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“I let grooming go completely this past year. I mean, I wasn’t going to bikini wax myself! I used to do all the things, from my brows to toes, with an occasional bit of Botox. Yes, I’m saving thousands of dollars, but I miss my routine! I’m excited personal care reopening is (almost) on the horizon, but at the same time, I’m nervous about returning to the waxing salon looking so, well, unkempt.” —Kelsey, downtown Toronto
To the people out there who have rediscovered the joys of natural body hair during this pandemic, more power to you. I admire your back-to-the-land principles and wish it didn’t matter to me, because, yes, I too would save thousands of hard-earned dollars every year. But, like Kelsey, I love and miss everything about grooming rituals: Those who work in esthetics are genuine people people; in addition to their talents, they give off good energy. The hair salon chair (think Steel Magnolias), the nail bar (think Legally Blonde): These places are our modern confessionals. The wax table, hidden inside a private room, is more intimate still; we share more secrets and kinship there than with bartenders. All in all, in a year without gossipy drinks with girlfriends or water-cooler chatter, the loss of personal care appointments has been harmful for our mental health.
“When I have my hair, nails, waxing done, I show up better in life,” says Lexi Miles Corrin. “I’m a more confident me.” Few have spent as much time thinking about the deeper meaning of personal services than Miles Corrin. I first interviewed her for theStar nine years ago, when she was newly out of business school. She quit her job as a mangagment consultant when she saw a hole in the market, launching the first of what has become 13 outposts of Waxon Laser + Waxbar, across Southern Ontario and in Halifax. She impressed me at the time, bringing verve to her idea of democratizing the wax business, taking it out of the back of the salon, so to speak.
“When we first started, we had a private door in the back for clients who didn’t want to be seen,” she says. Now, the reception at her flagship Summerhill shop is “like a fishbowl.” The concept of waxing today is normalized, and in regular times customers love to hang out in front in full view of Yonge Street. About 10 per cent of Waxon’s clientele are men, she says, but it is the women who are clamouring for appointments and their old routines. “We are set to go the moment it’s announced,” she says. “Women are seeing us moving their previous cancelled appointments into the queue as a beacon of light. They miss the physical contact, the conversation; it’s someplace you go just for yourself, not your kids, your husband or your parents.” Miles Corrin should know about that universal yearning for Me time, as she just had her second baby at the beginning of the first lockdown last year.
As for the worry that our bikini lines might be in any way shocking, she laughs. Don’t even let it cross your mind, she says, “We’ve seen it all. There is never any level of embarrassment. This is what we do, all day, every day.” Recently, Miles Corrin has noticed a marked increase in laser hair removal inquiries. “People don’t ever want to be in this position again,” she says, so they are planning ahead to make their hair removal permanent. The brand began doing Zoom consultations during this most recent lockdown, “and we can barely keep up with demand.” People are planning their way forward. Brows, she says, are also of particular interest. “It is one of two problems,” she says, “either they are wildly overgrown, or they look like Madonna in the ’90s,” meaning that ultra-thin brow that stubbornly refuses to come back with other ’90s trends. “Because you can’t pluck just one, you end up taking out 25 and then you are in trouble.” I’m in the shabby overgrown camp, myself; I haven’t picked up tweezers for that exact reason, since the ’90s.
The stats in personal care are grim: Some 200,000 workers in the sector in Ontario alone have been out of work for 287 days with no income; 20 percent of business have permanently closed in an industry that is 81 per cent female owned. Miles Corrin employs 125 women at Waxon. Salon staff everywhere are poised to jump back the moment the green light is given. Miles Corrin has been advocating for the industry with Beauty United, which has been lobbying the Ontario government to treat the personal care industry more fairly. Currently, these services are in phase 2, “alongside water parks and live events,” she says, while massage services have been open. Beauty United is working to upgrade credentials to demonstrate the care the sector puts into safety: “Only 0.5 per cent of transmissions have been linked to personal care services,” she says, which means 99.5% of personal care businesses have had no outbreaks.
I asked Miles Corrin what we can do to prepare for the return of services. Turns out, there is quite a bit! Her helpful hints include trimming body hair down. Waxon sells trimmers that can be set to different lengths. “Take it down to the length of a grain of rice,” is her advice. I never knew that! It helps reduce the pain that comes with waxing too-long hair.
Also: Exfoliate regularly! It helps with ingrown hairs. She recommends a loofah to manually exfoliate and the Waxon ingrown hair serum used in advance to pre-empt painful lumps and bumps after waxing. Keeping skin hydrated with body oil is important. And if you are particularly worried and are looking forward to a more intimate service such as the Brazilian bikini wax, invest in some numbing cream ahead of your first appointment back.
If I ever in future kvetch about having to go to a wax or a hair or a brow appointment, I promise to slap myself. This past year has made me more appreciative of the joys (and privileges) of these services, and it has made me much more appreciative of the talented people who perform them, and the power they have to spread happiness and well-being.
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These products can help you prep for when we can return to salons
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A tool delicate enough for the most sensitive skin, this trimmer has four different comb sizes for different lengths.
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To reduce ingrown hairs, this exfoliant in liquid form softens and straightens hairs below the surface. With AHA to remove dead skin cells, improve texture and promote healing; and PHA for hydration.
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A topical anesthetic with 5 per cent Lidocaine, plus Vitamin E to soothe inflammation. Apply a half hour before a bikini wax.
Konjac is an Asian root plant that can be used as a sponge exfoliant; this item also has loofah, which is a vegetable in the cucumber family, for physical exfoliation, on one side.
From natural beauty powerhouse Weleda, this body oil, rich in unsaturated fatty acids, has no preservatives, fragrances or colourants.
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