I admit. I hate shaving. Well, not so much hate, thats a strong word. Dislike. I’m usually left dry. My house is very dry, and my legs suffer the most from this. So in the winter months, I tend to let things go. But even as we have gotten warmer weather, I shaved, and yuck, dry skin! I’ve also tried Nair, and other hair removal products. No luck, even when following instructions, these seem to only thin the hair out, not completely remove. Waxing appealed to me for a variety of reasons, one of which would be having to remove hair less frequently.
So I buy a can of wax and muslin strips from my local Sally Beauty Supply. In lieu of a warmer, we used an electric skillet with water in it. (And it works too!)
So we’ve got supplies, the kids are off to bed, we plow on.
Oh, and to prime myself, I bought this delish malt liquor. Peel’s. (Great name considering, eh?) Pomegranite and blueberry. Yum!
So we start out, in the living room. Lighting is poor, but we figure we’d be okay. And really, the application isn’t bad. Hubster is into it, cause what man can turn down the chance of ripping hair and skin from his wife?
This is what we learned:
Good lighting is your friend.
I need to buy the follow up cleaner for removal of excess wax. The can warned about hot water and soap for eight hours before and after waxing. I ignored that and went straight for the shower. I didn’t use soap, but tried the hot water. No luck, I still had sticky spot on my legs.
Don’t have the good sheets on the bed.(We didn’t) There’s nothing like bringing new meaning to the term sticking to the sheets.
So now I have small hairy patches, with stickiness, with fuzziness.
So tell me teeming millions, wax secrets, tips, and share your stories.
We ran out of strips, and I had parts of my legs undone.
Get it done professionally at a salon. Worth the money. Really.
You don’t need to spend the money to buy toluene oil or whatever it’s called. My waxer used baby oil on a cotton ball after doing my underarms (ow, jesushchrist ow) and it worked just fine.
ETA: Waxing my legs is quite possibly the most pain I’ve ever felt, and I’ve had two children. I’ll just shave - I’ve been blessed with blonde leg hairs, and the waxers NEVER get it all off.
Seconded. I’ve tried doing it myself with an at-home setup, with absolutely no luck. A professional can do it quickly and easily with very little hair left. Definitely worth the money as long as you go to a reputable salon.
Read this thread about body sugar. I’ve been wanting to do this for my more delicate bits and now that summer is coming and I’m actually going to wear shorts and bathing suits (I’m 50 pounds lighter than last year. Woohoo!) I’ve been wanting to try it even more.
Dear lord, woman, I was just thinking the same thing about waxing your UNDERARMS! :eek: You’re a better woman than I am, 'sall I gotta say.
The first time hurts like a mother, no doubt, but you build up a tolerance.
I will say that I yelped the first one, but the second I knew what to expect. Besides, my waxer is the woman who threads my eyebrows, and I’m used to her making me cry. 
On the subject, we’ve got a four-day holiday here. I’m normally clean-shaven, but I hate shaving so am letting my beard grow.
Do y’all think it’s a good idea for me to wax my face on day 4?
jjimm, I’m going to go ahead and say no, it wouldn’t be a good idea. I pluck the dark hairs on my upper lip instead of waxing, because I find I can handle that better than having them ripped out all at once. I cannot even imagine what having your entire face waxed would feel like.
If you’re going to yank out anything at home, I’d recommend the sugar too. You don’t have to futz around with maintaining temperature, it cleans up (your legs *and *the strips) with warm water and works as effectively as wax. On legs. Haven’t tried anywhere else.
I just got my legs and armpits done a couple of days ago. I’d heard not to get it done during your period (it’s been a while, but I’m not new to waxing) but didn’t know that whoever said that meant it. Ow ow fuck ow fuck ow ow ow! Don’t wax during your period! EEEEEEEYOW! It had never hurt like that. However, I will go back. Not because I like pain, but pale skin plus dark hair equals shaving really sucks because you can still see it under my arms even if I just shaved ten seconds ago.
Normally it isn’t that bad, though, and even at worst the pain doesn’t last for long. I happily pay for this service. What we will do for beauty. (sigh)
Yep, baby oil is all you need to get the wax off, and I am slightly ashamed to be able to report that my college roommate and I learned that if you run out of baby oil, you can also use cooking oil. Any kind of oil will do it.
I am a huge advocate of getting the waxing done at least once at a salon, because you will get some good insights about the most efficient way to do it.
Oh, another tip is that you can conserve strips by sticking two used ones together with the hairy sides facing together, and then re-using the clean sides. Man, that description sounds gross. But it saves on muslin.
How long does the waxing last?
I had hair growth at about four days. I think what will keep me from waxing as my only method of undearm hair removal is the intervening period you need to wait in order for it to be long enough to wax again.
I saw the thread title, mis-read the poster’s name as “Labialess” and thought, whoa! That’s waxing WAY too close!
I say go for it. It might give you a new appreciation for what it’s like to be a woman. But just to be nice, I thought I might add that you might want to try it in small strips first. Also, there may be a lot of ingrown hairs after you wax. That happens after waxing more than shaving, I think.
OK, and just to be extra careful, you might want to see if anyone else has done it. I haven’t heard of any man doing this, but I thought it was just because men are chicken. 
Take it easy on the naughty bits, btw. I once had a patient in the ED who gave herself a nasty labial tear by jerking off that cloth thing that pulls out the hairs too fast.
(That doesn’t sound right, does it?)
After a couple of rounds it seems to take longer to start growing back. My first waxer said that was because all the hairs are growing on different schedules, hence some starting back only a few days later, but after a few rounds you’ve gotten pretty much all of 'em and they start growing back together. And since they aren’t awful and stubbly it seems longer anyway. I can deal with short soft hair a lot better than horrible stubble, it looks and feels a whole lot better.
Oh, and half the hair on my legs? Hasn’t grown back. At all. I’m not saying that’s true for everybody, but it’s sure great!
I understand that it’s not what the OP asked for, but I have to ask - those who wax, have you tried laser from a competent professional source, and if not, what is putting you off about it? I’ve had legs, armpits, etc. lasered and so has Fierra, and the success rate has been phenomenal.
Now it is true that there are several caveats about skin type, skin color, hair color, type of laser, etc. one must be aware of, but when it works…scientifically speaking, counting hairs, after 8 sessions I had more than 90% permanence (here I’m defining permanence as 24 months, as that’s all the time it’s been), as did Fierra.
Fierra had great luck with her armpits and legs - she only needs to shave her legs once a month, and her armpits could go indefinitely except for a few hairs around the edge that could be got with electrolysis in 15 minutes. Other…parts of me have well more than 99% permanence, and have not been shaved in…months? I honestly cannot remember the last time. I have to pluck about 3 hairs a month, and that’s it.
It can work very well, and free you from the razor, and/or the pain of waxing. Even if you can’t get to 90+% permanence, getting to 50% makes shaving/waxing a lot easier, and many of the hairs that are left are much thinner hairs, and easier to remove.
No, I’ve certainly heard that as well. The woman who used to wax my eyebrows before I moved here said that she started waxing her daughter’s legs at around 11 so that she wouldn’t have to deal with leg hair as an adult. I thought that was a bit much, myself.