The No BS Guide to Safe At-Home Waxing

Waxing removes the hair by the follicle — meaning it pulls your body hair out by the root — giving germs an invitation to the opened hair follicles.

In many cases, waxing also removes the top layer of dry, dead skin cells. This leaves your skin smoother, sure, but also more vulnerable to irritation. And heated wax has the potential to burn.

Simply put, there’s a lot that can go wrong.

Possible waxing mishaps

• infection
• burns
• abrasion

That’s why proper skin prep and aftercare, combined with good waxing practices, play an essential role in avoiding issues that could derail the smooth skin you’re after.

As long as you follow these steps, you should be able to safely remove your hair and enjoy the results for weeks.

1. Cut hair first if necessary

Although your hair needs to be at least a quarter inch to be waxed, hair that’s too long can make waxing more complicated and painful.

The American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) recommends trimming hair to three-quarters of an inch. Trim hair using a clean personal grooming tool, such as an electronic trimmer or safety scissors.

2. Exfoliate

A day or two before you wax, gently exfoliate with a mild scrub, brush, mitt, or loofah to remove dead skin cells that surround the hair follicles.

Exfoliating helps loosen existing ingrown hairs and improves your waxing results. Just make sure to be gentle — if you scrub too hard you could irritate your skin, which isn’t ideal for waxing.

3. Cleanse

Always start your waxing session with freshly washed skin. Scrub up with a mild soap to remove any germs, sweat, oil, makeup, dirt, or other residue.

Grime increases your chance of incurring infected bumps, and oily skin and hair can prevent wax from sticking.

4. Dry

Wax won’t adhere to wet hair, either. So dry the area thoroughly with a clean towel.

Add a little powder — cornstarch is a safe alternative to talcum powder, if you’re concerned about talc’s potential link to cancer.

Powder can help sop up moisture if you’re sweating from heat, humidity, or because you’re nervous about waxing. It also helps protect the skin during the pull.

• Test wax temperature. Applying a small patch to your outer wrist can help you gauge if the heated wax is too hot to proceed. It should be hot, but tolerable.
• Apply wax in the direction of hair growth. Whether you’re using wax with strips or a stripless wax, always smooth wax onto the skin following the grain. Apply your strip in the same direction. Avoid double-dipping your applicator in your wax container, as this can introduce bacteria to your wax.
• Pull in the opposite direction. Follow specific instructions for your particular wax. Some waxes require time to harden, while others can be pulled almost immediately. When you’re ready to pull, hold your skin taut with one hand by pulling it slightly in the direction of hair growth. Then, use the other hand to pull off the strip or wax in the opposite direction in one fast, swift motion.
• Ease the pain of the pull. To minimize the sting, take a deep breath and exhale as you pull fast. Then place a hand on the just-waxed skin to calm it. If you’re prone to waxing pain, you can apply a lidocaine product like Plum Smooth Plumb Numb about 30 minutes before waxing.

Remove wax residue

Many waxing kits come with pretreated wipes to help you remove any leftover wax stuck to your skin. But yours doesn’t, a little olive or jojoba oil will do the trick.

Use tweezers to pick off any remaining bits of wax and pluck any rogue hairs you missed.

Apply an aftercare product

Immediately after a wax, you want to use a product that soothes the skin — but the trick is to use something that will also fight bacteria.

One option to try? EiR NYC After Shave Serum. This serum contains calendula to calm your skin, plus tea tree oil to help keep bumps at bay. You can apply it regularly to ease irritation from sweat or clothing friction.

Exfoliate after 24 hours

While it’s best to wait a day before exfoliating, continued exfoliation between waxings can help prevent ingrown hairs and keep the skin smooth. Always follow up with your favorite aftercare product.

Everyone naturally has bacteria on their skin. Plus, household surfaces hold germs, too, no matter how much you like to clean. So you can’t totally avoid germs.

Bacteria, sweat, and friction on exposed follicles can all lead to irritation or, in some cases, infection.

A case of itchy bumps or a painful swollen spot is the last thing you might want when going fuzz-free, but it can happen during or after a waxing session. It may lead to one of the following infections:

• Folliculitis. This inflammation or infection of the hair follicles usually looks like pimples or a rash. Folliculitis may cause a whitehead, but try not to pop it.
• Boils. Also called abscesses, boils result when a bacterial or fungal infection of the hair follicle creates a raised red bump that may rupture.
• Ingrown hair cysts. These can occur when your waxed hair starts to grow back. Instead of growing toward the surface, the hair grows into the skin, causing a bump. If it becomes inflamed, it may result in a cyst. Not all ingrown hair cysts are infected, but taking precautions to prevent ingrown hairs from developing and treating them properly can reduce the chance of infection.
• Molluscum contagiosum. This viral infection, which can be transmitted through sexual contact, causes benign bumps in the pubic region. Pubic hair removal has been linked to a possible increased risk for contracting it, though newer research suggests pubic hair removal does not increase the risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections, like gonorrhea or chlamydia.

Avoiding infection starts with the proper skin preparation mentioned above, but you should also take precautions to wax yourself in a clean space and use clean equipment. That may mean using a disinfectant spray or wipes first, and then sterilizing your equipment.

Don’t store a waxing warmer on a bathroom counter where it can collect germs from the air. If it’s grimy, give it a scrub or wipe it off with a cotton ball dipped in alcohol.

What to do if you get an infection

If you end up with inflamed or irritated skin, don’t panic. A product like the Fur Oil Ingrown Concentrate with disinfecting tea tree oil can help tackle the problem. You can also use an over-the-counter antibiotic ointment like bacitracin.

Bumps will likely subside on their own in a few days. To prevent further irritation, avoid tight clothing or friction on the area and shower after heavy sweating.

