Sugaring, sugar waxing or Persian waxing is a method of hair removal

Hair removal

Hair removal is the removal of body hair, and describes the methods used to achieve that result.Hair typically grows all over the human body during and after puberty. Men tend to have more body hair than women. Both men and women tend to have hair on the head, eyebrows, eyelashes, armpits, pubic...

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It has been in use since 1900 BC.

Sugaring can be less painful than waxing, because the substrate sticks to the hair without attaching to the skin, may be applied at room temperature or heated to a lukewarm

Lukewarm

Lukewarm or The Lukewarm may refer to:*Lukewarm , a fictional character from the BBC series Porridge*""2 + 2 = 5" , or "The Lukewarm", a song by Radiohead from their album Hail to the Thief...

 temperature, preventing burning. Nevertheless, there is some risk of skin irritation, sensitivity, and reaction.

Sugaring paste

Sugaring paste can be prepared with common household food items, such as water, sugar

Sugar

Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...

 and lemon

Lemon

The lemon is both a small evergreen tree native to Asia, and the tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit. The fruit is used for culinary and non-culinary purposes throughout the world – primarily for its juice, though the pulp and rind are also used, mainly in cooking and baking...

 juice, and cornstarch

Cornstarch

Corn starch, cornstarch, cornflour or maize starch is the starch of the corn grain obtained from the endosperm of the corn kernel.-History:...

, honey

Honey

Honey is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees is the one most commonly referred to and is the type of honey collected by beekeepers and consumed by humans...

 or molasses

Molasses

Molasses is a viscous by-product of the processing of sugar cane, grapes or sugar beets into sugar. The word molasses comes from the Portuguese word melaço, which ultimately comes from mel, the Latin word for "honey". The quality of molasses depends on the maturity of the sugar cane or sugar beet,...

. Getting the consistency correct takes some practice for most users. Pre-made sugar paste is also sold under many brand names, and both professional and retail versions are available. It may contain guar gum

Guar gum

Guar gum, also called guaran, is a galactomannan. It is primarily the ground endosperm of guar beans. The guar seeds are dehusked, milled and screened to obtain the guar gum. It is typically produced as a free-flowing, pale, off-white-colored, coarse to fine ground powder.-Production:Guar gum is an...

 in addition to the other ingredients. Since the sugar solution is water-based and water-soluble, sugaring is easily cleaned up with warm water.

The Studio Smooth website states that sugaring is preferable to waxing, because the former has no resins, except for guar

Guar

The guar/guwar/guvar bean or cluster bean is an annual legume and the source of guar gum. It grows best under conditions with frequent rainfall, but tolerates arid conditions well. About 80% of world production occurs in India, but, due to strong demand, the plant is being introduced into new areas...

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Standard recipe

The most common recipe for sugaring wax is as follows (units by volume):

• 1 unit of sugar
• 1/8 unit of vinegar, or lemon/lime/orange juice (either fresh or from a bottle, not from concentrate)
• 1/8 unit of water

The ingredients are heated and mixed until they are completely liquid, after this the liquid changes from seemingly white to a light, gold-like color (while being heated). The solution is not allowed to become too dark. Darkness and hardness are controlled by the heating to specific temperatures. For a thick paste, the solution is heated to 118°C; for a gel, it is heated to 121°C.

When completed, the solution is left to cool to room temperature.

Process

In sugaring, either a "heated sugar mixture" can be covered with a strip of fabric, or spread directly on the skin.

With the strip method, the area to be epilated is typically dusted with powder (commercial or corn starch) prior to application of the sugaring solution, which is spread on with a spatula

Spatula

The term spatula is used to refer to various small implements with a broad, flat, flexible blade used to mix, spread and lift materials including foods, drugs, plaster and paints...

, tongue depressor

Tongue depressor

A tongue depressor is a device used in medical practice to depress the tongue to allow for examination of the mouth and throat. The most common modern tongue depressors have thin wooden blade, smoothed and rounded at both ends, but historically tongue depressors have been made of a variety of...

, or by hand. After the sticky paste is applied to the skin in the same direction of hair growth, a strip of porous cloth or paper is pressed into the preparation, and "lifted" or "zipped off" in the opposite direction of hair growth, taking hairs with it.