I Tried Sugaring -Here’s How It Compares to Waxing
Photo by The Creative Exchange on Unsplash
Having hair ripped from your body is absolutely, under no circumstances, enjoyable. In fact, it hurts like hell. I just wanted to get that out of the way.
Now, with that being said, if I’m going to do it I want it to last as long as possible, and be as easy and painless as can be.
In college, I started getting Brazilian waxes from the Cookeville legend, Judy. Judy had a tiny room in her nail salon where she charged a meager $40 for a full Brazilian. Once one little sorority girl gave it a go, the rest of us quickly followed suit. It became normal to see someone I knew walking out of the waxing room while waiting for my own appointment, and in fact, it wasn’t odd to go in groups and have back-to-back appointments.
Once I left college I had one or two Brazilians, but the cost skyrocketed when I was living in Nashville, and I just could not justify the $90+ price tag. Honestly, I didn’t think it was better than what I was paying half price for only 80 miles down the road, so I just quit doing it, and other than one or two times of getting my brows waxed and being exceedingly disappointed, I have not been waxed in YEARS.
Fast forward to this spring, and my fiancé and I go full adult and buy a house in the burbs with an HOA and pool. I knew I would be at the pool all summer, and it could easily be a last-minute decision that I wanted to be able to make without being worried about my bikini line. So, after a long hiatus, I decided to hop back on the waxing train. However, this time I was doing some research.
I had heard the term “sugaring” many times over the years, and I was intrigued, so I did a little Google search, and I found a studio that did this pretty close to my house. So, I booked an appointment online to give it a go.
Before my first appointment, I looked into sugaring, and the idea was pretty interesting to me. Basically, sugaring uses, you guessed it, sugar, to remove hair from unwanted areas. The sugar is in a semi-melted state and doesn’t need to be heated. It boasts as being less painful than waxing, mainly because the sugar does not adhere to the skin, whereas we all probably know, WAX DON’T GIVE A SHIT! Wax takes everything with it and can leave an extremely ugly and painful raw patch in its wake. Supposedly, sugaring doesn’t do that.
Another plus for sugaring is that the hair does not need to be as long as with waxing, and because it can be removed at a “younger” stage, it leads to permanency when done regularly. By regularly, they mean about every 2 weeks. With the allure of less pain and permanent hair removal, I was ready.
I decided to go with underarms and a Brazilian on my first go, maybe I was ambitious, but I made the commitment anyway. We started off with the underarms, and the plan was to move to the bikini area afterward.
Well, it hurt. Honestly, it has to hurt, there’s no way around it. Plus, I had never even waxed my underarms before, so I didn’t even know what to expect. It hurt. Bad.
Once I had subjected myself to that for at least 10 minutes, I still had my bottom half to endure, and if you know ANYTHING about me, you know I am stubborn as hell and I was not going to be seen as a quitter, so I stripped off my pants, hit my butterfly, and let Jules get to work.
Again, that shit hurt.
The whole thing took about 30 minutes, and on my way out I booked an appointment for 2 weeks out. I mean, I feel like I had to give it another go.
Well, I am happy to say the results have been pretty good.
I have now been getting sugared for around 3 months, and I am happy with the outcome. My underarm hair grows back lighter and more sparse, and honestly, I have hardly had ANY regrowth in the bikini area. Plus, it honestly dones’t hurt quite as badly as the first time. Again, having hair ripped away from your body is never going to be painless, but it has only gotten easier each time. This could probably be equated to having MUCH less hair, but I also notice the hair is much less coarse and comes back so sporadically that there is a fraction of what there was the first time. Plus, they say if you keep it up coming around every 2 weeks, after 6 months, MOST people experience permanent results.
I am the girl with jet black hair under my arms and in my bikini area (thank you beautiful ancestors) and honestly shaving felt so futile. It almost felt like I wasn’t making a difference. Since I started sugaring, I hardly ever need to shave prior to my appointments. I mean like I’ve done it once because I was traveling and it was 3 weeks between. It is nothing for me to throw on a swimsuit and head to the pool without thinking about it or having to check and see if I needed to shave. It’s pretty great.
So, the moral of the story is, if you are thinking about getting waxed for summer, check and see if you have a sugaring option near you. It’s worth a try, and I really think you will be impressed with the results!
Love,
Lilly
PS: At this time I am no longer getting my underarms waxed. Not sure if it’s the person doing the service, but I’m not seeing the same results I was at the beginning, and it’s too expensive and too much of a hassle to do it if I’m not getting the results I want. I am still getting a Brazilian every two weeks.
