Guest Article: Home Made All Natural Body Hair Wax Recipe and Tutorial

This is for adults obviously :) I was happy to receive a guest post offer of this nature because us women especially are always looking for a safer and more natural way to rid some of those pesky hairs! I will be trying this for sure, if anyone else does too please let me know how it pans out.

Lose hair the Turkish Way

When thinking about hair care, one normally thinks about methods to keep hair looking good and healthy.  However, as important as it is for hair on your head to look good, many women are equally concerned with not having hair on other parts of their body.

Below is a short Istanbul guide to traditional and natural hair removal wax that can be done at home. 

Waxing has been practiced and mastered in the Middle East and Turkey for thousands of years. Women make their own ağda (sugaring paste) at home with a sugar and lemon mixture known abroad as sugaring. The traditional home-made wax is even edible. Back in the day, women would offer some of this paste to their kids as candy to distract and entertain them while they were busy epilating. It’s quite similar to padişah macunu (Sultan’s paste) both in taste and texture, which is a very traditional form of candy that can be found in spice shops.

The ingredients to make sugaring paste are sugar, lemon, and water, although the particular formulas vary as some choose to use white sugar instead of natural and some prefer to add lemon salt instead of lemon juice. Here is what you’ll need:

• 2 cups of sugar
• ¼ cups of lemon juice
• ¼ cups of water

Put the ingredients in a bowl, and slowly bring to a boil over low heat, stirring continuously. The mixture will take a liquid form, and once it starts bubbling up, remove from the heat and let it cool for a few minutes. It’s imperative that you wait for the liquid to cool properly or you’ll burn yourself. Then, pour the golden-colored mixture on a wet surface. Make sure that the surface is made of marble or stone so that the mixture doesn’t stick. Here is the more difficult bit: you need to work the mixture in your hands until it becomes easy to smooth on the skin (this may require a few practice runs for the novice). After the paste reaches the right consistency, either apply the paste on the desired area with your hands (it should not stick to your hands) or store in a microwaveable container for later use (you’ll need to reheat the paste to a lukewarm temperature for future application). 

Spread the paste on your skin (either with a spatula or your hands) in the direction of hair growth and rip it off (with your hands or using strips of cotton cloth) in the opposite direction. Do this quickly with the flick of a wrist for minimal pain.

The procedure may sound a bit complicated and time-consuming, but sugaring is known to be less painful than waxing as the paste doesn’t stick to the skin, so it would be worth your time and effort.

Go beyond what you think of as Istanbul tourism (and hair care) by trying out sugaring. 

Author: Talya Arditi is editor at the Guide Istanbul - a sharp, sophisticated, and trustworthy filter to Istanbul Tourism, offering comprehensive listings of restaurants, bars, hotels, and more