OK, Girlfriends. It’s summer. You know what you have to do. Get out the step stool, reach up to that top shelf of the closet and pull down that lonely bag of bathing suits just waiting for their moment in the sun. And unless you’re the bathing-skirt type (please don’t knock it — my grandmother used to rock a bathing suit with a skirt in the late ’70s), it’s time to master your summer bikini wax. For some key tips on how to keep your nether regions silky smooth and hair-free, we consulted with none other than the actual creator of the Brazilian bikini wax! Noemi Greupenmager is the founder and CEO of UKW franchising company, and Uni K Wax Studios, a unisex, all-natural waxing salon with locations across the country. In 1993, Noemi faced a follicular challenge when vacationing in Brazil from her homeland in Argentina.
“Everyone had these tiny little bathing suits,” Noemi recalls. “So I said, you need a special waxing for this suit!” According to Neomi, at that time, the waxing industry didn’t really exist. “Waxing was the underdog of the beauty world,” she explains. “So I had to come up with the idea of the Brazilian bikini in order to be waxed for those little bathing suits!”
In case you’ve been living under a cosmetology rock, a Brazilian bikini wax is when you have ALL the hair removed from down there, front to back. The full monty, ladies. And according to Neomi, once you go bald, you never go back.
“Once you try it, you become so addicted … it’s impossible to go back. You are so comfortable.”
So for those of you who still may be novices to the world of pubic-hair banishment, here are some tips to make your visit to the waxing salon a successful and (slightly) less painful one:
1. Hydrate! Healthy skin is hydrated skin, so drink lots of water because you want to hydrate from the inside out. Properly hydrated skin will respond better to a waxing treatment and will recover faster if there is any redness.
2. Moisturize external skin area every day after shower. After showering, when our skin is wet, is the best time to lock in moisture with a good cream or lotion. While you are hydrating from the inside by drinking water, you can be avoiding dry, patchy skin on the outside with a moisturizer. Make sure to use the product externally, and give yourself a few minutes to dry off before putting on clothing.
3. Avoid wearing tight clothing around the bikini area. Constantly constricting yourself with tight leggings and pantyhose can contribute to the appearance of ingrown hairs.
4. Exfoliate at least once a week, except for the first few days after a waxing treatment. While you want to avoid aggravating the top layer of skin cells as they recover from a waxing treatment, the rest of the month is a good time to prevent ingrown hairs by gently exfoliating with a soft scrub.
5. Do NOT shave in between waxing treatments! If you don’t want to let everything grow back in between monthly visits to the waxing salon, find a salon that offers mid-month touchups. Shaving will provide a temporary solution to regrowth and will inevitably result in agitated skin and ingrown hair.
6. Make sure a new wax is poured for each service — so there’s no “double dipping” between you and the client who was there before you.
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