With the summer waxing season in full swing, odds are you’re providing more services than ever throughout your day - and might even be struggling to keep up. For at-home waxers out there, you also just might not have the time to devote to an entire full-length wax at home and are looking for some solutions to make your process go faster so you can get back to your day.
So what’s the solution to your waxing-related time constraints? If you’re looking for ways to speed up your sessions, it might be time to look into speed waxing. To some, speed waxing is a technique, for others, it's just efficient waxing done with optimal timing - and a way of life!
Table of Contents
In this guide, we'll give you tips on how to prepare for speed waxing and how to give your client the best possible experience before they even walk into your salon.
We’ll also discuss the difference between speed waxing with hard wax vs. soft wax, what the best speed-waxing products are for professionals and at-home users, and how to best carry out a speed-waxing service for both you and your clients alike.
READ: How to Use Hard Wax Like a Pro: The Complete Guide
What is Speed Waxing?
Speed waxing is widely considered a technique involving the application of soft wax to large areas of the body at once, then using a single removal strip to completely remove hair swiftly from the legs, chest, or back.
Some esthies consider speed waxing to be an ineffective method and think it can limit hair's ability to be lifted from the root. However, though the right technique for your clients differs from person to person, speed waxing can yield great results for many.
In addition to its general definition, another perspective on speed waxing is that it is just a series of choices or movements that support and result in a speedier overall waxing service.
This can apply to anything from how you set up your station, to how you stand and position your clients to waxing, and even how to prepare your client for their services.
It can also even refer to the type of wax you use for your service, as some types of waxes are easier to speed wax with than others. For our purposes, when we talk about speed waxing, we’ll be referring to an esthetician’s professional methods of providing the fastest and most cohesive and efficient services for their clients.
READ: Best Esthetician Services to Offer Clients
What to Know About Speed Waxing
Speed waxinga perfect leg wax
The faster you can complete involved services like a full-body wax in your salon, the sooner you can take the next client for another round of speedy hair removal. Speed waxing can allow you to do just that, while also letting your clients check another errand off their list and be on their way in less time.
To be a win-win for professionals and clients alike, however, speed waxing has to be done correctly and with the best wax products and techniques.
READ: Best Hard Wax for Easy Hair Removal
Speed Waxing with Hard Wax vs. Soft Wax
In the debate of hard wax vs. soft wax for speed waxing, you can be assured that both wax types can be great for speed waxing as long as you’re using high-quality waxes.
While soft wax has historically been the preferred method for speed waxing, hard wax beads have come a long way with increased pliability and spreadability for working over larger areas.
As we said, no matter what type of wax you’re using, working with inferior wax products can slow you down. This is because they can be filled with lower quality ingredients, or less of what makes wax stick together without cracking or tearing when being spread and lifted.
For speed waxing on smaller areas like eyebrows, always use high-quality products like Starpil Blue Hard Wax Microbeads, or our award-winning Creamy Pink Soft Strip Wax.
READ: Waxing 101: What’s the Difference Between Soft Wax vs. Hard Wax?
In the debate of hard wax vs. soft wax for speed waxing, you can be assured that both wax types can be great for speed waxing as long as they are high-quality wax. While soft wax has long been a preferred speed waxing wax, hard wax beads have come a long way with increased pliability and spreadability for working over larger areas. Using inferior wax products can slow you down because they can be filled with lower quality ingredients or less of what makes wax stick together without cracking or tearing when being spread and lifted. And while we’re at it, whether you’re going for speed on larger areas or quality on an eyebrow waxing, you should always use the high-quality products like Starpil Wax blue hard wax in your hard-wax kit or the best soft wax.
How to Speed Wax Different Skin Types
It’s incredibly important to use the right wax for every situation, including all of your clients’ skin types.
Whether you’re working with clients with dry, dehydrated, sensitive, or acne-prone skin , always have the right wax types on hand to meet those needs.
From Blue Hard Wax to Pink Film, to Roll-On Wax, which is a speed-waxing favorite, you should always have a decent repertoire of waxes to take care of all client skin types.
Not sure what to have stocked? The best way to do that is to have larger quantities of what you use most, whether it’s hard wax or soft wax, ready to go in a larger professional wax warmer, and small quantities of specialty waxes in a smaller wax pot. You can also have some single Roll-On Wax cartridges on-hand just in case. Roll-On Wax cartridges are also fantastic for speed waxing, and are well worth a try if you haven’t experienced their quality of service and speed!
READ: Working with Different Skin Types
How to Prepare for Speed Waxing
When it comes to speed waxing, it’s all in the preparation. Setting up your hard wax kit or soft wax station is incredibly important for the overall efficiency of your speed wax service.
You'll need to have everything ready to go for the particular service before you begin. If you're running around looking for your eyebrow waxing spatulas or after-wax care, you've already missed out on a speedy (and organized) opportunity!
