| Sugar wax, finished cooking |
When I was a kid, we had a neighbor, who, according to legend, removed body hair using sugar, lemon, and water. I never believed such a ridiculous sounding assertion until I was much older and read up about sugar waxing- the traditional hair removal method that involves caramelizing sugar with water and lemon to make a taffy, which attaches to your hairs and pulls them out by the roots. I looked up recipes for sugar wax online, but all of the ones that I tried were terrible, and either didn't harden and I was just left a sticky hairy mess, or they hardened at too high a temperature, leaving me with burns and pulling up layers of skin in my attempt to remove hair.
Miles away from my hometown, I recently bumped into my old neighbor who gave me her famed sugar wax recipe, and lo and behold- it was a keeper! This recipe is sticky enough to pull out hairs, but hard enough that it dries and doesn't stay on you... and works at cooler temperatures so you don't burn yourself or pull off layers of skin!
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Sugar Waxing
Ingredientswhite sugar
Instructions
1. Mix together water, sugar, and lemon juice in a small pot.
2. Heat on a high flame until the mixture boils.
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| Now it's ready- note the golden color beneath the bubbles. Time to turn off the flame. |
3. Stirring occasionally, heat on a medium flame until the mixture turns a golden brown. This step may take a while. It took me between 20 and 30 minutes when I timed it this afternoon. It will bubble up somewhat while cooking- if it starts boiling over, lower the heat.
4. When cooked, pour into a microwavable container. A silicon baking dish is the best option because it is flexible and non stick and will allow you to work with the sugar wax more easily.
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| Sugar wax, once the flame was turned off and bubbles disappeared. Ready to cool down. |
5. Let the sugar wax cool until it has hardened a drop. This will take a bit of trial and error until you figure out the perfect temperature and texture that is easiest for you to work with. The edges of the sugar wax will cool and harden before the center, so keep that in mind when deciding where to take the wax from.
6. Rub the sugar wax on your skin, let it cool and harden for a few seconds, then rip it up. (Here's a video of someone waxing. Her recipe is a terrible one though! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK0TOZoAp-8&feature=related)
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7. When your wax hardens too much to be usable, heat it in the microwave to get it to the right consistency again, and repeat.
(You can put the hairy sugar wax back in the microwave to remelt and reuse. It's ok!)
Notes:
Sugar waxing must be done on cleaned and dried skin. Dead skin cells and or sweat will cause the wax to not work properly. You may want to rub the skin with a small amount of corn starch or baby powder before waxing for best results.
This wax will work on most hair types, from unwanted facial hair to arm or leg hair to bikini lines to underarm hair.
This will hurt a little bit, as it pulls hairs out by the roots, but it will take longer for the hair to grow back, so hair removal needs to be done less frequently. The more often you remove hair from the roots, the less sensitive your nerves will be to it.
If the wax is too sticky, stick it back in the pot to cook a little more.
What type of hair removal method do you use? Do you wax? Have you ever sugar waxed? Would you ever try it?
