster with one full strip, sugaring can do that too! No matter the strip size, sugaring is typically faster than waxing (depending on your pain tolerance and the texture of your hair). Everyone's hair texture and pain tolerance is different, but you should be able to feel the difference between waxing and sugaring after your very first visit.
Not pain free, but it does get better every time!
No matter what method of hair removal you use (sugaring, waxing, or even plucking), you are still essentially pulling hair; and pulling any amount of hair will always cause pain to some degree. Claiming that any hair removal technique could be "pain free" is simply not possible. Although with sugaring there is strong benefits (some already described above), which attribute to sugaring being the preferred method of hair removal over waxing; especially when it comes to the subject of pain.
The biggest difference between the pain of waxing compared to sugaring begins with the material being used. Sugar is never heated above room temperature and cannot burn the skin like waxing. Sugar paste is also water soluble and simply cannot adhere to live skin cells... whereas wax can. Pulling a strip of wax which is partially attached to the skin can add immense amounts of un-needed pain to the hair removal process (not to mention the damage it does to your skin; bleeding, open wounds, infections and rashes or ingrown hairs).
Another amazing reason sugaring can be less painful than waxing is the fact that sugaring results in more hair being pulled at the hair follicle level; which in turn leads to thinner hair (or even permanent baldness). The thinner the hair -- the less painful the process will be! Continual removal of hair at the follicle eventually damages the follicle badly enough that hair begins to either thin-out or becomes permanently bald in certain areas. Confused by this?... Think of your own head of hair to illustrate this point: If you were to pull a patch of hair (at the follicle level) from your own head over and over (GASP, please never do this)... eventually that patch of follicles would be so damaged that they would stop trying to repair themselves to produce more hair and a form of thinning and/or permanent baldness would eventually ensue in the affected area. When using professional sugar paste along with the correct technique; sugaring simply damages the follicle more than wax ever could. The more consistent your visits, the thinner and less stubborn your hair can become, and the more pleasant each experience can be!
If sugaring is so different than waxing, why use the term "Sugar Waxing" at all?
We would love to never be associated with the term "waxing", other than to compare sugaring to waxing. Because the truth is, waxing and sugaring have nothing in common other than being different methods of hair removal (and their "Amber" color). Waxing has been the most widely marketed method of hair removal for a very long time and sugaring is simply behind in general public awareness. Because most people have never before heard of sugaring, they are typically searching for "Brazilian waxing near me" or "waxing salon near me" to find their closest hair removal provider. And even IF someone has heard of sugaring before, most think that sugar paste is just another form of wax (like "soft wax" or "hard wax"), so they search "sugar waxing near me" or "places that use sugar wax". The realization that sugar paste contains ZERO wax (or that the technique of sugaring is completely opposite from waxing) is something people learn only once they have been sugared. Most our clientele find us by word of mouth-- and this will most likely remain until sugaring is more well known. So in order to be found, or for our services to make sense to people, we must cater to the current knowledge within the industry, which is why we incorporate the term "waxing" in our marketing materials. One of our favorite things is when someone clicks on our website expecting to find a waxing salon and instead they discover sugaring. Typically their curiosity (and fear of painful waxing appointments) drives them to learn more and eventually schedule their first sugaring appointment! Eventually the hair removal industry will catch up... but until that time, we will continue to use the term "Sugar Waxing" intermittently throughout our marketing.