With beauty salons charging as much as $30 for a bikini wax it’s tempting to skip the appointment and opt for a do it yourself home treatment.
But, as Mumsnet user whatabloodyidiot discovered, there is a reason that we pay professionals to handle our most intimate grooming requirements.
Posting a plea of help in the popular parenting forum, the desperate mum asked “[Am I being unreasonable] to ask for your help with my bikini line?” before describing her unfortunate circumstances.
“I have waxed my own bikini line with the dire-est of consequences,” she begins.
“The top bit has come away beautifully but the wax has stuck firmly to both sides, I’m assuming at this point the wax cooled down, hence now it is stuck fast, red, and very very angry.”
The desperate mum then says that she has never had syphilis, but imagines that this is what it looks like.
“All visions of myself slinking around the pool on holiday next week have dissolved entirely, unlike this wax,” she writes.
Begging other mumsnet users for advice, she then lists the things that she has already tried, including; scrubbing it with a face washer, soaking it with hot water and rubbing it with an exfoliating cloth.
“Short of sanding it off I’m losing hope.
“The box says ‘excess wax will wash away with warm soapy water’ THIS IS NOT TRUE!” she adds.
It’s not the first time that home beauty treatments have gone wrong.
Sophie* also had a disastrous experience with a home waxing kit.
“I left wax on too long and I didn’t hold my skin tight like you’re supposed to,” she told The Weekly Online.
“I had such severe bruising to my ‘lady garden’ I couldn’t walk properly for days.”
The bruising was so severe that Sophie couldn’t attend the spa day that she had planned.
Sarah had a disastrous experience when she tried to wax her own armpits.
“I ended up with an armpit full of blood blisters. It was like a scene from a bad horror movie.” She says.
Of course, it’s not just home waxes that have caused pain.
Kerri * told us that she burned “a very intimate” part of her body while using hair removal cream.
“It really smarted,” she says.
But the best, worst home treatment story comes from an anonymous Australian male.
“I was at my girlfriend’s house and when I went to the bathroom I saw an epilator. People have always made fun of me for being so hairy, so I decided to give myself a trim.
“I turned it in and applied it straight to my public hair. Unfortunately the epilator couldn’t cope with the sheer amount of hair and got caught up. It was very painful.
In the end the man had to use nail scissors to cut himself free. But the worst was yet to come.
“It turned out that the epilator belonged to my girlfriend’s mother,” he confesses.
“She discovered it burnt out and full of pubic hair in her bathroom cupboard.”
“Needless to say, I wasn’t very popular.”
Considering all of these cautionary tales, $30 for a visit to the beauty salon doesn’t seem so steep after all.
- surnames have been withheld