WAX Hair Removal Bar is not your mother’s spa! “There are no crystal chandeliers, you’re not going to get served champagne, and there are no trickling water fountains to be found. And for heaven’s sake, don’t expect you’re going to get sweet nothings whispered in your ear. It is what it is!” the owner, Luba Sasowski, explained to us. WAX Hair Removal Bar specializes in waxing and they pride themselves on a great wax at an affordable price in a short period of time. The Waxperts (wax technicians) refer to it as: “Quick, easy, and virtually painless.” What is a WAX Bar? It’s the brainchild of Luba Sasowski, a Canadian entrepreneur who opened the first WAX Bar in North America in Vancouver in 2008. It was so successful that Luba decided to come to Las Vegas and tend to everyone’s hair removal needs. Having years of experience being waxed herself, she knew there had to be a better method of coping with today’s busy lifestyle and the desire to maintain a well-groomed, sexy appearance. Her goal was to make everything simplified—from the menu to the no-frills treatments. The menu reads very clearly: your choice of area to be waxed and the price. There aren’t fancy French words that describe an hour session. It’s plain as plain can be. Brow Shape, Leg, Derriere, Bikini, Between the Cheeks (BTC), and of course, the intimate Brazilian (totally nude down there for women) and Boyzilian (for men). “We can do the whole body or just very specific parts, and that sets us apart from other salons. We’re very à la carte. If they just want their hands and fingers done, we’re not going to charge them for a full arm.” WAX Bar also offers anal bleaching, or Ass You Like It. Other exclusive treatments include tinting of pubic hair, Bikini area facials, the Ultimate Chest and Back Treatment (that takes care of blackheads and acne), Bling Your Thing (where Swarovski Crystals adorn you down there after your wax). Clients are made to feel comfortable no matter what personal area of their body is being tended to. SLV was given a tour of WAX Bar, and owner, Luba, shared some tips on waxing.
SLV: Tell me about your concept of the “Wax Bar”.
LUBA: I got really tired of paying super-high prices for maintenance service. The economy was crashing, and people had to cut things out of their budget, and one of them was waxing. When you go in for a wax, after say 8 weeks as opposed to 4 weeks, the technician has too much work for her, because it’s a mess. You’re also in pain as a customer, because you’ve now let it grow beyond that point. I thought there had to be a place where you can offer all these services for a price where people can come on a regular basis and both parties win. The Waxpert wins and the client wins. Anywhere you wax, you can get a leg or bikini, but I thought: ‘What about all those other areas that grow hair? What’s the issue? People don’t want to think it’s wrong or dirty to get other areas waxed.’ When I opened up WAX, I made sure there was no shy factor. That’s what we live by. We talk about anal bleaching like we talk about the weather. If someone wants to get their legs waxed, we always ask if they want to get their feet and toes done. If they want a basic bikini, we ask if they also want between the cheeks. It’s almost like the McDonald’s of supersize, so we preach this: “No shy factor!” If we’re able to talk about it, then the customers are going to feel very comfortable and that it’s normal.
SLV: Who are your customers?
LUBA: Our customers are from 10 years old to 80 years old. We have mothers bringing in their daughters for an upper lip or center brow, because they’re getting picked on at school. Sometimes it’s for a basic bikini wax, because they have swim class. We have a huge age range. We also have about 40 percent men as customers.
SLV: I’d assume, here in Vegas, you’d have a lot of dancers and performers come in, because of their skimpy costumes and everyone is hairless.
LUBA: Absolutely! We have every profession including doctors, lawyers, entertainers, housewives and anyone you could think of for customers.
SLV: Are most of your male clients entertainers?
LUBA: I’m going to say no. I find the men that come in are the business professionals, married with 2.5 children. They come in their Hugo Boss suits and feel very comfortable.
SLV: Women have been going for services for years, but isn’t this something new for men to be so into it?
LUBA: If you look around the shop, I wanted to keep it very gender neutral. We’ve kept it a little bit masculine and we’ve kept the menu simple, so it’s like, what you read is what you get: between the cheeks, half leg, half derriere. I found that men were either intimidated to go in places because it was sparkling, glittery and pink, or they didn’t know what the hell was on the menu. We keep it straight and simple and that’s probably why we attract so many men. We have flat screen TVs in all the rooms. They can watch sports and they can watch movies. There’s nothing chichi about it.
SLV: You’re finding that just normal men come in asking for the Boyzilian?
LUBA: Absolutely. 100 percent! We’re in a generation now where men are taking care of themselves whether it’s skincare, facials, their clothes; it’s very metro or ubersexual. We do have a lot of men whose wives are saying: “I’ve been doing this for 15 years, it’s your turn. There’s finally a place in town…it’s your turn.” It’s funny, they’ll come in on a dare or something, and then they’ll become a regular client and more regular than their spouse.
SLV: Do you call it a Brazilian when you leave a heart or a strip of hair?
LUBA: It’s a Brazilian when we remove everything from front to back. You can leave a strip or a design or a triangle. If you remove the hair from the labia, then it’s a Brazilian.
