After your hair removal waxing appointment, avoid taking a shower. A post-depilatory lotion will be used by your esthetician to clean the region they waxed; this will remove any wax residue, calm the skin, and keep the area clean for some time.
However, try not to shower immediately before waxing. Take your shower a couple of hours or at least half an hour before the waxing appointment. This will give your skin time to dry completely and help your body temperature to get normalized. A simple shower will also help open your pores and soften the skin.
It's perfectly fine to take a cool or warm shower after your wax, however, I recommend waiting at least 5-8 hours for the skin to recover. Avoid hot showers or steam rooms after your wax. Hair follicles remain open for hours after waxing, so it's best to avoid contact with any excess moisture for at least 24 hours.
You can shower after waxing, which helps to get rid of the little bumps that may appear after the hair grows back. If you don't shower right away, you might end up with stubble and some ingrown hairs. Use lukewarm water and some natural soap around two hours after your wax.
Having a warm bath or shower before your wax can soften your skin allowing for easier hair removal. We also recommend exfoliation the night before as this removes dead skin build up around and in the follicle again aiding in easier and more thorough removal.
POST WAXING CARE
Avoid exercise, hot bath/shower, sauna, steam, hot tub, pools and beaches 24 hours after waxing. Sweating can carry bacteria into the pores and can irritate the skin after waxing. Keep hands from touching freshly waxed skin, minimizing chances of getting irritations or small pimples.
To prevent bumps and ingrowns, try applying a cold pack to the waxed area immediately following your service, which will close the pores and block bacteria from entering.
Exfoliate and Moisturize at the Right Time.
Two to three days after waxing is the perfect time to exfoliate. Your pores will have closed and the skin will have recovered.
Don't exfoliate 24 hours to 48 hours prior to waxing to avoid irritation. (Though we absolutely encourage you to exfoliate a few times weekly in between wax appointments to keep skin soft.) Don't coat your body with lotions, potions, creams or any of the sort the day of your wax.
Use a light application of barrier creams such as Aquaphor mixed with a little pure aloe vera and cortisone cream underneath your bikini area. Apply a cool compress to the area and if necessary take an Advil or Motrin. Keep tight clothing off of the skin and do not use soaps.
Up to 1/2 inch should be fine. If your hair is any longer you may feel some discomfort when the wax is applied. It will also make it trickier for your therapist to get the job done. Trim excess hair down beforehand or shave and wait a couple of weeks for it to grow back before returning to the salon.
This is typically because the client didn't wait long enough for ALL of the hair to grow out. You will, however, notice that after a few Brazilian Waxes your hair will start to grow in much slower and finer. Shaved hair is much thicker because it gets cut off at its thickest point.
An ingrown hair may appear about a week after waxing. Ingrown hairs occur when the hair grows and reinserts itself into the hair follicle. Ingrown hairs can cause itchy and sometimes painful bumps that often look like pimples on the skin. Without treatment, ingrown hairs can become infected.
Clogged pores
Removing the hair on your legs by shaving or waxing exposes that oil to the air. “The oil combines with oxygen (oxidizes) and turns darker than usual, giving you small black dots all over your legs,” explains Dr. Janik.
DO moisturize after waxing. Using gentle oil-based products, such as baby oil, can help to remove any wax residue while keeping the skin supple. If you prefer using a lotion-based after-wax care, try our 'Rub Me Down' lavender and chamomile moisturizer.
Related to the heat moisture, sweat can irritate the freshly waxed skin and should be avoided for the first 24 hours. Likewise, any repetitive exercise that would cause rubbing of the area against either clothing or itself can result in irritation and possibly broken skin that may lead to infection.
Usually your bikini wax will last from three to four weeks, though everyone's rate of re-growth is different. But with the right after wax care you can help keep your skin smoother, longer. Just ask your wax specialist to point you in the right direction.
If you have shaved in between waxing appointments or if you are getting your legs waxed for the first time, your legs can still feel prickly to the touch after your first few times waxing (they will still look great!). This is due to what we call the Shaving Effect.
In cases where you do get pimples, whether in the waxed area or anywhere else on your body, we have one major recommendation: Don't pop them. All that popping pimples does is potentially spread around the bacteria that caused them, leading to the formation of new pimples in nearby locations.
Because your hair doesn't go through the stages of the growth cycle all at the exact same time, the hair will grow back at different rates. After a wax, the hairs that were in the resting phase will begin growing back, and that's why you'll see hair regrowth in a matter of weeks but not as thick as before.
Hairs can stop showing up after 8 months of treatment in areas where it grows naturally finer, as well as with people with fine hair. It's just as common, however, for people to go through years of wax sessions before the hair stops growing for good.