The Blurb:
Wax in the City don’t operate a booking system. With a walk-in appointment system they guarantee you’ll be seen in 30 minutes, and if it’s busy and you don’t want to wait, you can always pop out, grab a coffee and come back in 20.
They only offer waxing, and as you’d expect have a fairly in-depth menu to choose from. They remove hair from all body parts and offer male waxing as well. Hailing from Germany, Wax in the City is huge in Europe, and has just opened its first UK branch in Chelsea.
The Process:
Once you’ve placed your order at the desk, you’re taken downstairs to a room divided into several generously sized cubicles, each with a table to lie on, space for your clothes and for the therapist to do their job.
I opted for my regular Hollywood, i.e. everything off. I’ve had some very good, quick, pain-free waxes, and some very slow, arduous, and painful waxes in my time. Wax in the City’s was halfway in the middle. They could have taken more hair off in one go and been done with the whole painful endeavour in a lot less time, and they could perhaps have had a sharper tugging action to remove the wax, but I’ve had far worse waxes, and the therapist was smiley and sweet.
The luminous fluorescent lights above the beds are very close to your face and do little to allay your nerves. Along with the heat of the wax, and the heat from the pain you can end up feeling rather frazzled, hot and bothered. Having said that, the décor is contemporary, the location fairly easy to reach and the space clean.
I think I’m spoilt in that I’ve found an amazing, totally unflashy, cheap, and painless waxer, so now no one measures up. Before I’d met Jenny-Lee (word of mouth has her doing half of Notting Hill), I would have considered Wax in the City one of the best. And to be fair, I do have a low pain threshold.
The Result:
Although I’ve had less painful waxes, thanks either to Wax in the City’s technique or to the lotion they apply, I had no ingrowing hairs even three weeks after. This is unusual.
Wax in the City’s real USP is the walk-in system. You could pop in on your lunch-break, or even book an extra half an hour out for a meeting and detour back to the office via smooth legs and a silky bikini line.
