Keep caffeine out of your system about two hours prior to waxing. Caffeine is a stimulant thus making you more sensitive.

Avoid waxing the week before and of your menstrual cycle. You are LEAST sensitive the first two weeks AFTER.

If you use a numbing cream, like Lidocain, make sure you apply it one hour before you wax for it to be effective at taking a slight edge off.

For easier hair removal and prevention of ingrown hairs, black and whiteheads, exfoliate the area to be waxed with 2% Salicylic Acid 48 hours BEFORE you wax (except the labia for a Brazilian wax), AFTER you wax, and for twice a week in the interim. It is best to use a well-cleaned loofah or a washcloth in gentle circular movements going against the direction of hair growth.

Hair should be at least 1⁄4 of an inch long (2-3 weeks of hair growth) before waxing. Do NOT trim before you come in – it may be too short. If needed, I will do it for you.

For facial waxing, if you are using any topical medications or products that contain Vitamin A (Retin-A), AHAs or BHA, please avoid using the product for seven days prior to waxing or the wax will remove the uppermost layer of skin causing a ‘brush burn’ effect. And there is NO waxing for those on Accutane.

Avoid exercising and sun exposure for 24 hours after waxing.

For facial waxing, avoid cosmetics application for several hours or until the redness has subsided.

It is best not to schedule a waxing the day before or the day of a big event. It is best to give your hair follicles time to adjust. I suggest waxing two times (two cycles) to let your skin get accustomed…

How long before your hair grows back? It depends on you! Regrowth can be from 10 days to 3 weeks. Once you start waxing, we can establish a pattern for your own individual needs.

For any bikini waxing, no heavy petting 24 hours after! Friction causes irritation and inflammation – and that isn’t sexy.

For first timers:
It’s never as horrible as you think it’s going to be! The mind has a way of exaggerating fear…
Your first waxing is not always the perfect waxing. There are three stages of hair growth, and it will take that many waxing visits to get all the hair on the same cycle, thus coming out all together. Exfoliation helps this, too, for a much smoother wax.
Also, it’s most painful the first time, because that hair has never been pulled from the root before. It has had years and years to build up proteins and thickness. So subsequent waxings are MUCH easier. Breathe!

And finally the guilt kicks in…

*From now on, 10% off products when you schedule a Product Pick Up! That’s not just this month, it’s forever. Because you deserve it for working with my baffling schedule. Who knows how I decide when to come in? Is it just whim? No, it’s really not, it’s the school thing.

Right now I am supposed to be reading an article called “Hot Executive Function: Emotion and the Development of Emotional Control.” I haven’t finished it because I got distracted and remembered I needed to send this out, but I can report that Executive Function is all about resisting impulses (and distraction…d’oh!).

If you’re a client at BE, you have developed what this article calls Cool Executive Function. By not wasting your money on products that are worthless but may be more sexily packaged than Paula’s Choice, or by shunning unjustifiably high dollar spas that consistently have paper towels in the bathroom and lightbulbs not burnt out (oh la la look how fancy they are, hmph) in favor of our cute little place that offers reasonably-priced services and the straight dope on what is worth your time, you are a Cool Executive Functioner.

So thank you for working with me on this schedule thing and the paper towel situation (they go so fast!). It is very cool of you.

*To further thank you, there will be a SALE on all sorts of random things because of new packaging in Paula’s line, up to 30% off various things here and there. Based on… whim, again? Perhaps. Or overstock. I will leave it to Cool Executive decision-making stategery (not a word). But too many things to list here, so please schedule a Pick Up and come see:)

*Molly is doing all sorts of waxing packages to save you money, a “Betty Beauty” fun colors waxing special and now men’s back and neck hair, etc. she is all about helping you not have to see that anymore…Go to her page!

*And Megan is offering a deep conditioning treatment to any hair service your heart desires for just $5.

Keep it cool,
Julie

Sheon Ladson, who decides which lucky N & O readers who apply will come in for total makeovers, asked Julie to help Grace Danuck get out of her style rut.  First, Julie shaped Grace’s brows to add definition and polish, then she added fresh spring makeup colors to brighten her face. She also styled Grace’s hair to give it more modern sassiness. Fresh face, hair and then of course—new clothes!—and this makeover model felt like a new woman.

Read more about this Spring makeover in Sheon’s News & Observer article.

Clothes styling by Sheon Ladson and photos by Juli Leonard.

Read more about the fashion show in the News & Observer article by Samantha Thompson Hatem.

“It’s tempting to crawl into bed without taking off your makeup or washing your face, but don’t do it, says Julie Hafer. The owner of Beauty Ethics…” Read article here.