Christ, the gubmint on New Jersey doesn’t even allow one to pump their own gas. Why in the world would they think that normal, rational, sober adults could be trusted with wax?
It seems that some folks are confused about the reusing wax issue. Have you guys ever had anything (even brows) waxed before?
There’s a big pot of wax a-cookin’ in the back of the salon or wherever you’re getting waxed. The waxer dips a stick into the wax pot, rubs it on you, applies the fabric, then rips. The stick goes back into the wax, goes on your face, blah blah.
Now, I’ve seen places use different sticks every time, but I’ve also seen places that haven’t. The point is, it’s the same giant pot-o-wax being used for multiple days and countless clients.
Isn’t NJ the state that illegalized eggs-over-easy?
Sounds like their lawmakers just have too much time on their hands. What’s next? Rare beef? Clipping fingernails too short?
You can’t pump your own gas, so maybe next the bartenders will have to pour the beer into your mouth for you.
OK, so IUIC it’s the applicator that’s reused, AND this involves “double dipping”. It’s not that the actual applied wax is recycled.
Exactly-but the wax that went on your face/legs/crotch/whatever and now has hair stuck in it is thrown away.
At my place, they don’t usually use a pot. For things like legs and arms, they take this kind of tube shaped applicator thingy that’s filled with wax and slide it over someone’s body and the wax attaches and then they rip it off. I’m not sure how much sterilization is involved…but for $30 for a full leg wax, I’m pretty content.
My salon would not dream of re-using an applicator stick. I would avoid a salon that you observe doing otherwise. If the applicator sticks are not re-dipped, I cannot see how the wax itself is unsanitary or a vector for disease.
Heh. I got a kick out of the pic they chose for that page. I used to pass that sign on I-80 all the time on my every other weekend or so drives from Philipsburg, PA to NJ. The first time I saw it tripped me out. Smack dab in the middle of PA. “Ohhh, the name of the town!” Doh!
I had my first Brazilian waxing done in NJ, but that was almost 20 years ago. I don’t recall any double dipping, but I wasn’t really in a position to notice either. That was a fun summer, down the Jersey shore. 
A good salon uses a different wooden implement for each dip into the wax. Those wooden “sticks” are dirt cheap and even if they have to use ten of them per wax, the cost is next to nothing.
I’ve never been to a salon where they’ve dipped the same stick into the wax more than once. With a new stick each time, no worries.
Oh god, I’m screwed (if you know my old posts, you’ll know what I mean).
Yes, they dip back into the same pot at my place. I have my armpits and a Brazilian. However, I haven’t been back since the last time I noticed she was not wearing gloves as she did the brazilian and now I have some, ah, issues that I have to have the doc check out. I’m pretty pissed because I trust my BF and I haven’t been fooling around and I had been wondering if I caught something from her because they popped up about 3 - 4 weeks after my last wax. Freudian Slit - I would love to go to yours!!
Oh, I’m human. Whenever I tell my friends how annoyed I am to have arm hair or tummy hair, they say stuff like, “Yeah, you’re a mammal” or look at me like I’m bizarre for waxing what I have. I don’t know, I guess if you have slightly more hair than average and you’re a woman, you assume you’re a yeti not fit for human sight. Well, that’s my hang up. Also, I’m super jealous of your hair less state.
Though I do have to brag about my underarm prowess. I’m kind of considered a wuss about pain, but I get my underarms waxed and it’s never more than slightly uncomfortable. Now I’m just trying to make myself feel the same way about getting the, ah, lower parts done.
ShelliBean, if you’re ever in New York, it’s called Meena threading. Very efficient!
Although it doesn’t work for all hair and skin types, it’s unfortunate there is so much resistance to lasering. I’ve seen plenty of women who were ideal laser candidates dutifully go for waxing, sugaring, or other techniques for years, spending more than they would have over the years to just get it lasered. You can even do half-and-half, where you get, for example, 3 laser treatments that get rid of 50-75% of the hair, and from then on there’s so little left (and what’s left is very often thinner and slow-growing) that just ordinary shaving is very fast and easy.
Interestingly, even subtracting my own posts, this is the most-responded thread I’ve ever started. Guess you can’t go wrong with bringing vulvas into the discussion… 
Am I the only one that is absolutely shocked that people regularly go to places where you risk STDs for body hair removal? OH MY GOD!
I know, I know, some of you say that your place doesn’t do that, but you don’t really know until you’re already involved in the procedure, right? I mean, if you asked about it, they would know to tell you what you want to hear and not double dip with you, but that doesn’t help you if they’ve been reusing their sticks all day, does it? You can’t watch someone else’s procedure first, I presume. I guess you could get recommendations, if you know other waxers.
I’m usually completely not germ-phobic, or worried about my personal safety in general, but STDs cross the line for me. Gah!
It would have to be completely obvious if the salon is reusing sticks. The wax sticks to the stick, and is generally colored (blue, green, etc). So a fresh clean stick cannot be mistaken for a used one, unless the salon went through the trouble of scrubbing them down very thoroughly, in which case… they are nuts because you buy 100 of those suckers for $5.
No, there’s confusion again. It’s not that they reuse sticks from client to client, it’s that they double dip your stick multiple times. As someone said higher up in the thread, the concern is that the wax never gets hot enough to kill whatever oogies get in the wax on each dip.
Seriously.
I am planning to get laser hair removal on my armpits and bikini line this year, and if I’m please with results I might do my legs. Not my eyebrows or lip, though- I trust the shaping skills of my nail tech for my brows, and the lip only gets done every couple of months anyway.
Can I ask a question? Most STDs are, um, pretty hard to get, right? I mean, she isn’t sticking the popsicle stick up your hey-hey, and then back into the wax, is she? Is there REALLY that much chance of contamination?
I don’t do Brazilian, so maybe I’m just uninformed, but I do know that all my hair is on the outside…
But why would you care if they double dipped your stick? You’re only being exposed to your own germs then, right?