It makes my blood boil when I read these articles saying that shaving doesn’t make the hair thicker and stronger, because it does. Ok, so I agree that it depends on the body part, otherwise bald men would be shaving their heads every morning.
As someone who does Brazilian waxing on men and women all day long, I can tell you that shaving the pubic hair makes it stronger and more painful to remove. I sometimes feel like putting my boot on the doorframe to get a good grip as I remove the wax.
Not only that, but it makes our job more difficult and it takes a lot longer, involving lots of tweezing at the end if it wasn’t ready to be waxed, so educate your clients. Nobody likes to see their client suffering, especially when it’s something they could have avoided. If I had a pound for every shaver who say’s ‘I’m never shaving again’.
So, if you get a client who alternates between shaving and waxing, they’re throwing their money down the drain as they’ll never get that lovely smooth finish, so I advise my clients to either just shave, or just wax.
If they insist on getting waxed just once a year before their holiday, ask them to grow it for 4 weeks so that it last longer for them on their holiday. Don’t scare your client by telling them it’s going to hurt, just be quick and get it over with for them. As you’re finishing off, always let your client know that although they’re going to leave your salon as bald as a baby’s bum, it may grow back a bit quicker just this time and may still feel a bit stubbly. That said, clients are usually thrilled with the difference between shaving and waxing.
TIPS:
- Never use strip wax on shaved hair………always use hot wax.
- Allow your hot wax to set a little longer than usual, especially at the top of the labia because until the wax has set, the hair will be stronger than the wax and you don’t want it to snap.
- Make sure the wax at the top of the labia is thicker, to give it strength.
- I’ve noticed that shavers tend to perspire more when you wax them and that could make it more difficult for your wax to grip and set, so keep drying the skin with a piece of couch roll or sprinkle some talc on during the wax.
- The longer the hair is left to growth, the less painful it is to remove, so insist on a minimum of three weeks from their last shave, but four weeks for best results.
- I find that clients who clipper hair rather than shave have similar problems as this too makes the hair stronger. Odd but true.
Photo on the left is from a new clients first wax after she’d been shaving. The photo on the right is the same client from today, 5 weeks later. For reference, each piece of wax is from the same outer labia.
These opinions are my own and are based purely on experience.
Kim x