Waxing - allergic reaction

Hello,

Just wondered if anyone had any problems with clients having allergic reactions following a waxing treatment?

I have had 2 reactions this week so panicking a little bit now. The first client came yesterday and had an eyebrow and bikini wax. I used hot wax for the bikini line and strip wax for the eyebrows.

This morning she called me to say her skin had reacted to both areas. I asked her to come and see me and sure enough her face was red (and 1 area on her bikini line). This is the odd bit though - her eyebrows weren't particularly red - her eyes had swollen up, but the red patches were on her forehead and cheekbones, places I hadn't obviously waxed - like she had had an allergic reaction.

Her bikini line was dark red in one place, but we had had no problems during the wax - the hairs had come out like a dream. I checked she is on no medication, etc..

I then had another lady come for an eyebrow wax, so I used a different pot of wax just be on the safe side. She came back after an hour as she said her whole face felt like it was stinging and although her eyebrows were still red, her cheekbones were getting redder and redder (it looked a little bit like she had been slapped!).

I am panicking a little bit now as I just don't know what the cause could be. I am fairly new to the industry, but have never had a reaction like this before. I gave both clients thorough aftercare and have told them to apply sudacream to the areas, take an anti-histamine tablet, etc, and that if it is still red on Monday to see their GP.

Would the sunny weather causing them to perspire a bit more be the cause? I have also recently changed my brand of sterilizer so wonder if that could be it? I was also wondering if it maybe is the latex in my gloves, but it just seems so odd that I have had 2 clients come back with the same reaction...

Wondered if anyone else had ever had the same problems?

Thanks!

You might find that although you have given them both aftercare advice, they haven't followed it. Telling them to avoid the sunshine when it's really nice outside, is hard for some of them to understand why. This is probably very common at the minute because a lot of clients think they know better. If you're not doing anything different from normal and the clients haven't told you they have an allergy to latex they've probably just been in the sun too long and not paid attention to the advice you've given.

Thanks Studio One for your reply. Hopefully the weather will stay this nice, and if it does will be sure to really reiterate no sunbathing for 24 hours, or until the skin has settled.
Thank you, xxx

Let's hope so and good luck getting info over to clients.
Lynn

You sure that your wax wasn't too hot? Odd isn't it.