Waxing Technicians: What They Do & How To Become One

Waxing is considered a part of esthetics, so you will need to go to a waxing technician school or esthetician school to get the training. In some areas, you can do hair removal training online.

It is a great profession for those who are outgoing, detail-oriented and have good sanitation and safety habits. In most states, you can get certification without an esthetician’s license. Even products are regulated. Anyway, the training is not too long, and you can get to work quickly!

What Do They Do?

Well, it is all about hair removal. To be more specific, it is about hair removal using wax. As you probably know there are many ways to remove hair: electrolysis, honey and sugar, tweezers, threading, and so on. Waxing is one of the quickest, least expensive, and easiest methods. So, a technician using wax isn’t necessarily limited to the one method, but if they wish to use other methods to remove hair they will also need to do the training associated with those particular procedures.

Being a good waxer doesn’t mean just being good at ripping hair out by its roots! Here are a few other traits that masters of the craft have:

  1. good communication skills both with clients and with coworkers
  2. personal hygiene and professional appearance as expected in a profession with close contact to customers
  3. positive and professional attitude to put clients at ease
  4. safety procedures and sanitation to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, bacteria and so on
  5. continuing education to keep up-to-date on any new skills and techniques

You’ll need to be able to put clients at ease as the waxing process puts you in very close contact with very personal areas of the body. It can also be painful and take a little while to recover from, so advice on post-waxing care is important.

Waxing Certificates Classes Near You

Nobody wants to travel hundreds of miles to find a decent course and get a license. One of the easiest ways to locate a school in your area is by using an app like the one below.

With the current Covid-19 situation some esthetician schools are now offering classes online.

Waxing Courses To Get A Certificate

In many states, you need to get certified to work as a wax technician. For example, in New York, you need to take a 75-hour course. After the course a written exam is taken — no practical exam is required. Actually there aren’t really any places that you would call waxing technician schools. They are more likely to be called skin care schools, or esthetics institutes.

Other states stipulate that you must be a licensed esthetician to do hair removal whether it is using wax, electrolysis, or another method.

If you want to know what you need to do in your state to get licensed, check with your board of cosmetology.

In Canada training varies from province to province with some areas requiring no official license. For instance, in Saskatchewan https://www.prairiebeauty.com/academy has a course that can be completed over a weekend.

A typical course will include the following:

  • sanitary practices for both your and your client’s safety
  • recognizing skin problems and ingrown hairs — sometimes you cannot wax someone if they have certain conditions
  • skin anatomyclient interaction skills and care
  • waxing products and equipment
  • hair removal and skills specific to different areas of the body: eyebrows, chin, legs, bikini, etc.
  • specifics on waxing malesbusiness skills
  • laws and regulations — if there are any

Is It For You?

If you are good with people and like to help them feel beautiful then waxing is a good intro to the beauty business. You can see if you like it and then possibly go on to learn more about esthetics or cosmetology. Waxing courses are usually pretty short too, so you can find employment with less training than a full beauty program.

History of Waxing

Not everyone finds history interesting that’s why we are adding this section last. Most people just want to get on with learning how to do it and applying the techniques! Nothing wrong with that!

The first we know of women or men doing waxing for hair removal was in Egypt not long before Jesus Christ was born. Cleopatra even waxed or sugared her head hair; that’s right her scalp. We can probably assume that is was done before then as well.

Waxing was probably done by many people since then, and until the 1960s when it started to really gain in popularity. That’s when laser hair removal began as well. Since then the clean hairless look has been quite popular. Nowadays you can get kits to do it yourself though professionals usually do a better and quicker job. Get a little more info here: http://www.florawax.com/the-history-of-waxing