Seek medical care if you notice infection symptoms spreading or getting worse, or if you develop an unexplained fever or illness.

You’ll also want to make an appointment with your doctor if you suspect you could have molluscum contagiosum.

Any time you’re handling something hot, you have the potential to burn yourself if you’re not careful. In a small study of 21 people with wax burns, 38 percent of them actually burned a hand rather than the body part they were intending to wax.

These burns happened when using microwave-heated wax. The study concluded that this type of wax can reach unsafe temperatures and that users have the potential to hurt themselves when they remove the container from the microwave.

If you’re using microwaveable wax, the study authors recommend placing the wax container on a microwave-safe plate. Use an oven mitt to remove the dish from your appliance after heating, instead of gripping the wax container directly.

Keep in mind that soft wax requires higher temperatures than hard wax and increases your risk of discomfort or a burn.

Soft wax is the kind that requires muslin strips for the wax to be pulled. Hard wax is pliable when you apply it, but it hardens as it cools so that you can pull the wax off directly.

No matter which type of heated wax you use, test the temperature first.

What to do if your wax burns you

If you experience a minor burn to a small area, cool it with cold water for 5 to 15 minutes. Then, gently attempt to remove the wax.

Apply aloe vera gel and an antibiotic ointment, and take an over-the-counter pain reliever if necessary.

Seek medical care if you can’t remove the wax, if the burn is over a large area, or if the skin appears charred or deep brown.

Although the goal of waxing is to remove unwanted hair, waxing, in most cases, also removes some dead surface cells on the skin.

This might lead to a nice exfoliating effect. But sometimes wax can pull away a thin layer of skin, leaving a raw or bleeding patch.

Skin injuries are less likely to happen if you use hard wax rather than soft wax. Hard wax adheres to the hair only, rather than the skin. Soft wax, which is great for removing those downy hairs, adheres to both the hair and the skin.

Regardless of the type of wax you use, make sure your skin isn’t already injured, irritated from over-exfoliating, or too thin for waxing.

Never wax skin that’s already red, irritated, inflamed, itchy, sunburned, cut, scraped, or sore. You don’t want to add to any existing ouch.

Skip waxing facial hair if you’ve had recent laser skin resurfacing, microdermabrasion, or any other cosmetic procedures that heavily exfoliate skin. Ask your dermatologist or aesthetician when it’s safe to begin waxing.

Some topicals can also make skin more susceptible to injury from hair removal. Avoid waxing for about a week if you’ve been using:

• chemical peels
• skin lightening or hair bleaching products
• alpha or beta hydroxy acids
• benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid

Take a reprieve from retinol and prescription retinoids for at least 2 to 5 days before your hair-removal session.

Some oral acne medications, like isotretinoin (Accutane), thin the skin, and you shouldn’t wax if you take them. If you take prescription acne medications, ask a healthcare professional before you try waxing.

Antibiotics can also impact skin sensitivity, so wait to wax until a week after you’ve finished your prescription.

What to do if you injure your skin

If some of your skin does come off with the wax, you’ll need to treat that patch with care to avoid irritation and infection. Cleanse the open wound gently, and apply an antibiotic ointment.

To keep it moisturized and protected, apply a barrier like petroleum jelly and wear sunscreen if the skin is exposed.

Seek medical care if the wound is deep and you’re unable to stop the bleeding, or if you suspect an infection.

Watch for:

• pus with a foul odor
• an increase in swelling of surrounding tissue
• a wound that won’t heal

Also seek care if you develop an unexplained fever or illness.

Need quick answers to your waxing questions? We have you covered.

Is waxing better than shaving?

Like most things in life, this comes down to personal preference. Waxing and shaving are completely different hair removal methods.

If you value a longer lasting result, then waxing is a good choice. Waxing removes hair from the root, giving you more time before you need to remove hair again. Plus, you can avoid pesky razor burn.

While shaving doesn’t give long lasting results, it’s generally painless (assuming you don’t nick yourself).

Which type of wax should I use?

It’s usually a good idea to use hard wax instead of soft wax.

Hard wax grabs on to your hair, instead of gripping your skin. This means you’re less likely to sustain a waxing injury using hard wax.

Does hair grow back thicker after waxing?

This is a common waxing myth.

Not only does your hair not return thicker after waxing, but if you wax often enough, the hair may eventually become thinner over time.

Why do I get pimples after waxing?

You probably have ingrown, inflamed hair trapped in the follicle to thank for those pimples, though they could also be a sign of general irritation.

You can usually avoid these by taking time to do a careful prep routine before waxing and applying soothing agents after waxing.

You can check out our guide for preventing bumps here.

Tip: It’s a good idea to watch suspicious bumps to make sure they don’t lead to an infection.

Although these waxing complications may sound a little concerning, waxing at home is generally safe if you follow these tips. Plus, you’ll find plenty of products on the market to help you do it with ease.

If you’re a waxing newbie, it can be helpful to take a trip to the salon for your first wax.

For your first DIY wax, opt for a body part you can reach with both hands and see easily. Start with a small patch first and see how things go before moving on to a larger section or a harder-to-reach area.

If you decide waxing isn’t for you, no worries. You’ve got other hair removal options. Or you can keep fuzz in place and flaunt it. The choice is yours.

Jennifer Chesak is a medical journalist for several national publications, a writing instructor, and a freelance book editor. She earned her Master of Science in journalism from Northwestern’s Medill. She’s also the managing editor for the literary magazine, Shift. Jennifer lives in Nashville but hails from North Dakota, and when she’s not writing or sticking her nose in a book, she’s usually running trails or futzing with her garden. Follow her on Instagram or Twitter.