Welcome to Ask Julie Anything, a #safespace where ELLE.com's Senior Beauty & Fitness Editor Julie Schott answers questions about beauty, fitness, food, body hair, flesh-eating skin diseases, traumatic haircuts, and more. DM her your acne pics @julie_schott or Snapchat a rash to elleusa.
Julie! Help! I've been so swamped at work that I miss my salon's close time every night and I need a Brazilian! I have thought about waxing at home, but I'm worried about getting ingrown hairs and, um, pain. Is there a way to do an at-home wax that gives salon results? Thank you!!
Here's the deal: hair removal isn't great for your skin, but if you must go bare, according to dermatologist Joshua Zeichner, MD, Director of Cosmetic and Clinical Research Department of Dermatology at Mount Sinai Hospital—to whom I send an acne selfie every day—cold wax strips are your safest bet, and, yes, you can wax at home. "The risk with spa hot waxes is that the skin can be burned or traumatized. I have treated patients with open, raw skin from a hot wax burn," he says. "At home cold wax is less traumatizing to the skin in general and will not cause a burn, but it may not be as effective."
I put Zeichner's cold wax recommendation to the test on a recent trip to Paris when, like you, I hadn't scheduled time for a Brazilian. The whole thing took less than 45 minutes and the results were so smooth and impressive that I may never get a professional Brazilian wax again. Or maybe I'll quit my job and become a waxing technician? Either way, follow these five easy steps, and you'll never have to choose between spa hours and hairless skin again.
The kit: Khlorane Cold Wax Small Strips (not yet available stateside); Baby Bee Dusting Powder; Vaseline or Honest Organic Baby Oil; Anastasia Beverly Hills tweezers.
Step 1:
Dust the area with baby powder. This helps the wax grab hold of each hair, and it also prevents stickiness. Sidenote: I learned this the hard way, and had to call down to the concierge at my hotel for help. Plan ahead!
Step 2:
Warm up a strip in the palm of your hand. To get the most even heat, lay your strip flat in your left hand (or reverse if you're left-handed) and rub in circular motions with your right fist until the entire strip feels warm to the touch.
Step 3:
Peel your strip apart to reveal two hot and ready wax strips, oh la la. Now press each one down over hair in the direction that it grows, and do the circular fist motion again.
Step 4:
Breathe, self-medicate, do what you need to do; then peel up the bottom edge of your strip, and lift away. You'll see some hairs left behind, so press the same strip back over those and lift off again until you're completely smooth. Repeat step 5 until you get the look you like. I got carried away and finished the whole box of strips.
Step 5:
Squeeze some Vaseline or baby oil into your hands and rub it all over the area until sticky patches feel smooth. Tweeze out any rogue hairs. Apply more Vaseline or baby oil. Expose yourself to your partner/Snapchat.
Fin!
