Head To Toe Summer Wax Tips
Summer is here and your clients are ready to bare all. Translation? They want smooth skin all over and want you to help them get it. Summer can also mean you suddenly have an influx of “summer-only” or first-time waxers wanting their underarms, bikini line and legs beach-body ready. This makes your job a bit harder since it’s tough to predict how new clients or those that only wax a few times a year will react to treatment. You might even start seeing a few more men looking for chest and back waxing treatments. Wondering how to best handle your summer waxing business? The Wax Queen has a few expert tips to help you and your clients heat things up all summer long.
Educate Before and After
The ultimate goal here is to create the best overall experience for your regular customers and those that are new. Even regulars should adjust their pre and post wax care slightly for summer and use proper pre-wax care. Following some basic tips such as avoiding sun exposure or spray tans, letting their hair grow the proper length prior to their appointment (don’t shave even though their bikini line is telling them to), and regular exfoliation will go a long way in making sure they are ready for summer waxing.
Post-care is also important in keeping summer skin looking hot. Talk to clients about how to avoid those not-so-pretty post-wax bumps by using a blemish control product to help keep the hair follicle clear, suppress bacteria, and jump-start the healing process. If getting a bikini wax, be sure they avoid exercise, saunas, hot tubs and baths for the first 24 hours. Pro tip: Consider putting together a summer retail kit featuring a body polishing kit, a blemish control product, sunscreen, an ultra-rich body lotion. The idea is to increase your sales and grow your relationship with your clients beyond just waxing.
Know Your Wax
Take it from The Wax Queen, there is a time and a place for both soft and hard wax products. Because soft wax grabs fine hairs perfectly, it works better on larger areas of the body, and it’s more economical too. At Berodin, we recommend it for the arms, legs, back, and chest because it removes the hair exactly how you want it to. All that being said, a good soft wax does a few things really well...it doesn’t dry out or become brittle, it can be heated and applied at low temperature and is a perfect solution for speed waxing those larger areas.
Hard wax is ideal for the face, underarms, bikini, and Brazilian treatments. Traditionally hard wax is less painful, and it also doesn’t leave a sticky residue so it’s much easier to clean up. A good hard wax adheres only to the hair and not the skin itself, safely removing both fine and coarse hair, creating a smooth finish with minimum skin reactions.
Experience Is Everything
We’re pretty adamant that knowledge and technique make all the difference in your clients' waxing experience. Everything from wax temperature, pre, and post-care, and client intake forms, plus proper and efficient waxing techniques are all part of creating the best possible experience.
Face: Use tongue depressors split in two. This is the perfect size to apply a nice amount of hard wax. Protect the skin in the sensitive lip area by pulling tight as you remove the wax. Waxing nostrils? Remember the warmer the body part, the longer you should let the wax sit (longer than you really want to). Take the redness out of the skin with a post-was essential oil.
Arms: When it comes to men and women, start with the client on their back, arms raised above their head. Then wax everything you can from that angle, before sitting them up to do the front of the arms. Remember to hold the skin tight by pulling the skin as you are applying and removing the wax. Underarms are one of the few areas you should actually clean before treating.
Bikini/Brazilian: Don’t have your client wear their bathing suit! Instead, take a wax strip and tie it through their underwear so you get a clear line to wax. This is one of the most easily bruised areas so be sure to come up around the corner with the wax and don’t pop the skin (this causes bruising). And remember, understanding what makes them physically and emotionally comfortable is especially important with this service. With bikini and Brazilian treatments, hard wax is the only way to go. Ideal for coarse hair and sensitive areas, hard wax is fast, efficient, and surprisingly gentle.
Legs: Want to wax those legs in 10 or 15 minutes? Don’t focus on any given area. Prep everything, wax everything, clean everything so you only do each step once. Work from the bottom up, using larger, plastic spatulas that allow for a nice angle to apply the wax and hold more product.
Back and Chest: For men, these areas are larger and surrounded by hair. Take a minute before you start to come up with a wax plan. Use longer wax strips and remove firmly and quickly. Remember to check in on your client...this can be intense. On the back, wax one half at a time and work your strips from the bottom up. This is also a prime break-out area, so be sure to encourage them to use the right products at home.