Today we want to bring attention to one of our pet peeves at Mooeys Professional, which is double-dipping during a wax treatment!
Claire Barnes (Author of the British Aestheticians Guide to Waxing the Twigs and Berries) says (quite to the point):
“I wouldn’t like to think I was having an eyebrow wax with wax that had earlier been in contact with some guy’s scrotum.”
Well, quite!
And I think most waxing clients would agree with her. (It’s important to mention at this point that it’s not the scrotum part per se that is the issue here, it could be any part of the body, male or female, but she paints the picture quite well).
But there is more than the thought alone as to why we – as waxing specialists – don’t double-dip our spatulas when we wax.
The Horrors Below
I’ve been down to the bottom of many a wax pot in my time, years ago when all therapists (including myself) used to double-dip in gay abandon, and you can only imagine what little surprises that are left in the dregs of the pot after lots of client/spatula contact. Stray hairs mostly, short or long, from any part of the body, even the most intimate. And that’s just what you can see! Blood, sweat, dead skin, harmful bacteria, vaginal discharge, and even poo, the wax will come into contact with them all, and sit quite happily in a lovely warm cocoon of wax waiting to be spread all over your next client.
It takes me back to my days when I was training in college. We used a double wax pot for the hot wax, where one side was a heater and one side was a strainer. We’d use the wax from the heater side, on a big spatula that looked like a cricket bat, and then put the used wax in the strainer side which was like a sieve. It would strain all of the hair out of the wax to be reheated and reused…but also in the ‘clean’ wax was all of the sweat, bacteria, dead skin and anything else that could be picked up along the way.
Yum.
This method is no longer used and hasn’t been for the best part of 30 years in favour of disposable wax, disposable spatulas and disposable wax strips for warm wax. But people always recoil in horror when I tell them this is how we used to wax.
The Gory Details
Think about what happens when you apply the wax to the skin. The clean spatula is dipped in the wax, applied to the client’s skin, and then rested back on the wax pot while the strip is pulled off. At this point you may have some bacteria on the spatula, sweat, and a few dead skin cells for good measure. The used wax strip is disposed of nicely, and then it’s back to the spatula for the next dunk. The “double-dip”.
Enter into the wax the bacteria, dry skin and sweat from the spatula.
So now the skin is nice and warm, and possibly a little bit more sweaty, and you have the added bonus of maybe some bleeding coming from the follicles of the now hair-free area (if it is strong hair like underarm hair for instance). The double-dipped spatula is applied to the skin near the original strip, and if the spatula comes into contact with the sweat, bacteria and even the bleeding follicles, then that (including the blood) will all go back into the pot!
Do this a few times, and by the time you have waxed a leg, vulva, underarm or even eyebrow you’ll have a lovely concoction of nastiness in your wax pot, all ready to be used for your next client! Hooray! Not.
Still fancying that waxing treatment now? In essence, if you double-dip your spatula, your wax pot is no different to the sieved wax I used to use at college.
Formula for Disaster
Double-Dipping = bacteria (and god knows what else) laden wax on your skin = possible skin infection = unhappy client = possible lawsuit = non-returning business = tarnished reputation for your salon.
All for the cost of a few disposable wooden spatulas.
I know from learning not to double-dip the spatula myself, and also from student feedback as a trainer, that this is a hard habit to adopt and you feel that you are literally throwing money away, let alone spatulas. But once you get to grips with why you are using a clean spatula every time, and not putting nasties back into your wax pot, it will be a habit that you simply can’t afford not to adhere to.
By Glam-Ma Moo xx
If you’re looking for a refresher in using hot wax and perfecting best practises for your business, then check out our 1-day Hot Wax Master course or our 1-day Refreshed Master course.
Sources: Why you should say no to double-dipping April 19, 2017 (Beauty Image) Waxing Hygiene – Double-Dipping February 07,2020 (Wedmore Beauty Lounge)