About Hair and Sugar Wax
Looking at my pattern of blogging, I think my unconscious goal was to update once a month. Hehe :)
I will make that two times a month!
Here is the Sugar Wax Tutorial!
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Who absolutely dislikes the stubble’s you get the very next day after you shave?
I do!
Who here hates the “black dot” that is left over from shaving? Especially your underarms…
I do!
A little Background of Hair
The “black dot” is actually the bulb of the hair that is left over in the follicle. Hair follicle is the “pore” or opening that your hair grows out from. The bulb is at the end of your hair, similar to a “root”, one that receives nourishment from the papilla. Papilla supplies blood and nourishment to the bulb or root of your hair. :)
For people who have thick hair, your bulb will most likely be still visible even after you shave. Shaving only slices off the tip of the hair that peeps out of your skin and leaves the remaining piece of hair behind. If you want your legs or your underarm to be smooth and clean looking, you would want to pull the entire hair including its root from its hair follicle. You may bleed depending on what stage of growth the hair is in. The first stage called the Anagen is where the hair is attached to the papilla, the blood source. Since the root of your hair is firmly attached to the papilla, you can bleed. But nothing dangerous! For those who are new to waxing and is wondering if this is normal, it is and nothing to worry about.
After waxing, please refrain from going to swimming pools, lakes, oceans where there are lots of bacteria and harsh chemicals that can get into your exposed follicle. Especially if most of your hair was in the Anagen stage and blood seeps out, it can get infected! Always wax a couple of days before going on a vacation. ;)
Besides, most people get red or red bumps, which is a sign of irritation AND a sign that your hair has been pulled out, but will go away in couple of hours, or a maximum of few days depending on how sensitive people are.
Stages of Hair Growth
Pulling the hair out from its root is the reason why hair will take 1-2 weeks for the hair to grow back out.
Some hair might grow out faster depending on what stage the hair has been pulled out.
Anagen stage is a period of growth with the root firmly attached to the papilla,
Catagen is when the root dislodges from the papilla,
Telogen is a period of rest, or the “shedding stage” [you know the hairs that painlessly falls out from your scalp? That is from the Telogen stage] and is where the Anagen stage starts over again with a new piece of hair growing from the papilla.
If your hair was pulled out from Anagen stage, it will take more time for the hair to grow out, if your hair was pulled out from the Catagen stage, your hair will grow out a tad bit faster, and if your hair was pulled out from the Telogen stage that is where you will most likely see a new piece of hair growing just after a few days.
So if you go to a spa and get waxed by an esthetician, and your hair is growing out the very next few days, it is not necessarily the esthetician’s bad waxing technique…it was probably because your hair was pulled out from its last stage of hair growth. That is why we recommend to get waxed every two weeks so the hair is growing at somewhat of a same rate.
Frequently wax and it might take a full 2 weeks or more to grow back. Yay!
When people say that some of their hairs do not grow back, it is because the hair has been pulled out from the Anagen stage, from its papilla and could have damaged the papilla in the process. If the papilla is damaged, hair will not be able to grow because its “food source” has been damaged. Thus, hair can not grow, in other words less hair growth. This is not always the case, but the more you wax, the more potential for destroying the papilla, and more chance of less hair growing in your later years! This is not an immediate result so don’t get your hopes up. :P
As far as I know, there is no serious consequences or complications arising from papilla damage. So wax away!
Alternative and Inexpensive
Now, going to a spa and getting waxed by an esthetician is comfortable, mess free, and very quick.
And they can get to places that you have a hard time getting at…
But it does get expensive. I’d rather spend my money on receiving skin Treatments!
And buying your own waxing kit is …even more expensive.
So. If your comfortable with the idea of waxing yourself, which by the way is no big brainer!, spend only about 16 dollars which will make you a month or more of supply of wax! And better yet, instead of using “pelons” and throw it away each time, you can use cotton strips and re-use them. This is called: Homemade Sugar Wax!
This is not my original idea by the way. This recipe has been out for ages! I just wanted to make an easy but detailed tutorial.
How to Make Sugar Wax
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List of Items you need:
1. Sugar [Any sugar is fine] |
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4. Cooking Pot [Smaller the better] |
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6. Candy Thermometer - I ruined the first two batches I made, so I highly recommend buying a Thermometer that goes past 260 degrees. Candy Thermometers go past 300 degrees. |
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Making the sugar wax:
Scoop two full cups of sugar and pour its contents into the cooking pot. I wanted my homemade wax to be organic made, meaning chemical free, so I purchased all organic products. You support our environment and organic farming in little ways by purchasing organic! :) |
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Pour 1/4th cup full of lemon juice into the cooking pot. Supposedly any lemon juice is okay. Even concentrate, those juice that comes in yellow lemon shaped containers. I chose an organically made pure lemon juice. |
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Pour 1/4th cup of water into the cooking pot.
Mine is a little hazy because of the left over lemon juice. Swirl the water in the cup and you can get the tiny last drops of lemon juice. |
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Mine looked like this. You just pour all the contents into the cooking pot. No special order of contents or mixing required. My sugar looks brown because it is organic. |
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Put your cooking pot on the stove and turn the heat to medium. You don’t want to spike the temperature up.
Take a whisk or a spoon and mix the ingredients. You can just mix periodically. |
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As the heat goes up, you can see the sugar liquefying. So your contents look more watery rather than kind of thick when you first mix the ingredient.
Your contents will start to boil like this picture in approximately 7 minutes into cooking. |
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About 8 minutes into cooking, your contents will bubble and foam up like in the picture.
Use your thermometer. |
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Don’t worry about the foaming, it will eventually go down. Try lowering your heat just a little. Stop stirring.
Keep checking your thermometer. Stop until it reaches 250 degrees or so. |
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After your contents have reached 250 degrees or so, pour the hot sugar into the glass jar and leave it open until it cools so that you do not trap water. Careful not to touch the glass, it gets hot! I closed my jar when the outside was lukewarm to touch.
If your glass jar opening is narrow like mine, it will develop tiny beads of water at the top inside edges. Just wipe of most of it. The lighting in this picture resulted in a light amber color, but in reality the color of the sugar is a strong dark amber. The contents will thicken as it cools. |
And that’s it! I have waxed my legs and underarms and the wax works marvelously!
You can use the wax right away when it cools down to a comfortable temperature, or store it in room temperature or refrigerator for later use. Just re-heat to a comfortable temperature. :)
How is my very first tutorial?
Any comments or questions write below!
Tutorials on how to wax your legs will be coming up next!
