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BANG FOR THE BITE

If 10,000 hairy leg-loathing Biters turn off their showers while shaving each day, in a year we'll save enough water to fill 22 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

COCKTAIL FACT

Soon after Mariah Carey became a spokesperson for Gillette's "Legs of a Goddess" campaign, she insured her legs for $1 billion.

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home › tip library › Natural Remedies for Razor Burn

Got a hot date but razor-burned legs?

The Bite

Get sweeter legs by sugaring - it lasts longer than shaving - and forgoes the razor waste and creepy chems found in some waxes.

The Benefits

Less landfill. 2 billion disposable razors end up in landfills each year.
Less water waste. Sugaring doesn't require any water, and you don't need creams.
Shave some time off your daily routine. Like waxing, sugaring can last nearly 2 months and really gets to the root of your hair problem.
Gentler than waxing. Sugars tend to stick to hair, not skin, and they don't have to be heated to high temps like wax.
Petroleum-free. Many conventional waxes contain mineral oil, a byproduct of gasoline distillation.
Sugaring exfoliates your skin, leading to a more even tan (but be sure to use self-tanner instead of exposing yourself to cancer-causing UV rays).
Legs so sweet your date will want to lick 'em.

Personally Speaking

Heather loves Parissa's sugar products and takes hers into the local salon. (Although a bit masochistic, she surprisingly doesn't like to do the actual ripping-out herself). Jen's been sharpening her razors for years to make them last longer... but confesses to stealing boyfriend's when she needs a SUPER close shave.

Wanna Try?

Parissa Body Sugar - new to using sugars? Try this stuff, great for sensitive skin ($10).
Moom Hair Removal Kit - smells good and comes with reusable strips that'll last for a few years ($20).
Moujan 2000 Cold & Hot Wax - made from sucrose, water and plant extracts ($10).
Desert Essence Kinder To Skin Tea Tree Oil- after sugaring or waxing, use a light moisturizer ($6).
Preserve Razor - if you're shaving, try razors made from recycled yogurt cups. Oh, and turn off the faucet while you're at it ($5).
Razor Saver - save 3/4 of your razors using this razor-sharpening system ($12).
Ancient Egyptian Art of Body Sugaring - an at-home recipe that works every time.

Nov 20,2006

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All editorial suggestions in this tip are the result of testing and a preference for the tip topic. No advertiser has paid to have its company referenced in the tip. For more information, please read our Editorial Policy.

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The Greening of the Criminal Underbelly

OK, so I'm supposed to talk about sugaring/waxing today. But let's be honest - I don't have a lot to say that wasn't already said in the tip. I like getting sugared/waxed, instead of shaving. Finito.

Instead, I want to talk about how apparently pervasive this whole green movement really is. All signs point to the idea that it's taking the world by storm... In fact, it's even changing the urban criminal underbelly.

Case in point: someone broke into my car on Friday night. (Now, you need to bear with me a bit on that "broke in" thing... I never actually LOCK my car, since there isn't much to steal, so in the end, I guess they just kind of opened the door and spent a little time inside).

But regardless of whether or not they were actually committing a crime for hanging out in my car, they definitely committed one when they stole some things inside her.

Specifically, they took my B.Happy shopping bags (which I keep in the car to use when I go to the grocery store) and my Biter SIGG bottle.

Now, if the B.Happy bags and SIGG bottle were the only things stolen, I wouldn't assume that this thief had ANYTHING to do with a green lifestyle. But here's the thing: this apparently eco-friendly intruder passed up taking not only a non-organic baseball hat and a non-recycled-paper book and a non-eco car freshener, but also my old yoga mat. Now, if the yoga mat had been an eco-friendly rubber/jute mat, I would assume the whole incident was just random. However, this was my old, PVC-laden mat, so I'm inclined to think that the eco-thief wisely, wisely passed it (and it's offgassing ways) up.

So - Biters, take heart. Apparently even the criminal element of the world has taken heed and is reading their daily tips and taking them to heart...

-Heather... off to club my car...

Biter Comments...

Bummer about the "break-in". I'm never comfortable knowing a stranger has been in my space. On a different note, I did a "I don't need a bag" experiment in Delaware over the weekend. After I stopped into Barnes&Noble to buy VegNews magazine, I went into Best Buy, to buy the new Foo Fighters cd. Walked up to the counter, plopped my B&N bag down and when the salesgirl put the cd in a bag, I said, "Oh I don't need a bag thanks, I'll just throw the cd into my B&N bag" and she goes, "Oh - we'll I'll just throw the whole thing in the B&N bag..." and proceeded to put the cd into a Best Buy bag and then threw THAT into my B&N bag. ????????????

