Put Down the Razor! Bikini Wax Touch-Ups Actually Work

Just because I get bikini waxes doesn't mean I'm always bikini ready. After all, I'm a hairy woman (my latest battle involved lasering off my mustache), and although I get bikini waxes every four weeks, I recently had a scheduling conflict. I had to wear a bikini, it had only been two weeks since my last wax, and things were looking pretty rough.

A good wax should last three to six weeks, but at less than three weeks, the hair tends to be too short to remove. So what's a girl to do between waxes? Some might be tempted to turn to a razor for a quick fix, but Noemi Grupenmager, CEO and founder of Uni K Wax Centers, says shaving will just make your next wax more difficult. "Shaving or tweezing reverses the positive effects of waxing," she says. "Shaving strengthens hair, yet waxing reduces hair strength and hair will grow back weaker, lighter, and more sparse." (By the way, Noemi can also answer many other embarrassing bikini questions.) Instead, she recommends a "touch-up" wax.

I was skeptical, so I took my two-week hair growth to Uni K for a touch-up wax, and to my great surprise, it actually worked. For the touch-up, the waxer only took hair off the sides and the top, not all areas usually covered by a Brazilian. Sure, some of the shorter hairs didn't come off with the hard wax, but the longer ones — in the more visible areas — did. Although the results didn't look as clean as they would had I waited the usual four weeks, I feel more confident about my bikini line.