Ingrowing hairs / line hairs leg waxing

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noreenoconnor

CND Education Ambassador Cork
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Hi All,

Just a quick question for all you leg waxers ;)

What do you do with clients with loads of "line hairs". Those really pesky in growing hairs that are just under a thin layer of skin and look like you've missed hairs when waxing ?

I normally remove all of them with tweezers but I had a client today with loads of them. In fairness she has bought the bit of rough cloth off me previously but owned up that she's never used it

It took me just as long to remove the line hairs as it did to do the leg wax so it got me thinking what do other therapists do?

Do you remove them and if so how do you cope with extra time for the treatment , do you charge more or do you just suck it up?

Do you leave them and advise on home treatment ?

Interested to hear different peoples views in this :)
 
Oh I hate these I have a few clients who have these really bad, I do really stress about exfoliating/moisturising but nothing more you can do than remove with tweezers. I've had a few clients where the end of the hair is in the skin but middle is free, they need pulling free then pulling out...so annoying!! Would be interested in any tips! I sometimes put the wax on the wrong way (remove it normally) esp on knees which sometimes pushes the hair up enough to grab it with the strip.
 
Haha!!Im that client i get loads of them even with exfoliation!! :/
 
I have suffered for years with bad ingrowns and I know this goes against all our ethics but every 3-4month I shave half my leg once and it helps just lift the hairs up then I'm fine for another 3-4 months. I tried everything from exfoliating, hard clothes plucking but in the end ended up doing more damage than good. I hated the idea of shaving.
 
But I stress I only do it once every few months otherwise if u do it to often u ruin the waxing result
 
Speaking as a client I wouldn't expect my waxer to remove them (but nice if they do), it's my responsibility to exfoliate and moisturise!

By the way, I've come across some waxers who seem to take great pleasure in taking out those pesky ingrowns :) (You know who you are!)
 
I try and remove as many as I can as I feel it's part of the service and with a good lamp and tweezers it's often easier for us to do as we can see them better and access them much better. I do always explain aftercare and feel that if they are prone that they need to do their bit as well and try and encourage them to follow that.
But like most of us I have scheduled appointments and there is only so much free time at the end before the next client is due so it's not always that easy....
 
So if your stuck for time jack do you just do what you can in the allotted time and tell them how to avoid them with aftercare?
 
Generally I would have enough time but obviously there is the odd client and if it's a larger area that has lots of them I can only remove within the time I have allocated. Most of my regular clients follow their aftercare and it's only the odd client that doesn't.
 
Oh these are the worst. For the first appointment with them, i point it out(and remove), suggest exfoliation at home and suggest Microdermabrasion on the legs at a later time if home exfoliation doesn't work.

For the second appointment with them, if there is no change, i ask if they have exfoliated at home, if so, i suggest the microdermabrasion to them at a discounted rate for the first session. Maybe a week before waxing. If they haven't exfoliated at home, i again point out the ingrowns and remove what i can in the time i have allocated and explain it that way to the client.

The microdermabrasion is excellent for helping with this problem. Give the skin a week after the micro before waxing. I promise you will see a massive difference. (plus normally leads to client booking for facial microdermabrasion)
 
Generally I try to remove as many as possible, but obviously there are limits. I have on occasion explained to a client that there are lots of ingrowns due to not exfoliating and moisturising, I cannot tweeze every single one out but as a one off, providing that they promise to exfoliate more on future, I have sent them off with instructions to have a good scrub a couple of days after their waxing and then book them back in for a 10 min session to whizz over the problem areas with a few strips of wax. I don't charge for this and don't do it very often, also I wouldn't do it repeatedly for the same client over and over without charging. I just see it as extended aftercare and it really does give people a kick up the bum to get the scrub gloves out x

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I have a client who had far more than half her lower leg areas covered in hair just below the skin surface, it was only the second time she had ever been waxed (both by me) the first time was post usual waxing routines, the second time was 3wks after her first waxing.

the hairs were really long under the skin, she has very sensitive skin and had exfoliated 5, 3 and 1 day before waxing both times and she also exfoliates day 2, 4 and 6 after waxing.

we couldn't work out if it was due to her wearing very tight super skinny trousers daily so her hairs couldn't grow outwards but along the limb BUT she is only wearing these half the day and bare legs the rest

so i was thinking while she was shaving she always has that blunt cut hair shaft sat et the edge of the skin keeping the pathway out open.
waxing of course takes the hair shaft totally out so a pointed new hair grows and makes its own pathway along rather than up and as it gets longer and thicker the skin layer gets thinner until the thickest part of the hair shaft pops through the taught skin layer and the rest of the shafts reverses back through with the pull of the newly popped hair... still following?? :)
does that sound feasible?

how do we stop this from happening or is she always going to be susceptible from it?
im wondering if her sensitive skin is from the skin pathway slightly closing/healing and then the blunt end pushing through causing irritation.

ive said I would try to find out how to minimise or stop this from happening and how to get the stuck hairs up and out... I didn't want to go poking about giving her a poke place where I have broken the skin to release the hair and then pluck them out..

any help will be appreciated.
 
I keep exfoliating gloves around and then send them home with the client to keep using.
I will first exfoliate the skin as much as I can, then depending on the amount of hairs that get exposed I will either, apply thin film of wax in the opposite, yes opposite direction of the hair growth ensuring I lift as many hairs away from the skin as possible. Apply the strip and then rub it well IN the direction of the hair growth, pull skin nice and tight and pull it off. Works every time, or if I have only a few hairs I will thread them out :)

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I suffer really badly from these myself and nothing I do helps them. I have tried everything such as exfoliating, dry brushing and ingrow go. It starts happening after a few waxes. The hair on my legs gets so thin that it can't break through the skin. I've had to stop waxing and start shaving them which I hate! If I went to a therapist to get my legs waxed, I most certainly would not expect her to pluck every ingrown hair out, that is definitely expecting too much.
 
If they keep getting them they probably need to change their method of hair removal maybe try laser.
No I wouldn't spend ages lifting people's hairs and to be honest I have never had to.Those sort of hairs that lie just under the skin are down to aftercare they are not ingrown,you need to be strict with your clients.
 
Your client is paying you to wax their legs not tweeze them out, if you spend a lot of time doing this then you are just not going to make any money unless of course you are charging extra for the tweezing service, which I doubt many do.

As Gillian said, a lot of it is down to their at home regime.
 
Your client is paying you to wax their legs not tweeze them out, if you spend a lot of time doing this then you are just not going to make any money unless of course you are charging extra for the tweezing service, which I doubt many do.

As Gillian said, a lot of it is down to their at home regime.

I completely understand where your coming from but I guess I see it that the client is coming to me for a hair removal service that happens to be waxing , the end result should be leaving the client completely hair free :)

It is annoying to be tweezing them out but if I have spare time I think I will oblige and if stuck for time will just do what I can and advise for the future :)
 

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