This also means having the correct wax type for your client's skin, hair, and type of service melted and checked before your client arrives, as well as having the best waxing spatulas for each service type ready to go. Always have your wax trolley placed on the side of your dominant hand for quick access to your wax products.
READ: Your Complete Guide to Roll-On Waxing
How to Position Yourself for Speed Waxing
Positioning yourself around your client correctly is key to waxing quickly and providing the best results. For example, if you're right-handed, stand so that the client is lying on the waxing table with their head toward your left hand. If you're left-handed, stand on the other side with their head closer to your right hand.
Set your waxing table at about waist height so that you're not bending as much. If you do need to get low, do so at your knees in a plié-type movement.
Stand at the side of the client to keep the shoulders relaxed. Standing at the client's side as opposed to by their feet can make waxing fast and less painful for the client. This is because it's easier to peel the wax strip off parallel to the surface of their skin and not up and out, causing pain and breakage.
READ: How to Treat & Prevent Ingrown Hairs After Waxing
Speed Waxing Skin Prep
Even if you're working with a long-time client, you don't know what might have changed for them since they last visited you. Always ask your clients if there is anything that you should know about (sprained ankle or recently healed bruise, mosquito bites, etc.)
As you prepare their skin, use this time to really feel and look at their skin to plan ahead. You can see which direction the hair is growing and feel for anything worthy of note. You don't want to be speeding along over an injury or weird cowlick. Even if you're going fast, always take the time to notice the little things while you're prepping.
How to Clean Before Speed Waxing
Do everything that you can to keep things as clean as possible during your speed waxing service. If you're using soft wax, fold the edge of the removal strip inward as a lip to pull from so as not to accidentally touch residual wax.
Always keep Post-Wax Oil nearby so that you can remove wax from your gloved hands. You’ll want to prevent wax from getting on you at all costs so that there is no added stickiness. Always work from the direction of the hair growth. Your hands should always be resting toward the tips of hair and not on the other side of the follicles.
READ: Why Using Pre & Post Wax Products is a MUST!
How to Position Your Client for Speed Waxing
Another thing that could cause estheticians to slow down during a service is moving around the client to access all their nooks and crannies, instead of moving the client around for better access to wax them.
For speed leg waxing, you’ll want to try to following:
- For legs, roll their leg to and from you to get to the sides
- For side knees, have them sit half criss-cross applesauce with their heel facing their groin area.
READ: The Complete Guide to Leg Waxing
Speed Wax Application
Applying wax for speed can mean a few things depending on whether you use hard wax or soft wax. If you're using something like Creamy Pink Soft Wax, or even a hard wax like our hypersensitive-skin friendly Starsoft formula, try to keep the application thin enough to see the direction of hair growth beneath the wax. Thinner wax application can also limit messiness or clumpiness.
With soft waxes like Starpil’s Blue Soft Wax, there’s no setting time. This allows you to spread wax over a large area and use a limited number of wax removal strips to remove all of the hair.
With hard waxes like Pink Film Hard Wax, you can move faster by working in smaller areas than soft wax. Just make sure you apply so as to get a good lip to grip for removal.
READ: How to Wax Step by Step
How to Use Hard Wax for Speed Waxing
When using hard wax for a speed waxing service, you’ll need to create the best ‘lip’ possible to give yourself the best leverage to remove your wax with. Though you need a good lip for any hard wax service, it’s even more important for effective speed waxing.
When we say a hard wax ‘lip’, we’re talking about the free-edge area that you lift and pull from to remove the hard-wax strip. How you create your stripless hard wax lip is key to a quick and even pull.
Your hard-wax strips should look like a relatively opaque, smooth-lined, elongated U-shape. The bottom of your "U" is the lip, and if it looks like a jagged coastline, it’s not correct and you risk tearing up your strip for uneven hair removal. Make sure that everything is even and smooth so that you don't have to go back and do damage control.
To apply your hard wax, keep your waxing spatula at a 45° angle and press it firmly (yet gently) as you glide against the skin to get the wax to spread in an even veil.
Once the wax is applied, don't move the body part in question in any way that gets wax onto the waxing table. If you see missed hairs, go back in as small as possible with your wax, or feel free to use tweezers.
READ: Underarm Waxing: The Complete Guide
Final Thoughts
There may be a lot of steps involved in a successful speed wax, but after enough time, you can master each move to get into the speed waxing flow.
What matters most when it comes to this technique is to provide your clients with the most high-quality waxing service in the shortest amount of time. This doesn’t mean to rush through your service unnecessarily, or to the point where your results are low quality or that you’re not paying attention to your client as you should.
The beauty of speed waxing is to provide your clients with the results they expect in significantly less time than a normal service, and to serve as many clients as possible throughout the day. Speed waxing can be an easy win-win for professionals and clients alike - just make sure to wax responsibly and with the right technique.