Posted by: the other JB | November 20, 2006 at 05:46 AM

My only concern on reading some of the links acaccompanying this tip, particularly the homemade sugar mixture (which will be of interst to a lot of Biters, I would imagine) is that there's an impression that one simply rips the hair out. This will be very painful. It's important to take the direction of the hair growth into consideration.

Posted by: Robin | November 20, 2006 at 07:19 AM

Ha. A similar thing happened to me at the grocery store last week. I brought my string bags, and, after I finished my instructional blurb, the girl asked if I wanted my stuff in the string bags, THEN in plastic bags.

Posted by: shanalulu | November 20, 2006 at 07:55 AM

Sugaring has been a tradition in my family for many decades. my great aunt grew up in egypt and everybody made it at home and they never used strips of cloth. the sugar acted as its own strip. she waxed my legs for the first time when i was about 12 and going on a month-long trip to egypt and israel--the hair didn't grow back for three months. not even a little bit. it takes some trial and error to get it right at home, but once you have the right consistency,you don't even need to use strips. you can test it out at different phases of the cooking process by dropping a little bit into a little cup of room temp water, waiting a couple of seconds, fishing it out and working it with your fingers then checking how how smoothly it will go on - on a small surface of skin.

Posted by: arousiak | November 20, 2006 at 08:00 AM

I bought the Moom sugar wax one time and loved the results but I thought it was expensive. The homemade recipe in the link is exactly what I do now. It's exactly the same as Moom except much cheaper. I'm not even that careful with the temperature and I don't use a candy thermometer and it comes out fine. I store it in my Moom jar in the refrigerator between uses and warm it up in the microwave for 20 seconds before using.

Posted by: Lauren | November 20, 2006 at 08:13 AM

Here's a radical idea. Free yourself of the societal expectation of women shaving their bodies and trying to preserve their prepubescent state and don't shave at all! It saves time and money and frees you from the shackles of vanity.

Posted by: Dena Condron | November 20, 2006 at 10:27 AM

I just wanted to say that if people are interested in waxing, why not mention epilators. To me it's kind of like the tip about the ipod and cds, why purchase sugaring kit after sugaring kit when all you have to do is buy the epilator and there you go, they last forever. Also they have come out with some really good ones recenetly, my personal favorite is Brauns new epilator; pulls out more hair with less strokes!!

Posted by: Christiane | November 20, 2006 at 11:25 AM

Somehow the words underbelly and waxing in the same tip both make sense and just shouldn't go together! Before my last trip, I had to "donate" my luggage to my little sister...so at the last minute when I bought another bag, the clerk actually tried to put my bag into a bigger plastic bag. But in my round trip through Arches (I definitely recommend hiking Arches...awesome stuff!), Moab, Durango, & Denver...most places gave me just the receipt with the stuff I bought. If only I could figure out how to avoid receipts, I'd be even closer to completely paperless. Sorry to hear about the unintended visitor and his/her crime against "green"-manity. ;)

Posted by: JS | November 20, 2006 at 12:18 PM

I have tried to do the no-shaving thing, but I can't handle how prickly my legs get! Once they start to turn back and stab me I've had it! Unshaved legs keep me from sleeping as they poke me all night long and snag on my sheets. However, I was wondering if anyone knows anything about laser-hair removal? It's a permanent solution, apparently, I was just wondering how safe and eco-friendly it is.

Posted by: AmberRaven | November 22, 2006 at 04:18 PM

I had a similiar experience with the "no, bag, thank you" thing this past weekend. I wasn't quick enough to speak up and the sales person had already plastic-bagged my stuff. When I stated I didn't need a bag, she took my items out and proceeded to throw the empty bag in the trash. AArrg! I learned a valuable lesson.

Posted by: Terri LU | July 17, 2007 at 09:05 AM

I realize we've gotten quite off the subject of sugaring and on to another very important topic of shopping bags :), but I have to admit that I am quite excited about this new hair removal method (well not new to you, but to me) and can't wait to try it. So my question is simple...do you have to wait for the hair to get a little longer than you would with shaving? With waxing, they suggest you wait 3 weeks for all the hair to grow our before ripping it out...does the same suggestion hold true for sugaring?

Posted by: Valerie | July 17, 2007 at 05:13 PM