My Experience with Homemade Sugar Waxing

I have read many recipes for making sugar wax, or halawa, an alternative to synthetic waxes used to remove hair. It sounded awesome - a few simple ingredients could create something to leave my legs smooth and hair free! What could be better? So, I decided to try it.

The recipe for the wax called for sugar, water, and lemon juice. These ingredients are combined and then reduced on the stove until it creates a thick, sticky substance, similar to caramel. Because of its simple ingredients and ease of making, many people prefer this method, as normal wax is expensive and hard to clean. I, however, had many problems in making the sugar wax.

First, the recipe told me to slowly heat the concoction. I went slow, all right ... after two hours, the mixture was still as runny as water! I finally threw caution to the wind and turned my stove up on medium-high, much hotter than the 'low' setting the recipe called for. Almost instantly, I saw a difference and figured FINALLY I would be able to get the results I wanted!

After about 15 minutes, the color was golden brown, as the recipe indicated, and the mix was thick and sticky. I allowed it to cool by spreading it out on cellophane. After it was cool enough, I tried it out. This is where the real trouble started!

As I tried the wax, I realized spreading it on too thin just left a big, sticky mess on my legs because it heated up too much and no longer stuck together. So, I decided I would need to keep the wax in a ball to allow it to do its job. This worked out for a while, until one pull stuck to my leg so much that it left a bruise! This was terribly painful, more than normal waxes that I had received before, when it was supposed to be less painful. The website I read even said that the wax was safe to use on your face! I was shocked and decided that would be the last thing I would be doing with this painful wax.

Trying to avoid getting more stickiness on me, I constantly had to tear new balls of wax off of the larger pieces. None of these lasted very long, however, and I soon had such a big, sticky mess that I gave up all together. Though I had gotten small parts of my legs clear of hair, the rest wasn't anywhere near worth it.

The only positive thing I can say about this method is that cleanup is much easier than regular waxing. With regular waxing, water will normally do nothing to remove excess wax and you may be stuck with stickiness all over you if you aren't thoroughly pulling all of it off. The sugar wax, as it is made with water soluble materials, easily comes off with hot water. However, since I had such a bad experience with the rest of the process, I won't be trying homemade sugar waxing again!