Waxing for Tanned Skin

Waxing is perhaps one of the most commonly used methods to remove hair from different body parts. These typically include the arms, legs and underarms. Waxing allows the removal of all unwanted hair from the body in just a single session. The hair is removed from the root, leaving the skin feeling soft and smooth.

If you’ve just come back from a beach holiday and have acquired a nice and dark tan, waxing might slowly help you get rid of it. Waxing tanned skin has the benefit of lightening the skin at least to a certain degree, if done regularly.

Lightening your tan with waxing
The skin gets tanned when an excessive amount of melanin is secreted in your skin’s uppermost layer. The skin works to regulate melanin secretion to protect itself from sunlight. But an extended exposure to the harmful rays of the sun leads to the skin secreting a greater amount of melanin and the deposition of this melanin in your skin leads to darkening. This is essentially how you get tanned.

With waxing, the amount of hair growing on the surface of the skin gets reduced. In the absence of this hair, the skin will automatically tend to appear lighter in colour.

In addition to this, when the beautician peels off the wax strip, the dead cells accumulated in the skin’s outermost layer are also removed. This reveals the fresh skin underneath. Since this new layer of skin has not yet been exposed to the sun, it will be devoid of excess melanin deposits. This makes it seem that waxing helps to lighten tanned skin.

But it is important to know that waxing tanned skin could lead to irritation and peeling. Those who like getting spray tanned or prefer using sunless tanners should remember that waxing would end up removing the tan as it also eliminates a layer of the dead cells on your skin. As such, it is best to schedule your waxing appointment before you get yourself tanned.

Use gentle wax for tanned skin
Today waxing salons use different kinds of wax to suit each skin type. If you’re tanned, it is a good idea to opt for a gentler wax such as a chocolate or aloe vera wax, which is especially formulated for sensitive skin. Chocolate wax usually contains dark chocolate or cocoa beans and is rich in antioxidants. This was offers anti-ageing benefits to the skin as well.

Chocolate wax is said to smoothen and soften the skin and also boost the cell renewal mechanism owing to its unique antioxidant properties. Besides this, cocoa beans have been known to have anti-inflammatory properties as well. This means that chocolate waxing will help minimise pain, redness and inflammation. This type of wax could be ideal for use on tanned skin.

Similarly, aloe vera wax also has benefits for sensitive or tanned skin. It is made using natural ingredients such as strawberry or aloe vera and helps in moisturising, soothing and healing the skin. It also has anti-inflammatory properties.