Waxing Aftercare

For the best waxing result at Bliss, or in fact anywhere, our guests follow an aftercare routine recommended by CIDESCO and CIBTAC, the international governing bodies responsible for all the exams held in beauty schools around the world.
This advice is proven over decades of waxing in professional beauty salons, and it will never change.
If you suffer from ingrown hairs, or if you find your waxing doesn’t last long enough, this advice could change the way you feel about waxing forever.
A science lesson that will change the way you wax.

Your skin is covered with a very fine layer of dead cells, oil & sweat.
The combination of this skin, oil and sweat is called The Acid Mantle.
The Acid Mantle’s first job is to be a physical barrier between your skin & the outside world. So bacteria & air pollution can’t physically touch your skin directly.
The Acid Mantle’s second job is to be a chemical barrier between your skin & things that would love to come and live in your skin or in your body. So bacteria, viruses, fungi – all are killed off by the acidic nature of this layer.

When we wax, we literally rip that layer off. It’s unavoidable! We are using something sticky that adheres to your skin & hair, then we take it off, and the dead skin, hair, oil and sweat comes away with it.

Does that mean you shouldn’t wax? No way!
It just means you need to do a few things until the Acid Mantle returns, which takes about 24 hours.

What this means for the skin
First of all, you’re open to infection while the Acid Mantle is down. So you need to supplement it with our recommended post-wax anti-bacterial lotion.

Secondly, ingrown hairs are now much more likely.
Because without the acid mantle, your skin thinks ‘We don’t have an acid mantle. Damn! That was our defence system, our first line of immunity! Okay we need a plan. Here’s what we will do. Let’s send in a lot of BLOOD to that area, because blood carries other immune factors and also healing agents and nutrients to repair the damage.’

Why does this cause problems?
Because more blood means more nutrition.
More nutrition means more new cell growth.
More new cell growth today, means more dead cells ending up on the surface in a few weeks.
THIS is how you get ingrown hairs.

Not a lack of exfoliation. Not breakage of hairs. But this entire cycle of increasing the turnover rate of your skin.

What to do about it
But more importantly this fake acid mantle stops the cycle of inflammation & eventual ingrown hairs. You will use far less exfoliant or ingrown hair serum if you follow the Acid Mantle Rules.

1. For 24 hours after your wax, pretend you are sunburned. So avoid hot showers, hot baths, saunas, warm pools, float tanks. Don’t layer any more heat into the area.

2. For 24 hours after your wax, avoid anywhere rich in bacteria. That means you don’t share towels, you use a clean one. You don’t go swimming, in a sauna or spa bath.

3. Wash your skin daily.

4. We recommend the use of Tend Skin anti ingrown hair solution. This has aspirin in it and helps any ingrown hairs to come to the surface if they are there. It also has alcohol to help clean the skin. Apply of an evening.

5. After 1 week, exfoliate using either a mitt or a gentle body scrub.

If you have problems after waxing, please call us.
We are experts in the treatments we perform & are always happy to hear from you with any feedback, questions or concerns.