How to Wax Legs At Home (Complete Guide)

There are a lot of very good reasons for wanting to know how to wax legs at home.

Waxing at home implies costs that come nowhere close to what waxing at a beauty salon costs. Saving a lot of money while still maintaining waxing as your preferred hair removal method is definitely a massive incentive for knowing how to wax legs at home.

Waxing offers a smooth skin for quite a considerable amount of time. So, if you’re tired with shaving or depilatory creams, you might want to attempt waxing your legs at home for the first time.

If this is your first with waxing, waxing your legs first before attempting to wax others parts of the body is definitely a good idea to test how this method fits your needs.

How to Wax Legs in 7 Steps

This is my guide on how to wax legs at home, it will be helpful whether you’re a beginner or if there is something that’s going wrong with your waxing sessions and you don’t know what that is or if you want to switch from going to a beauty salon to doing the hair removal at home.

Before going into what waxing entails, you must be aware that waxing your legs will not be a quick process.

It can even take a couple of hours in the beginning, take your time. So, choose a day when you’re not stressed or pressed for time.

Step 1: Preparation (Before Waxing Legs)

In order to prepare your legs for waxing, it would be wonderful if you could exfoliate the day before your hair removal session that will take place in the comfort of your home.

Take all the time you need, don’t rush things.

You can exfoliate by using a body scrub, you can even make your own scrub very easily, or by using exfoliating gloves or a body brush.

To find out more about that, you can check out my post how to exfoliate legs.

Exfoliation removes dead skin cells so the wax will stick properly to the hairs. But, more importantly, it prevents ingrown hairs.

Anyone can get ingrown hairs after hairs are being removed from the root and even after shaving so there’s no way to tell if you will be predisposed to getting ingrown hairs or not. It’s best to prevent them from the beginning.

It would be great if exfoliation would become part of your routine at least 2-3 times a week. You’ll love how silky your legs feel after.

Step 2: Hair Length for Waxing Legs

One of the first things you need to know when it comes to knowing how to wax legs is that there is an ideal hair length for waxing.

It means that the hairs need to be at least ¼ inches long up to ½ inches.

How do you translate that? Their length needs to be at least the length of a grain of rice.

For the legs, that means that you will have to wax once every 3-4 weeks. That’s the average time between sessions.

If you’re switching from shaving to waxing, you will need to let the hairs grow back for at least 10 days until it achieves the proper length so that the wax can grab it.

Coarse hairs need to be on the longer side in the beginning so, closer to ½ inches. You can apply a bit of wax and if the hairs are not pulled off then you need to let it grow a bit more.

Step 3: Apply Baby Powder (Not Mandatory)

Baby powder or talcum powder absorbs moisture. It means that the wax will stick to the hairs successfully, which might not happen if there is sweat involved.

But you only need this step if you’re sweating, which doesn’t happen that often, unless it’s summer and there’s no A/C in the house.

If your skin is perfectly dry, skip this step.

Before waxing, you can also use oil to absorb excess oil and moisture from the skin, while also protecting the skin. It might sound weird but check out the Gigi Pre Epilation Oil if you want to understand what I’m talking about. It’s quite cheap, too.

Step 4: Choose the Best Waxing Kit for Legs

There are a few options to choose from when it comes to waxing kits for legs:

Hard Wax (the best):

• this is the type of wax that works for all hair types
• sticks to the hairs and not the skin, which makes waxing a bit less painful
• there’s no need for muslin strips, you let the wax harden and pull it off directly with your fingers
• you only need a wax spatula – you can buy wood wax sticks in large quantities for a very low price
• and it works for all areas of the body and the face
• it’s pretty much the best option when it comes to waxing legs at home
• you can buy it in the form of wax beads, which can be melted on the stove or in the microwave so you can skip paying extra on a wax warmer (check out the Cirepil Blue Hard Wax Beads) or you can get a complete waxing kit with a warmer where you just have to replace the hard wax (check out the Brazilian Waxing Kit)

Cold Wax Strips:

• they are not that successful as hard wax, especially when it comes to legs hair, which for most of us is largely represented by coarse hairs
• they can work well if your hairs are already used to waxing and you’re just taking a break from salon waxing for a few months but you are well aware that you’re not exactly committed to learning how to wax legs at home for the long term
• they’re easy to use, not messy at all
• cold wax strips for body can be a great choice if you just want to see how waxing legs would work for you
• great for travels because you just have to throw a few strips into your bag and a wipe to remove the wax residues

Roll-on Wax:

• it’s a pretty expensive alternative to hard wax
• you can try it if you haven’t waxed before because the instructions are easy to follow
• but read the instructions properly and follow them exactly because some people might not have obtained the best results because they didn’t follow the instructions exactly
• I like it but it’s just too expensive from my point of view
• it’s used with muslin strips
• you will have to heat up the roll on in the microwave

Step 5: Apply the Hard Wax

Since hard wax is the best, I’ll talk about how to wax legs with hard wax.

Both the strips and the roll-on come with their instructions written on the package. You can read here how to use wax strips if you want to start off with cold wax strips for the legs & body first and see how it goes.

Now, this is how you use hard wax on legs:

• test the temperature of the wax first, you don’t want burns on your skin, it needs to be liquid not volcanic
• apply a rather thick strip of melted hard wax in the direction in which the hair is growing
• if you’re afraid of pain apply a smaller strip, if you are impatient and want to test your limits, apply a larger patch of wax and see how it goes – you can adjust the process as it goes
• and that’s it, you now wait a bit, a few seconds, for it to dry and harden a bit (it will still be quite soft)

Step 6: How to Pull the Wax Off (Essential Step for Waxing Legs)

 

The hard wax strip needs to always be pulled in the opposite direction of hair growth.

Lift the corner of the strip a bit so that you can hold it securely between your fingers.

Hold the skin taut (stretched) with your free hand.

Pull the wax very quickly, without any hesitation and close to the skin. The success of waxing your legs lies in how quickly and well you pull it off.

Apply a bit of pressure after pulling to minimize the sting.

If you’re using a good waxing kit for legs, the wax will remove most of the hairs first from the first try. Not all will be removed but a large percentage will.

If you’re using a good hard wax, it will only stick to the hairs and not the skin and it will reduce the pain that you should feel.

You will need to apply another wax strip on the same area and maybe not even after a second strip will all the hairs be removed. It depends from area to area, a 3th or 4th application might be necessary.

Step 7: Aftercare (What to Do & Not Do After Waxing Legs)

Remove the wax residues with baby oil or olive oil or whatever oil you want. If you don’t like feeling oily, take a quick shower with lukewarm water.

Dry the legs with careful pats and a soft towel.

Now it’s the time to sooth the skin.

You can use a nourishing body lotion, one for dry skin or sensitive skin will work perfectly. Or you can opt for a post-wax soothing cream.

Wear loose clothes to avoid friction and irritation.

It’s best to avoid being directly under the sun with your legs bare for the first couple of days. If you can’t avoid it, apply generous amounts of sunscreen.

And that’s pretty much a complete guide on how to wax legs at home and avoid spending large sums of money on salon waxing.