Waxing black skin

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Kyralouise

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Hi, I’ve had my first black waxing client for a full leg at the end of May. I may be completely over thinking here, but there seems to be mixed opinions on which type of wax is best to use, what hair type to expect.
I am currently 100% strip wax. Every client has preferred this when it comes to both results and pain level. I do stock Hive hard wax. The red one and also the black one.
Can anyone offer me any tips or advice as different ethnicities were not covered at all during my training
Thanks,
 
Great post - for more curly, brittle hair I prefer hot wax. Pulls the root out and lessens the chances of snapping hair and leaving the client with ingrowns. For very fine hair, strip.
 
Thanks for your reply. I should get in some practice with hot wax, it’s been a while
 
Does anyone have any thoughts on what’s best for Indian client I took so much longer than I normally do with waxing I ended up going back and fourth between hot wax and strip wax! thank you x
 
I’d say client education is key. If you have darker skin and live in a sunny country, a combination of plenty of vitamin D, fresh fruit and veg plus cultural beauty practices will often give you great skin by U.K. standards.

Relocation to the U.K. can be a shock - hard water, lack of sunlight, layers of clothing, different diet, plus homesickness all take their toll. Buying the skincare products that used to work at home doesn’t always give the same results so you have to educate and support clients.

Growing up in the U.K. with darker skin - many Mums spend a lot of time teaching their daughters how to manage their skin - but Caucasian Mums can be baffled and don’t understand that their children’s skin should feel gorgeously soft and smooth, (I’m often horrified at how awful some Caucasian skin is, with clients being quite indifferent to any aftercare). Some darker skins are therefore very dry. My normal setting is to have visible scales, like some sort of cross with Godzilla, on my legs from October to March and until I learned (shamefully recently) how to look after my skin it used to take me a month of desperate prep to get my legs ready for a skirt and I’d routinely be caught out by unseasonal sunny days and have to wear tights - even when I’d have loved to bare my legs.

Dark skins should be very soft, with a silky sheen and can be waxed without difficulty. If the skin is dry it’s much harder to wax effectively without friction burns. Options include offering a skin exfoliating pre treatment and selling aftercare products. When I was in college I remember a Japanese student being genuinely horrified and embarrassed at how “bad” her skin had become after a few months in the U.K. She was clearly mortified when we were learning waxing and returned to class the next day with her dignity intact and wonderful skin. We all queued up to touch her. It was then that I discovered that Japanese’s skin is no “better” than Caucasian skin - what is “better” is the cultural expectation to look after skin well,
 
@TheDuchess Thank you, this is really really helpful.

I have asked her to exfoliate and moisturise between now and her appointment, but after reading your reply, she probably already does this.

While I'm here...

I now have a good amount of regular leg waxing clients that have beautiful results. The two exceptions are my mum and her friend. Their leg hair is completely different to any of my other clients. They are prickly and grow out rather than down. I've tried both warm and hot wax and I cannot get a perfect result. I'd say 50% of the hairs are still there at the end of the treatment. They came for 6/7 waxes, every 3/4 weeks, and each time was the same. They both exfoliate, moisturise and do not shave between appointments. Have you had anything like this?
 
What make of wax do you use?

I've found it makes all the difference. I used to use PhD wax system, whilst its easy to use, it wasn't as effective at removing all the hairs. So I changed brand and I tried loads and settled at Cirépil Cristal Océan. If I'm doing legs I always use strip wax, but if I'm doing full leg and the hair changes texture getting near the bikini line I switch to hot wax (Cirépil Euroblonde)
There's lots of other great wax brands people have recommended on here also on other threads worth checking out.
 
What make of wax do you use?

I stock Hive hard wax but for warm wax honestly I just buy whatever is on an offer when I go to salon services. I never really though to stick to one wax brand or look into more expensive products because I’m getting great results already. As these two ladies are the only ones with bad results, it seems crazy to completely change product just for them. I suppose I could keep a pot of another brand just to use on them?
 
Yeah definitely just buy one pot and see how it goes. It really is trial and error. After a few waxes it should get easier as long as they're not shaving in between wax appointments!
 
Sometimes the expensive waxes aren't the right ones because they contain too much "STUFF" in them. A good 60% of my clients are Asian and Male. Honestly! I just use Salon Systems cool wax and hot wax (Tea Tree). I only use hot wax on intimate areas. Everywhere else it's cool. Aftercare is key though, and especially scrubs and moisturizing. This cuts down on spots and ingrown hairs. I also recommend that they take an antihistamine the same day, this helps reduce inflammation from the release of histamine when you drag the hair out by its root!
 
@nickyjpearce thanks for this!

Do you retail aftercare? I do nails too and have just started retailing cuticle oil and it's doing well. Is waxing aftercare popular/profitable?
 
@nickyjpearce thanks for this!

Do you retail aftercare? I do nails too and have just started retailing cuticle oil and it's doing well. Is waxing aftercare popular/profitable?

