I Waxed My Bikini Area For the First Time — and Surprisingly, I Didn't Do a Terrible Job

I started off by making sure my skin was clean and free of anything that would make it hard for the wax to stick, like lotions and creams. Then I applied baby powder to the area, an important step that — I learned the hard way once before — if you don't do, the wax will stick to your skin and make the removal process even more painful.

After that, I applied the wax and removed it in small sections, in the opposite direction of hair growth, to make it easier on myself. It wasn't as painful as I was expecting it to be, and for the most part, I was able to remove all of the hair in the area without having to give it a second pass. The hardest part was honestly trying to contort my body into all kinds of different positions so that I could apply the wax thoroughly without making a mess all over my bathroom.

I'll admit that, when I go see my aesthetician, the process usually takes fewer than 20 minutes, mostly because she works in much larger sections than I did, but this ended up taking me close to an hour altogether.

Once I decided that I was finished, I made sure my skin was wax-free and then followed up with some baby oil and an ingrown hair serum.

Happy as I am that this didn't end terribly, the jury's still out on whether or not I'll try waxing myself again. The thought of it still makes me a little nervous, so for now, I'll just admire how smooth my skin is and cross that bridge when I get to it.