With the stress of day-to-do life coupled with the never-ending pressure of today’s society to lose as much body hair as possible, not to mention the uncomfortable sensations some people have with their own body hair, many people are turning to a hair removal technique known as sugaring. By dissolving sugar in the right formula, it can be synthesized into either a paste or a gel which can be used to aid the removal of unwanted body hair. This article will go more in depth into this sugar technique by analyzing how it works, the pros, the cons, and how much money you can save by doing this all at home.

Paste
With the paste method of sugaring hair removal, the skin is cleaned and lathered with soaps and lotions to moisten the area that hair is going to be removed. Next, the paste is rubbed precisely in the opposite direction of hair growth and then applied in the direction of hair growth. This way, the sugar mixture completely surrounds the individual hair follicles to make hair removal more thorough and precise. After the mixture sits and dries, it is then flicked off in the direction of hair growth. The paste method is considered the more traditional of the two sugaring methods.

Gel
The gel method of sugaring is more like waxing. The sugar gel is applied in the direction of hair growth and then is wripped off using one of those waxing wrip-strips in the opposite direction.

Pros
Sugaring hair removal is extremely fast and can easily be performed at home. With traditional waxing methods, a strip must be applied to one small area at a time and then moved to another small area. This is not the case with the sugaring method. By applying the sugar solution in either the paste or gel form (but particularly the paste), large portions of hair may easily be removed at once.

The sugaring hair removal method is easy to clean up as both the gel and paste are soluble in water. Regular wax is very sticky and is extremely hard to wash off while the sugar method is just that – sugar. Most importantly, it won’t stain your clothes or even stick to it. Regular wax is hard to get off of your skin but nearly impossible to get out of clothes. With sugar, it just washes out by rubbing a little water on it. You wouldn’t even have to wash it at all.

The great thing about sugaring hair removal is the fact that all it comprises of is (usually) just sugar, water, and lemon juice. Because of these easy-to-find ingredients, you can make the paste or gel right at home with food items that you find in your pantry. This means that you don’t have to worry about weird chemicals that some manufacturing company put in your chemical peel and it also means that you don’t have to pay those outrageous prices that those same companies charge you out the butt for in order to put those same nasty chemicals into your body.

Another good thing about the sugaring hair removal method is that you can keep reapplying over the same areas in case you’ve missed a few hairs. With standard waxing methods, repeated wripping could cause irritation and even skin damage whereas the sugar paste method doesn’t require wripping at all. Even if you were to use the sugar gel method instead, the skin would not be as irritated as regular waxing because the sugar mixture isn’t as sticky as normal wax.

Finally, the biggest pro is that extensive use of the sugaring hair removal method could lead to reduced hair growth and possibly permanent hair loss altogether. If you keep applying the sugar mixture onto a specific area regularly (as in every 6 weeks for, say, 5 years), then the hair will grow less and less and eventually will stop growing completely. If that’s not a turn on for hair loss, I don’t know what is.

Cons
A big con for the sugaring hair removal method is that it’s really hard to find a professional (the type you’d find in spas and salons) that works with the real sugar method. A lot of places advertise that they do the sugaring method but their wax is mostly just a big bowl of chemicals with sugar added into it. That’s not really good for your skin, now is it? My best suggestion would be to just get together with some friends and make a nice night of yanking your hairs out. The mixture can easily be made from recipes found online that give you exact instructions on how to make it.

Speaking of making your own mixture at home, that brings us to my next point. A con for the sugaring method is that sometimes you need to get the mixture just right or it won’t hold the hairs in place like it’s supposed to. Doing it wrong could lead to redness, itching, and other mild-but-annoying side effects. Just look around and compare recipes. Don’t just go with the first one you read. If you see a few that say basically the same thing then go with that one. I’m sure there’s a support group out there somewhere.

A mild con for the sugaring hair removal method is that you do need to grow your hair out a little bit considering you’ll be pulling them out. With chemical hair removal, the chemicals seep into the skin and damage the hair follicles that way, whereas the sugaring method just forms a barrier around the hairs and yanks them out along with the mixture when you take it off. While still a con, the sugaring method is much safer and more comfortable on your skin than those chemical biohazards.

Hopefully this little how-to on the sugaring hair removal method has given you something to think about. Just be safe when dealing with this kind of stuff. The whole idea of removing hair is to make yourself look and feel better so screwing around and doing something stupid that could harm your skin is definitely not goal-oriented. Just keep that in mind. Have fun, look your best, and don’t overdo it.