Waxing standards?

[fluffycat]

Just a bit of a musing really had a waxing treatment recently and am a bit disappointed. I wanted to get my underarms waxed and bikini tidied up (just standard) as a last minute thing so walked round a couple of salons in town to see if they had any availability and one said she would have time to do me. Never been to any of them before.

Anyway, she started on bikini and that was fine, when finished she asked me was that ok, i looked down and there were several hairs still left, including one long one sticking straight up! She made no attempt to tweeze any hairs. I was suspicious about the barbicide jar and row of used spatulas lining the edge of the wax pot so just said it was fine and thinking id just tweeze at home!

Im just annoyed as i normally get waxed where i work and she does a brilliant job and tweezes and i know if i was doing it on a client i would be really thorough because thats what id want myself!

Perhaps it was because I was a walk in and she squeezed me in, although she didnt have to, but walk ins dont mean half a job to me. Id only take someone if i had enough time to do it properly.

So it got me thinking about me worrying about doing a good job and client expectations (as ive only qualified) and theres people out there in salons with not the same standards as me and people still go to them.

Anyone else have experiences of varying standards in salons?

 

[Cathi44]

I regularly check out other local salons to see what they're offering / standards / techniques etc. Mainly for leg waxing (how wrong can you go?!?) I haven't found one yet that I'd go back to. The last one took 45 mins (for a full leg) and I had to wax all the bits she'd missed when I got home. Previous one was horrific..... wax way too hot (even though I kept saying it was too hot), she coated my feet in wax (I don't have hairy feet!) and managed to remove most of my toe polish, she ripped the strips off upwards, towards the ceiling, removing bits of my skin with it, and then when finished proceeded to scrub my (sore) legs down with a wet towel & blow on them (!?!?!?) Truly horrendous. That was a 1/2 leg and she tried to charge me for a full. That aside, I think it's good to know what the competition are offering / doing. I've also not yet been for a wax with anyone who wears gloves or sanitises / prepares the skin first, or asks me to fill in a client card. Very different here in Spain to the UK. It definitely makes my standards higher.

 

[fluffycat]

cathi - sounds horrific indeed!! bit weird about the blowing on your legs lol!!

 

[Cathi44]

cathi - sounds horrific indeed!! bit weird about the blowing on your legs lol!!

Ha ha! It was a very surreal experience! She offered to do my bikini too & looked a bit disappointed when I declined. Thank God I did !!! x

 

[mechelz]

I've had a couple of experiences when I've gone into salons for a last minute wax just so I didn't have to do it myself. I once went into one close to home for a Brazilian and whilst I didn't tell the beautician that I am also a beautician (I wish I had mentioned it now) because I feel everyone has different techniques, so I didn't want her to feel under pressure or felt like I was hawking her every move (to which I really was ). I was so surprised at how she did the job, for starters she had a fresh manicure so I know that was the reason as to why she never wore gloves and the reason why she was applying the wax so "delicately". It was so painful because when she would rip it off the wax would snap and rip half of my hair out, so she'd keep applying hot wax on an already sensitive area. She had left un tweezed hairs and what annoyed me is that she didn't even wax "right in there" so when I got home I ended up having to wax myself all over again.

From getting bad experiences, I've taken them and put them towards how I treat my clients when they are getting waxed. I am very thorough when waxing, I will tweeze all the small hairs if they don't come out with wax. The only time I won't tweeze them is when the client doesn't want me to as some people cringe when it comes to tweezing. I don't know if some salons are just being lazy, cutting corners just to fit in more clients but for me it's quality over quantity any day.

 

[MrsBB2013]

I remember when I worked in a spa a black lady came in for a bikini the ''experiencd'' therapist didn't take into account the difference in hair type/growth. Bruised her and came dashing out for advice as she had got the strip full on stuck onto the lady and 'didn't want to rip on it anymore'! Annoyingly she was snippy with me cos fresh out of college I suggested the plainest massage oil to remove. I haven't waxed for years, but getting back into it, and all these experiences make me feel better! I work cleanly, hygeinically and hopefully get all the hairs! I think it's like anything until clients go to a good therapist they don't know a bad one --- e.g waxing is meant to really hurt, acrylics are painful. I am so careful about not hurting people I don't know why others aren't xxx

 

[krum]

I went in as a walk in the other day for a leg wax. She used mo pre wax lotion or post wax lotion and left entire strips on the inside of my calls unwaxed which I had to do myself at home.
She also didn't do my knees at all. I always do the knees in half leg wax so was surprised by that.
I'm no good at doing my own legs so I get them done but I won't go there again [emoji53]