SLV: Do men want something left when you do the Boyzilian?
LUBA: Yes. We tint pubic hair. Sometimes they leave a strip and sometimes they want a design. Sometimes they ask for their girlfriend’s or partner’s initials in crystals, because we do the crystals, as well. They are fully involved in everything that women are doing. They called “Blinging” “bejazzling” for the longest time. We changed the name to Bling Your Thing, because men were coming in having it done. So it was no longer bejazzle, instead: Bling Your Thing.
SLV: Which of your treatments are the most popular?
LUBA: The top three for sure are Brazilians, Boyzilians and Anal Bleaching.
SLV: What bikini shaping is the most popular?
LUBA: It depends. Stars are popular. A lot of people come in during wedding season and do a dollar sign and dye it blue for “something borrowed, something blue”. It’s usually a joke between the Waxpert and the client who says: “My soon-to-be husband spent a hell of a lot of money on this wedding, so I’m going to do a little $ down there and dye it blue.” We have had that time and time again.
SLV: When you start doing the waxing on a regular basis, I heard that the hair grows back in finer and less and less. So when you get the dollar sign, when can you change it to a heart?
LUBA: In about 4-6 weeks.
SLV: In that time, there’s enough hair to do something different?
LUBA: Absolutely. If someone has been getting Brazilians for a number of years, the hair becomes so fine, so sparse, so light in color that sometimes it’s hard to get that shape. People who have been shaving for a long time, or just started waxing or who haven’t waxed everything off the top part of the bikini line, will have better success with the actual shaping because there’s more hair to work with.
SLV: Does the thinning and lightness from waxing apply to areas all over the entire body?
LUBA: You bet. We have clients in Vancouver that come in once every 6 months because they’ve been waxing from a young age. Waxing will actually kill the hair follicle in time, so the hair will stop growing completely. If I ever have children, I will never allow them to shave. I will put them right into a waxing regime right from the beginning. With shaving, the hair will become darker, coarser and you’ll get more of it. Plus, to the touch it’s not that nice.
SLV: Doesn’t that happen during the 4-6 weeks between waxing?
LUBA: Not at all, because the hair is being ripped from the root and the hair is coming in much finer and lighter. All the results you’re getting from shaving are completely the opposite from waxing. There are no rash bumps. We have a bikini facial for ingrown hairs. I put it on the menu, because we had seen these little red bumps and people trying to pinch and poke at them. What my girls were seeing were people coming in with scars down there, because people were picking so badly. I thought, ‘We have facials for our face for extractions and cleanliness, so why not a bikini facial for people who are having those problems?’ Then you have a professional working on that area who can get full access to it. You’re not hunched over, bending over and adding bacteria. We created the bikini facial specifically for those red bumps and the ingrown hairs. We have our own shower gel and body lotion. So what we put on the customer after waxing, we sell at retail as well. It’s our own brand, completely natural with no paraffin, no alcohol, or anything that’s going to flare anything up. It’s Tea Tree and lemon, so it’s very soothing and antibacterial. All the products we use, even the anal bleach, are natural.
SLV: Does your South Beach Skin Solution really make waxing 50 percent less painful?
LUBA: Yes, it’s a skin prep that you can put on before you go in for a wax. You can put it anywhere: on the upper lip, chin, legs, bikini, and it takes that sting away by 50 percent. I will not have my legs waxed without using it. It’s absolutely incredible!
SLV: Alright, let’s talk about the pain.
LUBA: The parts that you think are going to hurt the most probably won’t. The scrotum area on men you’d think would hurt, but not so much, and between the cheeks, nothing. The pain comes more when it’s closer to the bone, so the front part of the leg you might feel more. We have clients that come in for a 2-3 hour service, head to toe full body.
SLV: Has anyone walked out from pain during a treatment?
LUBA: No. My girls pride themselves that they’ll work with a customer and talk them through it. They’ll make sure the customer comes in, gets the service done, and is satisfied. I’ve spent a lot of time in training the girls, and making sure we have the right people. We have great compliments all the time with people saying that it was the least amount of pain that they thought they would ever go through. The most painful part, to be completely honest with you, is sitting in the waiting room and waiting for your name to be called. It’s all in your head! It’s the unknown. They’re in the room with the TV to distract them; they’ve got great Waxperts that talk them through everything and make them feel comfortable. When they’re done, the comment our Waxperts hear most frequently is: “Is that it? Are we done?”
SLV: Are you getting clients that have been to other waxing salons?
LUBA: Yes. We do a lot of redos and treat people that have had horrendous experiences from wherever else they were going.
SLV: You advocate no hot tubs, no workouts, and no sexual activity for 24 hours after waxing?
LUBA: That’s right. You have open follicles, so as soon as you start to sweat, the bacteria get in there and you’re going to have a reaction.
SLV: Who are your customers that come in for anal bleaching?
