After waxing, don't take hot showers, use saunas, sunbathe, wear tight clothes, or exercise heavily for 24-48 hours, as open pores are vulnerable to irritation, bacteria, and infection; also avoid touching, scratching, and harsh fragranced products to keep skin calm and prevent ingrowns. The key is to let your skin breathe, stay cool, and use gentle, fragrance-free moisturizers to aid healing.
Using abrasive products on your skin in the 24-48 hours after a wax service can cause irritation. The process of waxing actually exfoliates your skin, so you should be good for a few days! Try not to use face and body cosmetics like self-tanners and tinted moisturizures for 24 hours following your wax service.
The "5 S's" after waxing are common recommendations to avoid for 24-48 hours to prevent irritation and infection: Sun, Sweating, Swimming, Saunas (or heat), and Sex (or friction/tight clothing), with "Synthetics" sometimes replacing Swimming. These activities can open pores, introduce bacteria, or cause friction on newly sensitive skin, leading to redness, bumps, or ingrown hairs, so it's best to let skin heal with loose clothing and calm activities.
The "waxing 48-hour rule" means avoiding irritants like sun, sweat, friction, and harsh products for 48 hours after waxing because your pores are open, making skin sensitive to bacteria, UV, and irritation, which helps prevent redness, bumps, and ingrown hairs, allowing skin to calm and heal. This involves skipping hot baths, heavy workouts, tight clothes, and direct sun, while gently moisturizing and starting light exfoliation after this period to maintain smoothness.
After waxing, soothe your skin with aloe vera or a gentle moisturizer. Avoid hot showers, tight clothes, and sun exposure for 24-48 hours. Exfoliate gently a few days later to prevent ingrown hairs. Avoid touching the area to minimize irritation or infection risks.
Skincare professionals advise waiting at least 24 hours before taking a hot shower. This timeline gives your pores enough time to close up and your skin to recover from any irritation. If you must shower before the 24-hour mark, a lukewarm or cool shower is your best bet.
Waxing too short of hair is a very common mistake. To achieve amazing hair removal results on the International Day of Waxing, you'll want to grow out your hair. We strictly advise a 'two-week rule. You do have to wait for at least two weeks before waxing, especially if you previously shaved that area.
5 Signs Your Brazilian Wax Went Wrong
Waxing is often better for pubic hair removal as it results in less razor bumps and lasts longer than shaving or using hair removal cream.
However, waxing doesn't just remove hair from the follicle—it also removes a layer of dead skin. Now, while your pores don't technically open or close, they are left somewhat expanded for the first 24 hours after waxing, making them more vulnerable to ingrown hairs (ouch) and breakouts (no thank you).
After waxing, it's essential to keep the area clean and moisturised. Use a gentle, fragrance-free moisturiser to soothe your skin. Avoid harsh chemicals and exfoliating for at least 48 hours. Keep your skin cool and protected from direct sun exposure.
Regular exfoliation will help prevent ingrown hairs, using a non-oil-based moisturizer and keeping your hands away from your waxed skin will help prevent ingrown hairs. It also hinders breakouts or pimples, which can also happen after a hair removal treatment.
What you're seeing is likely a bit of folliculitis (the medical term for inflammation of the hair follicles). It can show up as small pimples, red bumps, or a rash on your body, and while it's a common side effect of waxing, it's also totally manageable.
After-wax care also includes clothing, so make sure to wear loose items immediately after your treatment. If you've just had a bikini or Brazilian wax, wear a fresh pair of comfortable undies to avoid sweat and friction, which might increase the risk of irritation or infection.
Do Not Immediately Apply Oily or Drying Skin Products. This includes body butters, body washes that are heavily perfumed or colored, sprays, lotions, and deodorants. Vaseline and oily products can obstruct pores and cause bumps on freshly waxed, sensitive skin.
"If they're freshly trimmed, their pubic hair could potentially hurt your freshly waxed skin," warns Shays. "It's going to get irritated. If it's oral sex and they have a beard, that could irritate, too. My recommendation is to always wait 24 hours, but again, it's different for everyone.
Negative side effects of waxing can include uncomfortable problems like pain, ingrown hairs, breakouts, and infected hair follicles. Even so, many people prefer waxing because of its longer-lasting results and because it is relatively inexpensive and easy to do.
The answer is: it depends. For some men, shaving is the ideal solution—quick, easy, and painless. For others, waxing men's facial hair and body hair provides the clean, long-lasting results they crave.
Trimming is the safest option because it shortens your pubic hair without cutting close to the skin, which can lead to injury or infection. You can use scissors or a trimming tool marketed for use on pubic hair, or even tools made for trimming beards.
No, most gynecologists don't recommend Brazilian waxes because removing pubic hair strips away its natural protective barrier, increasing risks of irritation, ingrown hairs, folliculitis, and potential infections, though it's a personal choice, with trimming often cited as a safer alternative for hygiene and skin health. While some doctors find it a case-by-case issue, they often suggest options like trimming or laser hair removal over waxing for better vulvar skin health, as pubic hair isn't inherently unclean.
Waxing can be a good option for hair removal but unfortunately, it can cause skin damage, ingrown hair, skin burns, allergic reactions, sensitivity to sun, and even infections on your skin. On top of all these, the worst thing you might face after waxing is breakouts and acne.
Repeatedly pulling out hairs from their roots can weaken or damage the follicles over time. Some people may experience reduced regrowth after years of consistent waxing because their follicles become less capable of producing new hairs.
The "5 S's" in waxing refers to key aftercare rules for the first 24-48 hours: avoid Sun, Sweat, Saunas, Sex, and tight Synthetic clothing, as well as hot water, to prevent irritation, redness, bumps, and infection in the newly exposed hair follicles. Keeping the area clean, dry, and free from friction and heat allows skin to calm, pores to close, and reduces ingrown hairs for smoother, longer-lasting results.
You should wait at least 24 hours (and ideally 48 hours) after waxing to avoid irritation, infection, and ingrown hairs by skipping hot showers, exercise, sun exposure, tight clothes, exfoliation, and pools/saunas, because your skin's pores are open and the outer protective layer is removed, making it sensitive to bacteria and friction. Opt for loose cotton clothing and lukewarm showers if necessary, gently patting dry and moisturizing with soothing products like aloe vera.
TL;DR: Brazilian Wax Aftercare Tips
For the first 24 hours, avoid heat, sweat, tight clothes, sex, and sun. After 48–72 hours, use three essentials: a gentle physical exfoliator, an ingrown serum, and a hydrating ingrown oil.