Sugar wax, sugaring or Persian waxing, whatever you want to call it there is a old, tried and true way to wax, naturally. Many beauty regimens do more harm than good as many products contain harsh chemicals including toxins, hormone disruptors and even pesticides! That’s why we have scouted out an ancient Arabic beauty regimen that does not threaten your body or your bank account for that matter. See below to learn how to make your own sugar wax used to remove unwanted hair.
It’s an attractive recipe. According to Habiba’s Diary of the Middle Eastern countries, this all-natural sugar wax is most popular in Egypt and Lebanon. eHow presents efficient instructions on how to proceed with the depilatory “cooking.”
Ingredients:
Sugar, white or brown (1 cup)
Water (2 Tbsp)
Lemon juice (1.5 Tbsp)
Salt, optional (1 tsp)
Combine these above natural ingredients in a saucepan and simmer on low heat. Allow the mixture to thicken and turn golden-brown. (Just like freshly baked cookies you know it’s good when it’s golden-brown.)
Stir the mixture with a spoon, making sure the sugar crystals dissolve. Within roughly eight minutes, it will thicken considerably and take on a syrupy consistency. Be careful not to let it burn.
Watch as the mixture turns a darker brown, turn off the heat, and let the forming wax cool for a couple of minutes.
And voilà (as this is also called Parisian waxing), there you have your wax. Apply where desired and pull in the opposite direction of hair growth. The wax is totally reusable so stick the leftover portion in plastic and put it in the fridge. 10 seconds in the microwave will be enough when you want to use it later.
As an Arabic student, I was familiar with Maha’s videos before I came across this one.
In it she sets aside the Arabic language books and instead gives a full demonstration on how to make this sugar wax. The effervescence of the wax mixture as it congeals in the saucepan does not quite match up to her personality however. She opens with the disclaimer, “I’m not going to show you.” Lively Arabic music plays throughout the demonstration. Take a look:
The sweetness of this sugar wax cannot be denied: it’s sticky, like toffee, and the color of caramel. It’s also effective, cheap, and non-harmful. So try it at home. I know I will!
Image of sugar wax, Shutterstock
Okay so I saw this on pintrest and was super excited because I have really thick hair and so even right after I shave I can still see my hair follicle. anyways, it did not work at all. I went according to the instructions and it did not remove my hair. What did I do wrong???
This looks so easy! I have been wanting to try this for a long time. I tried today to make this wax twice and I just don’t seem to get it right. Mine doesn’t turn light like yours and it keeps being sticky and melting into my fingers no matter how much I try to water my fingers and keep them cool. It must be the marble that is the magic here since that is the only thing I don’t have at home. xD Lol maybe third time is the charm for me?
Uh, what’s “threading?” I’m from the Pacific Northwest, where the men are men, and the women are too. As a 50yo woman, my jeans rub off the leg hair, no one ever sees my armpits, but the mustache is driving me nuts.
Waxing is far better than threading as it get your job done in less time than threading.
really, i can’t believe that this article is here. sugar is an environmentally devastating crop even if only because it’s the world’s largest. add in beets grown for sugar, and corn, rice, and barley grown for syrups, and the scale of the problem becomes almost unimaginable. that’s what we grow in order to satisfy our addictions to sweets.
now you suggest using it to remove hair?! that’s just as sustainable as encouraging readers to massage their skin with pieces of raw meat in order to make it smoother. (not that raw meat does that…) but meat is always held up as the big environmental problem and we hear nothing of sugar.
threading requires no water, no energy for cooking or storing, no wasting of food, in fact, no preparation! a much better choice all around.
In a perfect world there will be no cruelty to animals, no injustice to land and no body hair on women. Lucky for me I am a blond and don’t need to thread or wax.
It’s a little extreme to ask people to cut all sugar out of their diet. I for one am not willing to do that, but I do buy organic sugar when I can.
I’m all for the ‘save the environment’ crap, but seriously? You may want to bend yourself into a pretzel to thread your private bits, but I don’t. Nor do I feel like spending hours threading my legs.
In fact, the only things that threading are really feasible for are eyebrows and upper lip. Maybe you have extra hands to thread your underarms, but I don’t. Or maybe you just like to go around hairy, I don’t know.
Well said.
I lol’d.
Your response “Waste of Food” is a bit extreme but thank you..it is thought provoking.
OMG you have to be kidding ME… you thread? Dear God, thread used in threading is made of cotton. Which as you know is a crop, like your sugar rant. Then, omg it’s shipped to large factories (after being bailed and wrapped in either heavy amounts of plastic or paper to hold said bail together) by LARGE trucks that pollute the ozone. Next that cotton is cleaned, using that water you said it doesn’t require. Next it’s spun in huge energy wasteful factories that also emit pollution. The thread is either spun around some kind of plastic holder (or wood holders…the trees!), sometimes even packaged in a plastic type of bag. You do know what plastic does to the environment right? LOL get off your high horse silly. All hair removal outlets do SOMETHING at some point, just because you do not directly see it, don’t forget it’s process. So jump off that high horse and go hairy if you really give a shit.