Jaimee Thrasher
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5 min read
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Jan 28, 2021
Waxing is one of the earliest and most efficient ways of removing unwanted body hair. People have been waxing for centuries at this point, and for a good reason. The hair removal method is semi-permanent, your skin feels smooth, and there are barely any side effects or reactions except maybe some ingrown hair.
Removing a wax strip in one quick sweeping motion is pretty satisfying. However, while admiring your freshly waxed patch of skin, you might notice some wax residue that the strip didn’t pick up on.
Your first instinct would probably be to pick at it. However, it’s a hundred times more painful having to pick at wax residue than it is to rip off a strip. What now? Removing wax is pretty simple, and if done correctly, your skin won’t be in any more pain than necessary.
There could be several reasons why some wax clings onto the skin even after having removed a strip of it:
- The skin over that particular area is dry. Dry skin tends to retain moisture in any way. Natural wax (and even most synthetic types) have moisture added to replenish the skin after waxing. This is somewhat counter-intuitive because the wax is serving the purpose it had to. Your skin just clung to the moisture.
- The improper waxing technique could be another reason. If you don’t remove the strip off in one quick motion, not only would it be painful, it’d also be useless. The wax would now stick to the skin and probably harden there since it’s been left longer than necessary.
- Low-quality wax tends to stick to the skin. Most synthetic waxes (except bean waxes) stick onto the skin and grip it firmly. Waxing is therefore much more painful; your skin burns and leaves leftover wax.
Luckily, removing wax from the skin is pretty straightforward. There are several ways to do so. One way is to pick at it, but that’s just causing yourself an unnecessary amount of pain, especially when alternative ways to remove hard wax are more comfortable, quicker, and pain-free.
Hot Water Compressing
Waxing is a pretty straightforward process: apply warm wax over the skin, wait for it to harden just a bit, and rip off the strip. However, if the wax clings onto the skin instead of the strip, it might harden on the skin and have to be removed separately.
Hardened wax residues are a lot more stubborn. Removing them can be painful. The easiest solution to this would be to soften the wax-up again to remove wax. The easiest way to do so would be to warm it up with a warm washcloth.
1. Place a bowl of water in the microwave for a minute or so. The time may vary depending on how warm you want the water to be. Anything slightly above lukewarm water would be sufficient enough.
2. Soak a clean washcloth in the bowl and drain off the excess water.
3. Place the cloth onto the wax residue and wait for a minute or so until the wax softens.
4. Once it does, remove it with a strip or wash it off.
In case the residue is particularly stubborn to come off, you could add a few drops of hand soap for lubricating the wax off a lot more quickly.
Using Oil
Using any oil besides the essential oil and preferably one that’s been warmed up for a while could do the trick. From massage oils, baby oils, and right down to olive oil, anything could work in removing wax residues off of the skin.
1. Warm-up your oil. Use as much quantity as necessary for the residue.
2. Soak a cotton pad in the oil and massage it over the area with the residue.
3. Rub in circular motions for a minute, and the wax would come right off.
You could alternatively use an oil-based lotion.
Alcohol Works Wonders
1. Dip a cotton pad in a fair amount of rubbing alcohol.
2. Rub the cotton pad onto your skin in circular motions for a minute or so.
3. Allow the wax to loosen up from the skin and peel off.
4. Alcohol can dry your skin. Follow this up by using a moisturizer.
Petroleum Jelly for 3 Minutes
Applying a generous amount of petroleum jelly onto the skin area and then leaving it on for 3–5 minutes will lubricate the wax residues just enough for them to peel off of your skin.
Using Ice
Lastly, you could use ice to make the wax residues hard and brittle. However, this method isn’t the safest, nor is it the most effective. It can cause skin burns and therefore should be used as a last resort.
Rub an ice cube onto the skin for 10–30 seconds or just up until the wax residue becomes hard enough to be flicked away.
There is a chance of wax sticking onto your skin during the hair removal process. In which case, the question is how to get wax off skin. While it might seem annoying and painful, it’s pretty easy to get the wax residue off your skin. All it takes is a little patience.
