All you need to know

By Helena Costen, MSc, BSc

Description

A Hollywood is classed as ‘everything off’, as in ‘no hair, no-where… down there’…ahem! This even stretches to the anal area being waxed as well, although not all clients are up for this; For some, even showing their ‘front bum’ is too much.

The ‘Hollywood’ has mainly stemmed from porn movies, when the ‘actress’ has to do her close-up! Nowadays, clients tend to go for the ‘bald eagle’ because the original need for the pubic hair: to protect and keep the vaginal area warm/clean, is no longer needed as clothing has replaced this necessity (for most of us!).

In addition, this is becoming more and more popular for clients in relation to the bedroom; no-one likes a mouthful of muff hair! A lot of clients regularly tell me how much ‘cleaner’ they feel and the fear of ‘hanging out’ your very small knickers in the changing room at the gym disappears!

I do still get a lot of clients argue that they feel like a pre-pubescent girl with no hair down there and I shall say to you, what I say to them: ‘Does a pre-pubescent girl have boobs, underarm hair and wrinkles!?’ No, so try and think a little further for me outside the box ladies, just this once….

A Vegas wax is essentially the final frontier in pubic waxing, when a crystal design is placed on after the waxing. Yes, I know what you’re thinking: ‘why, when I’ve just had my bits ripped to within an inch of their life, would I want to stick a crystal, multi-coloured cat, or equivalent on it – are you mad woman!!??’

Now this goes back to what I mentioned about the ‘pre-pubescent girl’ image earlier. For some women, placing this design on their pubic area takes away this feeling, it makes them feel more girly, it’s a surprise for the blokey on a special occasion and pretties up what some people feel is ugly to look at. Pick your favourite. Overall, it is just a bit of fun as well, you stick gems on your nails, don’t you?

So what’s a good job?

My clients know I am a stickler for this, but before any wax has touched your labia majora, the beautician must make you fill in a client form and/or a treatment sheet. Too many beauticians are throwing caution to the wind and trying to maximise profits by not filling these important documents in.

I appreciate this is not invasive surgery but what if anything goes wrong – what would you say in court?:

‘sorry my client’s health wasn’t a priority…’

You should wear some form of disposable knickers, again, this should be just run of the mill waxing, but you are really placing a lot of trust in your beautician that they know what they’re doing! I have been doing advanced waxing for 5 years and there has still been times when, by pure accident, the spatula has fallen out of my hand. That spatula could go anywhere and areas I know I don’t want wax to go! Even if the disposable knickers is shaped like a thong all over, at least it covers the necessities.

On top of protection, you should be covered by a towel, to keep you warm as well as protect your modesty.

The therapist should also be wearing gloves throughout the procedure! If the gloves break or get too covered in wax she MUST change them for another pair. If a therapist does not wear gloves I feel she is being completely unprofessional! When using hot wax that sets hard, as oppose to warm wax that needs to be taken off with a strip, this is technically different, as a ‘lip’ has to be created to pull off the wax and so a finger nail is probably needed to do this.

The area to be waxed may or may not be trimmed by the therapist prior to commencing. I personally would rather have too long, rather than too short. When the hair is too short it usually means more wax applications (because the hair didn’t come out first time), meaning more discomfort for the client and usually more tweezering because the therapist can only apply wax a few times. Ultimately, if the hair hasn’t come out by then and there’s too much to tweeze, you may end up going home with a patchy front garden!

Finally, before waxing begins, the area should be prepared correctly, by this I mean, wiped with pre-wax lotion and dusted with talc or corn starch. The area needs to be clean and dry, thus ensuring a secure bond of the wax to the hair meaning the hair should come out first time.

The therapist, regardless of where she starts, should be asking you to put your hand/s somewhere near the area to help stretch the skin. This helps minimise the discomfort and treatment time as well as acts as a distraction to you.

I also feel you should start in areas that are easier first, i.e. the bikini area and then work inwards and in small areas too. I cannot cope with anything more than half a strip so if the beautician wants to do that kind of size area and you’re really not happy, say-so. The more you get used to the waxing, you might be able to be a bit braver and do larger areas.

