Face Waxing: Procedure and Side Effects

LAST UPDATED: JAN 31, 2023 / By Nura / InOfficeTreatment

Everyone hates unwanted hair on the face, which can be frustrating and annoying. In the case of females, unwanted hair may grow on their upper lips, eyebrows, and jaw lines, and for the male, they grow on jaw lines. There are various methods to remove them, and every method has its own pros and cons. There is a risk in shaving your facial hair with a blade or razor; it might cut your skin.

However, waxing is the right choice for you, waxing can be easily done at home, and you don’t have to waste money in salons. Wash your face to prepare it for waxing; some of the waxing procedures are mentioned below.

Facial Waxing Preparation

A light exfoliation is needed to remove all dead skin from your face, and to balance the exfoliation effect, please apply lots of moisturizer at least 3 times in a day to strengthen your skin barrier.

Day of Waxing

Step 1 – Wash your face thoroughly and you can do double cleansing using moist-type cleanser such as cleansing milk and for the second step, use a normal and alcohol-free cleanser so the skin will not become too dry. You want pretty much nothing on the facial skin, so the wax can adhere properly.

Step 2 – Check the direction of your hair growth, whether they grow downward straight or towards the centre of your face. For example, hair on eyebrows and upper lips grow diagonally, while the hair on cheeks and jawline may grow in any direction. Determining the direction of the hair is important because you have to apply wax in the direction of your hair.

Step 3 – Whether using wax strips or loose wax, you must warm them before applying them. You can warm wax strips by rubbing them in your hand for 30-40 seconds, and for loose wax, use a microwave or stove before applying the wax, test it on your wrist to make sure that it is not very hot.

Step 4 – Apply numbing cream to your face. It is recommended to get numbing cream formulated for sensitive skin since facial skin is thin compare to skin at other body part. Numbing cream works by stopping nerves from sending pain signals to the brain at the numb area. This will help ease any pain at the location that you want to apply wax on it. Numbing cream also called as local anaesthetics where it does not cause you to lose consciousness.

Step 5 – Now, carefully apply the wax on your skin toward your hair growth. First, peel off your wax strip and apply the sticky side to your skin. Now massage the wax strip in the direction of your hair growth. It is enough to leave your wax for 30 seconds, and make sure not to wait more than 30 seconds because it would make your wax removal very painful and tough.

Step 6 – After 30 seconds, pull the wax off in the opposite direction of your hair growth by putting your hand underneath the strip while pressing down your skin. Now remove the wax with your hand in a quick and continuous motion. To relive the extra blood flow, gently put your fingers on the waxed area.

Once the process of wax removal is completed, some areas might still cover with wax-residue. However, there are many ways by which we can remove this wax-residue. Some wax-residue remover that you can use:

+ Oil

+ Petroleum jelly

+ Alcohol

+ Ice

How do you get wax off your skin?

+ Hot water compress – Use a washed towel in hot water and place it on your face for a few minutes. This will make residue soft and easy to be removed.

+ Oil – Take warm olive or mineral oil, dip the cotton in the oil and hold the cotton on wax-residue for about 1-2 minutes. This will saturate wax and is easy to remove.

+ Petroleum Jelly – Apply a thin layer of petroleum jelly to the area with wax residue. Leave it for 4-5 minutes, then gently remove them with clean cotton pads.

+ Alcohol is one of the efficient wax residue remover – Apply the alcohol to a wax residue with the help of a cotton pad; it will peel off the residue in a few seconds. Use cream or lotion after using alcohol because it can be irritating sometimes.

+ Ice – Ice can flake the brittle wax; just hold the ice cubes on wax residues and wait for 30 seconds. After 30 seconds, you can easily remove residues.

These wax-residue remover are effective for face residue, but what about residues on hands? Let’s find out some of the effective ways to remove them.

How to get wax off your hands?

The face is one of the most sensitive parts of our body, and the skin is very thin on the face, so there are many ways to remove residue from the face. On the other hand, hands are not very sensitive, and removing residues from hands can be very easy. You can usually wash your hands with warm mineral oil or massage oil. Hold on from washing with soap for 3 to 4 minutes to saturate the wax-residue. Then, wash it with antibacterial soap. This is step on how to get wax off your hands and how do you get wax off your skin.

How to numb your nose? 

It is advisable to numb the skin to relieve pain during waxing. It can be done by two methods, naturally and medically.

i) Natural Numbing Agents

Many natural products and ingredients can be very effective in relieving your nose from pain. All natural numbing agents are mentioned below.

+ Chamomile – Experts have suggested that chamomile oil has anti-inflammatory agents that can penetrate under the surface of your skin to relieve pain.

+ Plantain – Soothing your skin with a poultice made with plantain can be very effective in fighting pain.

ii) Medical Treatment 

Doctors often use local anesthetics approved by medical science to control numbing. Some anesthetics are available for home usage; also, some of them are in form of numbing cream to use on facial skin / numbing cream for face such as Dermoplast and Lidoderm; Solarcaine and Lanacane; Sarna Sensitive and Prax; Nupercainal and Rectacaine; Atop gel, Viractin, and Ponotocaine.

Takeaway

Waxing can be a painful process sometimes because the face is the most sensitive part of our body. If you have any concern about numbing cream and do not have enough knowledge about its side effect, you can create DIY numbing cream for waxing at home using few natural ingredients such as aloe vera and red chili peppers.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]