Get sugared

Aesthetician Tammie Anderson is the owner of New Beginnings Skin Care and Massage in Carson City. She specializes in body sugaring, and sorry, that’s not as kinky as it may sound. Find her at 343 Fairview Drive, Suite 205, (775) 721-7540, or online at newbeginningsskincare.com.

What the heck is body sugaring?

Body sugaring is an ancient Egyptian method of hair removal using sugar paste instead of wax. It’s completely natural. All it is, is sugar, lemon juice and water. You have to be certified in order to do sugaring. It’s a three-day training. It’s molded on the skin in the opposite direction of hair growth, and then I flick—I’ll start over so you don’t get confused. I mold it onto the skin, and as I’m molding it … it melts right into the hair follicle. Wax can’t do that. Then with a flick of the wrist, I remove the sugar paste, and the hair is lifted gently out of the hair follicle by the root. It’s a lot less painful than waxing and it’s healthier for the skin because it only sticks to the hair, not the skin. So it doesn’t rip the skin like wax does or leave you red and irritated like wax does.

And no chemicals involved?

It’s completely chemical free. The difference between sugar and wax is wax harbors a lot of bacteria. A lot of salons are double dipping. With sugar, I use the same bottle of sugar to do the whole service, and then I throw it away. I don’t ever double dip back in.

Have you ever done waxing?

When I first became an aesthetician I waxed, and I didn’t like how it left my clients’ skin. When I heard about body sugaring, right away it’s something I thought I’d like to do, a more natural alternative to skin care. … The other thing is it can lead to permanency. If you’re wanting to decrease your hair growth—a lot of women don’t like hair on their face or bikini line or have to shave their legs. Hair only needs to be one-sixteenth inch above the skin line to do body sugaring; with wax it has to be one-quarter inch, so you have to wait longer to get waxed again. It’s usually four to six weeks between appointments. But each time you get sugared, it leads to permanency over time because you’re able to extract the hair at a much earlier stage of growth.

What does a treatment cost?

$15-$20 for eyebrows, $25-$45 for bikini line, $65 for Brazilians and $35 for half legs. Full legs are $60. It’s pretty much the same price as waxing, very comparable.

So, what else? It’s safer for the skin, more sanitary because no double dipping, it can lead to permanency, it’s less painful, you get less ingrown hair because there’s less breakage. …You’ll understand it a lot more when I refer you to my website and my blog: www.newbeginningsskincare.com, and there’s a link to my blog right on my website.

Tell me more about your background.

I’ve been an aesthetician since 2002. I graduated from St. Paul Community College in St. Paul, Minn., in aesthetics and massage therapy. I moved here and started my business in 2003, and named it New Beginnings Skin Care and Massage. I’m both an aesthetician and massage therapist, and I’m an aesthetician instructor.

Minnesota to Carson City—that’s quite a move.

That’s part of my new beginning.

Is body sugaring your specialty?

I’m a skin spa, and I do all the services myself, but I guess body sugaring would be my specialty, although I do lots of different types of massage—hot stone massage , pregnancy massage, relaxation and deep tissue—and I do facials and microderm abrasion. … But yes, body sugaring is my specialty. No one’s going to drive here to get a facial or massage, because you have that in Reno, but I have quite a few clients who come here from Reno to get sugared.

“Get sugared,” huh?

My tag line was “Get Sugared: It’s a sweet choice for hair removal.” You can write that.