LUBA: Anyone. I thought it would be more of the performers, but it is absolutely everyone – a lot of different ethnicities, because their skin is darker all over, and they tend to be much darker in the intimate areas and they want it to blend. It is every single walk of life that comes in for that. Husbands and wives come in together. Women who’ve had children, because when you go through hormonal changes you can discolor in the intimate areas. People say all the time to me: “Who looks down there? Who wants to have it done?” When your #1 and #2 services are Brazilians and Boyzilians, and you’re removing all the hair from front to back, the skin becomes much more apparent to the naked eye. It’s the same reason that we as women wear lipstick and blush: for a youthful, healthier pinker look that the opposite sex is more attracted to. Same thing goes for down there.
SLV: Tell me about your Waxperts.
LUBA: Everyone is licensed that works here. Then I have a Waxpert who is my trainer, and she does all of the education and hands-on training with everyone. There are weeks and weeks of back-to-back waxing.
SLV: How much can a Waxpert expect to make?
LUBA: They get a salary plus tips up to $200 a day. It’s a good paying job.
SLV: Has waxing been around longer in Canada and Europe than the U.S.?
LUBA: Absolutely. I used to live in Europe and I found there was a difference between North America and Europe: mothers will teach their daughters to treat their skin whether its hair or acne. A mother will take them to an esthetician to treat it. In North America, a mother will take their daughter to the drug store and teach her how to hide it. We load on the makeup to try to conceal problem areas. It’s very common in Europe for a 10 year-old to start getting facials. They’re teaching them to take care of their skin. We’re more about skin solutions here at WAX. Are we a little more European here, possibly? We believe in fixing the problem, rather than hiding it.
SLV: Is the “Zap Zits Gone” treatment just what it says it is?
LUBA: Zap Zits Gone. It’s a high frequency machine that’s used on the skin to help kill the surface bacteria. If you have acne or a pimple that comes out, due to stress or whatever, you can come in and it will actually take it away before it reaches the surface of the skin.
SLV: Briefly describe your skincare line.
LUBA: We use Éminence products made in Hungary. Spa professionals have voted them the #1 skin care line for 10 years in a row. The 5-star resorts use them here in Vegas.
SLV: Tell me about your teeth-whitening treatment and is it safe?
LUBA: It is made by a dentist. It is not harmful to the teeth and is exactly the same product you’d find in a dental office. We do it with a cold laser, which is the new advanced way of doing teeth whitening. It takes about 15-20 minutes. You can see up to eight shades lighter in one sitting. We also have the teeth-whitening pen from Canada. It is incredible! If anyone suffers from sensitivity from whitening, this is only left on the teeth for 60 seconds, and then you rinse with cold water and you’re done. Just keep it in your purse, and if you’re a coffee drinker, smoker, or red wine drinker, go to the bathroom, put it on and rinse and you’re done. It’s 35 percent peroxide, so it’s very, very high in peroxide, but leaving it on for only 60 seconds, the sensitivity doesn’t kick in.
SLV: What’s so special about the wax you use that you bring from Canada?
LUBA: The way it’s applied to the skin, the way it’s removed from the skin, and the condition of the skin after, speaks volumes. Should we be charging more? Probably, but I’m a huge believer in affordable prices so people can come back on a regular basis. I compare maintenance to an oil change. You can take it to the drive-thru and it’s $40 bucks, or you can take it to the Mercedes dealer and they are going to charge you 10 times more, just because they can.
SLV: What made you decide to start this business?
LUBA: I was in the corporate world for a long time. I was a national cosmetic buyer for skin care, cosmetics, fragrances and sunscreen for all of Canada (400 stores). I started at the bottom and worked my way to the top – regional manager and then a national manager. I guess I just didn’t fit the corporate mold. I was told my ideas were too outside of the box and that I was always pushing the envelope. I just didn’t fit in, but I loved to work, so I thought, ‘What the hell am I going to do?’ I went to Hawaii and I thought about the dream I once had about doing this as a business. I did the numbers, and thought I could do this. I knew from my past experiences that I could create a fun, safe work environment. So, I opened my store in Vancouver, Canada. I have a girl that started with me from the very first day, and she’s still with me, up there. I thought that if I kept it small and family-like, people would want to come here and the workers would love coming to work. We’re very tongue-in-cheek, and when I left corporate and started my own business, I had wacky T-shirts made. The first one was: “I used to work for assholes, now I just bleach them!” (laughter) If they thought I was pushing the envelope then, just look at me now!
SLV: How should we show up for a waxing procedure?
LUBA: Try to avoid tight jeans, pantyhose, and lacy underwear. The biggest thing is to just breathe. We have no shy factor here. We don’t discriminate and we welcome all walks of life. We have customers who are transsexuals and we don’t have an issue with any of that. What you see is what you get. You’ll get a great wax, in a great timeframe, and at an affordable price. Simple, affordable and speedy! Just breathe; it’s not as bad as you think. That’s the biggest piece of advice. SLV

WAX Hair Removal Bar 9809 W. Flamingo Rd. Ste. E5 Las Vegas, NV 89147
Tues-Fri 10-8 & Sat-Sun 10-6 • 702-221-4WAX • WaxLasVegas.com

Issue 66 featuring: Eufrat, Jade Bryce & Jessamyne