Overshare alert.

This post is about hair removal.

Still with me? Perhaps, like me, you have ancestry from the hair belt (stretching from Italy across Greece and Turkey, through the Middle East and India and up through the “Stans”). Which means you may have visited a waxer or spent insane sums on laser hair removal or resigned yourself to shaving every day. If you’re thinking that you do not hail from the hair belt and still have done all that, don’t forget about the Ottomans and the Romans. Of course, people of all lineages deal with body hair. The hair belt's just extra lucky.

I know not everyone needs or wants to remove their hair, and I salute all of those people. I, however, am neurotic about hair. I grew up with a unibrow, which my mom started plucking in 3rd grade. About two decades of eyebrow anguish and some truly terrible plucking/waxing later, and I now actually draw in eyebrow bald spots when I put on makeup. The irony. And the overshare :).

My eyebrows are the only place to have lost hair as I’ve gotten older. Oh wait, and my head, because life is fair like that. But for my other facial hair, still growing strong (ha!), I visit a waxer, and I shave my legs and underarms.

Waxing’s not supposed to be that great for your skin, and the experience can range from merely painful to downright embarrassing, but hey, a girl who’s interested in hair removal’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.

Then this winter, I had a pretty bad post-wax experience. I broke out so badly I swear my zits had zits. I’m a little gun shy to return to the old waxer after that, and I also just wanted to see if there was a way to do things on my own.

I’d heard about sugaring from some friends, and I was looking online at Amazon for sugaring kits, when I saw a helpful reviewer’s advice: All that’s in here is sugar, water and lemon juice. You can make it yourself.

So I did.

Y’all. I don’t proselytize about much: yoga, banana magic (I’ll post about that soon), and now sugaring. It is not pain free, but it is so close I didn’t believe it. It isn’t mess free, but sugar, unlike wax, is water soluble, so you just rinse it all away. It isn't actually free, but it is darn close. And the benefits of not having to visit someone else? I don’t think I have to lay those out. I mean, there's a time and a place for the salon, but sometimes you want to pour some wine, watch some Witches of East End and remove your own darn hair.

I followed this really great tutorial among dozens on the Interweb, so if you’re interested in more detail, I recommend it. Here’s what you need, and my process.

2 cups sugar (I used white, but any sugar other than powdered will work)

1/4 cup lemon juice (strain out any seeds and pulp)

1/4 cup water

1. Make the "wax." (It's not wax - it's caramel. But for ease of use, and because it acts like wax, we'll call it wax). In a heavy-bottomed sauce pan or pot, bring the mixture to a boil. Then lower the heat and let simmer for at least 25 minutes, or until the mixture is a quite dark brown.

2. Cool. Store in a lidded container. If you’re going to sugar right away, be very, very sure it has cooled to a tolerable temperature before you use it, and stir very well before using.

3. Heat. If you’ve waited, when you’re ready to wax, heat the wax in the microwave. I scooped out the amount I needed and put it in a small bowl. It’s very sticky and a little hard once completely cooled (you can see the spoon standing right up in it in the top photo). Microwave on short increments, especially if you’re only using a little wax. If you’re just doing your lip, for example, 8-10 seconds might do it. If you’re doing your legs, you can microwave more, for longer increments – start at 30 seconds, then stir, then continue until the wax is soft and spreadable. It should still look like what it is: caramel. Thick and gooey. Delicious.

I cannot stress this enough: Make sure it is not too hot. If it’s really thin, it’s too hot. If you spot even a hint of a bubble; IT’S TOO HOT. The pain-free thing does not apply if you burn yourself.

4. Prep. If you’d like, use cornstarch to dust the waxing area first. This can help with removing the wax and prevent pain. I find it’s pretty pain-free even without the cornstarch, but for sensitive areas, it’s worth it to dust first.

5. Wax On. Use a popsicle stick to apply the wax. I apply the wax with the direction of the hair growth, and then remove it by pulling away from the direction of the hair growth.

6. Wax Off. Using any kind of fabric or waxing strips (you can buy them on Amazon or at any beauty supply store, but I just pulled a 100% cotton shirt out of my donation pile and cut it into strips of varying sizes), apply to the still warm wax, and pull – again away from the direction of the hair growth.

7. Marvel. Stare in morbid fascination at all the hair that’s stuck in the wax. Wonder at the incredibly small amount of pain you’ve suffered.

8. Repeat. Unlike actual wax, you can go over an area more than once, but it will start to feel sensitive and sting after a bit, so don't go too crazy. Twice is the most I'll go over an area. 

I found sugaring perfect for removing facial hair. I did not attempt on my eyebrows -- I'm still perfecting my technique, and the existing bald spots are traumatic enough. The legs were a bit tougher, but I’m not a normal leg waxer, so that’s to be expected. It still did a heckuva job.

On the pain-in-the-bum (not actual pain) scale, this rates as not very high. Really. I actually put it off after I made the wax, assuming it was going to be a mess, but it really, really wasn’t. So if you’ve got some sugar and need something to do one night, try your hand at sugaring.

Good luck and thanks for stopping by!