As the hair is removed, ‘spotting’ (bleeding) is quite normal, particularly if this is your first time. If you think about it, there is more hair coverage in the pubic area, so compared to areas like your legs, where you will have maybe, 1 or 2 hairs per pore, in the pubic area, you will probably have 3, even 4 per pore. At the end of the day, you are pulling hair from their ‘life’ source and when pulling that amount hair from one concentrated area, there is going to be some bleeding. If you keep on top of this waxing, the hairs will start to adapt and hopefully, bleeding won’t be so common or happen at all.

When it comes to performing the anal waxing, I’ve been told by many a client, if they’ve gone somewhere else prior to me, the many different ‘twister’ positions they have to get in to. I still favour how I was taught myself and that is for the client to lie on their side, in the ‘fetus’ position (legs up to their chest) and using their own hand to lift the top buttock. I’ve been told by a few clients who are doctors or medical staff that they now know how their patients feel, but they do feel more relaxed.

At the end of the day, this is a comfortable position for the client and makes it very easy for the beautician to see what they’re doing and they can use both of their hands to pull the skin tight and the strip simultaneously.

Clients come in different shapes and sizes and most therapist’s have seen it all before in some form or another. You are probably NOT the hairiest woman down there she’s ever seen, you don’t have the biggest outer lips etc at all. I have waxed men and pre/post-op transvestites and so really I suppose I could say I have seen it all!

Some therapists cannot cope with carrying out the treatment full stop and therefore, shouldn’t or be forced to do it. It makes me question why these ‘pick’n’mix’ therapists do beauty therapy at all if they’re not going to embrace it in its entirety but we will save that soap box rant for another day. Either way, they should feel comfortable in what is going to happen and they should not make you feel inadequate or awkward at any time. I regularly crack jokes with my clients particularly when I’ve seen how petrified they really are and funnily enough, they go out the salon with their head held high and a bounce in their step when they’ve just bared their fanny to another woman!

Overall, the first session usually takes the longest and may appear the most painful. However, I tell clients that, they know what to expect now, if they do keep on top of this waxing and come every 4-5 weeks, the full amount of hair will not have fully grown back, therefore, it will feel less painful, as less hair will be pulled out. If there is less hair and the client is aware of what happens this time, the nerves are more controlled and the treatment time will be a lot quicker.

You may find after your first time, you might want to go and have a lie-down or just re-cooperate. The beautician could’ve been the best of her profession and done everything right but your nerves were probably quite high and so now the ordeal is over, you will probably be feeling quite tired. This is normal and again, arrange your first appointment with nothing to do afterwards.

What’s a bad job?

I have heard many a tale of a client who has had a bad experience from a previous therapist. I have found two main causes to these negative experiences: the first is the therapist is either not qualified or newly, meaning she is only going on what she knows or remembers and hasn’t practiced enough or been given quality feedback.

When on my own advanced waxing course, there were 3 students there soon to open their own spa. I was shocked to hear that they had already been practicing the treatments on clients and taking full payment for this! Basically, they’d done a few, watched a few and had it done on themselves and so felt confident to offer this treatment! Utterly stupid I feel to put clients at risk like that!

The second has been the therapist’s actual technique or lack of it. The therapist does not get you or herself to pull the skin tight around the area that is about to have the strip pulled from. I imagine you are already crossing your legs and holding your ‘bits’ at the very thought. By not pulling the skin taught, when the strip is being lifted, the skin moves with the hair. If the skin is being pulled taught, the skin usually should not move, therefore, the only thing that should, is the hair.

The skin damage that can be done from incorrectly pulling the strip can vary from bleeding, bruising and even taking off the top layer of skin which is very sore and then open to infection, plus could take weeks to heal.

Tips and advice

So many people just assume that if a beautician is offering the treatment, they must be qualified in it! Usually a therapist’s beauty insurance will list the treatments they are qualified in on the certificate so you don’t always have to ask to see their qualification. However, if it puts your mind at rest, ask, they must produce it for you. If not, get them to tell you a bit about their experience – where did they train? Did they start practicing straight away after their course or months after? What products do they use and why? You will get enough of a feeling from the language and body language whether they know what they’re talking about.