To be honest, I don't do a lot of retail apart from our own BIOHACK skincare aftercare range. I would just recommend aqueous cream from B&M lol.... But maybe I should... I can see where it would be advantageous. You can also retail stuff that inhibits and slows down hair re-growth as an extra.
 
Hi lovely ,
To be fair , there isn’t much training regarding corse hair and different skin types. Although, they tell us how to adapt it , it’s never really taught. But from my own experience , I would say more pressure and honey wax - nothing creamy. I currently use Perron rigot - Naturelle or Crystal Océan and it works perfectly. I’ve not tried anything else since and “Just wax” paper strips are amazing !! Nice and firm , gets the job done - if you’re on instagram I wouldn’t mind helping out a bit further - simones_beautyx xx
 
Some people are just tricky. I’m very experienced and not much phases me.

I have one Caucasian client that leaves me close to tears. I’ve tried everything. It’s absolutely exhausting waxing her legs. I have a film wax (a thin spreading hot wax) which is intended for large areas like legs and chest which helps.

I suspect some clients don’t do their aftercare and lie. Because this difficult client’s skin eventually improved. Of course she’d no idea that I was taking double the length of time I’d normally take, but I think me stopping part way through and exfoliating her legs thoroughly gave her a hint. After one particularly difficult session her skin improved. Of course I said how much better her skin was and she was very vague about how that had happened, just said she’d worked hard on moisturising.

I sell an exfoliating cloth which I find very good and a non greasy body oil. The cloth sells well, the oil is a slow seller.
 
Hi lovely ,
To be fair , there isn’t much training regarding corse hair and different skin types. Although, they tell us how to adapt it , it’s never really taught. But from my own experience , I would say more pressure and honey wax - nothing creamy. I currently use Perron rigot - Naturelle or Crystal Océan and it works perfectly. I’ve not tried anything else since and “Just wax” paper strips are amazing !! Nice and firm , gets the job done - if you’re on instagram I wouldn’t mind helping out a bit further - simones_beautyx xx

I have to agree completely here, that nothing replaces training and experience. I was very lucky because when I trained our class was very diverse and we all practiced on each other. Obviously, I was the hairiest lol..... So all the girls got the advantage of experience waxing a guy in class as well. My mum always used to say as well a good tradesman never blamed his tools lol... So I persevered as I went because just starting out I couldn't afford all the fancy systems. So lots of practice and experience is definitely key with waxing and having a very diverse range of clients. Don't shy away from anything, just dive in, it's how you learn.
 
I agree with many of the points raised and want to reiterate that you’ll have to take methods/product types based on each individual case. I have clients of Caribbean & Indian descent who have hair ranging across the entire spectrum from fine / straight to course / curly in different areas of their body.

Personally I don’t get along with any kind of honey wax they’re much more painful to me than creams but again you’ll have to figure out what works for your clients and perhaps have a couple waxes options to cater for regulars once you know what works for them and which they find more comfortable.

Much like another member mentioned I only use hot wax for intimate waxes on the odd occasion an under arm wax but use strip for everywhere else on all clients regardless or skin tone and haven’t had any problems.

I do love the big brand waxes and always look at them lovingly but I’ve found medium priced ranges that work just as well as the expensive ones which is great for the budget. Whichever wax you choose it’s your tool and they don’t all work in the same way so get to know them and that takes time/clients.
 
@TheDuchess Thank you, this is really really helpful.

I have asked her to exfoliate and moisturise between now and her appointment, but after reading your reply, she probably already does this.

While I'm here...

I now have a good amount of regular leg waxing clients that have beautiful results. The two exceptions are my mum and her friend. Their leg hair is completely different to any of my other clients. They are prickly and grow out rather than down. I've tried both warm and hot wax and I cannot get a perfect result. I'd say 50% of the hairs are still there at the end of the treatment. They came for 6/7 waxes, every 3/4 weeks, and each time was the same. They both exfoliate, moisturise and do not shave between appointments. Have you had anything like this?
I have experienced clients like that. The hair is dry, grows haywire and skin is reluctant to let go of yanking out hair. I find it is diet/hormonal/age related - using oil as a wash and moisturiser helps that hair and skin type enormously over soaps and cream moisturisers. Wax wise, wax according to the rules for the first/second pass, apply with the hair growth then removing against the hair growth, then do the opposite on the troublesome areas to try and lift the hair out of the pore. Sounds counterproductive but can work. Keep going on your perfect finish mission!
 
Just to update you all, her appointment was on Tuesday, full leg and Hollywood. Did her legs with strip, no problems at all, hairs came out beautifully. The Hollywood was a disaster. I tried with strip and probably only 50% of the hairs were coming out. Tried with hard and my wax was just flaking and crumbling. Overall I left her with a poor finish, rather than causing any more pain and knocked half of her bill. Looks like I need to get some hard wax practice in…
 
The beauty centre where I normally go to use hot wax which gives a nice clean finish. I can ask them what brand the next time in if you like??
 
The beauty centre where I normally go to use hot wax which gives a nice clean finish. I can ask them what brand the next time in if you like??

that would be amazing, thanks
 

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