Waxers I have known...

[blue_lotus13]

Every time I go to get waxed, I think about writing a post about waxing. It's finally time to do it.
Let's go to the background. My mother is nearly hairless. I blame this on good genes and her ethnic makeup, as people of Asian descent tend to have very little body hair. My father, on the other hand, is mostly French German with a fair amount of body hair. The genetic mixture of them has resulted in yours truly, a rather hirsute person with dark skin and dark hair. As a child, I was teased about my hairy arms, and even refused to wear short sleeves for many years. In high school, I even shaved my stomach and my arms in an attempt to become less hairy. I don't do any of these things now, but I'm still a little self conscious.

At the age of 13, I had my first brow wax and I've been a practitioner ever since. It's embarassing to think about how many thousands of dollars have gone into taming my unruly brows. I was so terrified during my first wax that I nearly cried. Now, I almost fall asleep while they're doing it.

I have had many strange things happen to me while being waxed. At one salon, they ripped my skin which gave me bizarre slash marks above my eyes. Another time, the wax became too sticky and the poor esthetician had to practically scrape a piece of wax off the inside of my leg when it became stuck. This was a pretty humiliating experience, but I think it was worse for my waxer.

While I lived in Montreal, I had my first "too close" bikini wax. This was when the Brazilian was just catching on. Suffice it to say that I got the airplane runway, instead of the neat triangle. I've never had a Brazilian and plan never to have one as several people I know tell me that it is extremely painful.

In Indonesia, I attended a wonderful "all woman spa". Due to Muslim custom, men were not even allowed in the spa. Rooms were divided by bamboo and everyone got to walk around in beautiful batik sarongs. It is there that I experienced threading, which is one of the most painful procedures I have ever encountered. It felt like they were scraping hair from my eyebrows with a knife. I thought I was going to die. Never again. In this salon, I also had to fight not to have a Brazilian, which was difficult with my limited skills in Indonesian and the esthetician's limited English skills.

In Mongolia, I could not find anywhere that did eyebrow waxing. Instead, the brow was tamed with a little razor. At one place, a woman tried to buzz the sides of my hairline with this little razor and I had to practically fight her off.

Oh, the pains of beauty. Sometimes I wish I could just give up and do the Frida Kahlo, but I can't handle it. I can't even stop shaving my legs or pits. I've accepted that this is part of my routine and self pampering, and part of who I am.

Comments

[donrickles.livejournal.com]

I've only had my eyebrows waxed once and nothing else. I have very hairy legs and an insane bikini line. Ugh. I was contemplating body hair just this morning as I shaved my legs for the first time in two weeks. I feel very torn about body hair removal. I feel like I shoudn't care about it, it's natural, but I do it still.

[arwenoid.livejournal.com]

Ditto. Why do I care that I have hair? Damnit.

I'm not as religious about it as some. I wax my eyebrows myself, and if they come close to matching, it's a freaking miracle and something to show off. "Look! My eyes match!" Yeah, it's not much, but it's mine and I like it.

I use this nifty tea-tree oil wax that doesn't require the cotton strips. It hardens and becomes the thing you rip all at the same time. Works pretty well. I've fucked up a few times and had weird bits from time to time, but hey, it grows back.

Legs... I went for 3 months without shaving my legs last year. (I'd torn a huge chunk out of my knee... and it STILL GREW HAIR. But I couldn't shave over the giant wound *owww*, so I said fuck it, and left everything.) Itchiest thing I've ever done. My mother bought me a razor for christmas. Think she was trying to tell me something? I gave in. (The knee had almost healed by then.)

I used to hate the fact that I have somewhat dark hair on the back of my hands. Looks a little monkey-ish when I'm in a particularly anti-hair mood. Or the hair on my second knuckle. I tried shaving my hands once. That was a mistake.

Now that I'm getting older, I get weird black hairs growing on my chin from time to time. It's ridiculously annoying. I've gotten pretty religious about doing a quick search in the morning (made more difficult by the fact that I'm quite freckly as well -- but I figure this helps disguise them when I miss 'em, too) and plucking away.

I hate having to pluck my chin. I'm 26! I should NOT HAVE EXCESS HAIR ON MY CHIN! Bah.

[donrickles.livejournal.com]

Have you experienced the joys of nipple hair yet? I just started sprouting a few obvious black ones a couple years ago. They're easy enough to get rid of but damnit, I don't want hairy nipples!!!

I think I'll investigate this tea tree oil method, sounds good.

[arwenoid.livejournal.com]

yes.

I don't want to think about them.

bleah!

[graphxgrrl.livejournal.com]

My mother has been doing electrolosis for YEARS to get rid of her random dark chin hairs, I started getting them in the last couple of years and promptly called to thank her for that genetic legacy. She said when she started tweaking her hormones when going through menopause she was getting fewer of them, I've thought about talking to my ob/gyn about a different mix of birth control that might cut down on that fun hair problem.