The myth of taking painkillers an hour before the waxing to stop the pain, is just that. What can help reduce the discomfort is immediately having a shower or more preferably, a very warm bath just before you are due to come in. Heat opens the pores, the skin is softer and if the skin is prepared properly, this is much more enduring for clients. The other thing that may help is EMLA cream; a skin-numbing cream used for blood tests and tattoos. Remember it numbs the skin but only on the surface so you may still get some pain, it won’t be completely pain free but it may enough to get you through. My advice on this product is to keep it on for as long as you possibly can, i.e. 5 hours at least.

My advice is if it is your first time for that kind of waxing, have more waxing done in one go and have the other areas first i.e. legs, underarms, eyebrows etc. Believe it or not, it does relax you before the ‘big one’. Also, if you have all your waxing done in one go, that’s it! Done for another month and only means booking one appointment.

My biggest advice is ask the therapist to describe what she is going to do. The beautician should explain what she’s going to do and why anyway but not all of us are blessed with the right communication skills and when doing this treatment on a regular basis, can sometimes forget what it is like for ‘first-timers’. Also, you may not entirely agree with her method! Be active in the process before it starts.

If you really feel you cannot continue, SAY STOP! You are the one having and paying for the treatment and so should be within your rights to end it at any time. I make this very clear to my clients that they are the one in control, it amazes me how this little comment can really calm some people. Just because you couldn’t go through with it the first time, doesn’t mean you won’t get braver. Treat yourself to a cake or new shoes afterwards if you want, you earned it!

My aftercare advice is very simple: scrub the area as soon as you can. This area doesn’t get a lot of ‘airing’ shall we say and by constantly wearing clothes around this area, as the hair starts to re-grow, it will tend to grow-in on itself. Either the evening after the waxing or soon the next day, scrub the area with either a mesh glove/mitt or a loufa. I feel body puffs are not ideal for exfoliating this area and so would refrain from using them. Once scrubed, put a layer of un-fragranced, simple moisturising cream on the area (even cool the cream in the fridge beforehand). This areas needs to be scrubed more if you are going to wax it regularly.

Doing it yourself?

I do shock my clients when I say that I do practice what I preach and do my own Hollywood myself. I would not trust any kit that came from boots and such like to do anything this sensitive and delicate.

You must have some kind of training in waxing in this area and you cannot get on to an advanced waxing course until you have done your basic waxing qualification. I know a few people who went on courses with a friend or relative just to learn how to wax so that they could do each other’s waxing rather than paying for it.

Invest in products from beauty wholesalers and do a bit at a time. I couldn’t go ‘all the way’ the first time but the more I practiced; the better and more confident I got.

Contraindications

This is not to scare you. Clients should be made aware of these things before they book an appointment. It is does not mean completely no treatment.

The following are just a few things you may wish to consider and ask your therapist their opinion on whether treatment can continue:

* Varicose veins (very unfortunate if in this area but again depends on where it is)

* Skin diseases

* Large cuts i.e. from previous shaving

* Hypersensitive skin

* Sunburnt or wind burnt skin

* Defective circulation

* Moles in precarious places

Average Costs

This can be anywhere from £20-£38 usually to cover the cost of the rhinestones if having a vegas. It annoys me when therapists charge a silly low amount like £15 because it makes me question if they have a qualification at all and whether they are putting speed over quality. I would always rather pay through the nose and know what I’m getting.

Summary

Overall, these treatments are coming back in fashion and more people are inclined to try them. It shouldn’t cost the earth or be as cheap as chips, should take a reasonable amount of time and there should be limited discomfort. The hair should come out first time, most of the time, so there is no need to re-wax or tweeze thus reducing inflammation, supplies and time.

As always, informed consent is crucial. That is not just agreeing to having the treatment, it’s been fully aware of what is going to happen. This is a very intricate treatment and although anyone could perform it (if they wanted to), I feel there is a high level of skill involved and a lot can go wrong. Unless a therapist is prepared to fully understand this treatment and hone their skills, they should be honest to their clients and potential clients.