On occasion when people get waxed, they get small infections where theyโ€˜ve been waxed and often wonder Why did I get that infection? Is that infection coming from the wax that they used at the salon? Well it's true that sometimes infections do occur, but I can assure you that it's not from the wax or the vat of wax or what some people call double dipping into the wax where they use a spatula then go back into the wax where people are concerned that maybe they introduced a germ into the wax, it doesn't work that way. You see, the wax is anhydrous- that means it doesn't have any water in it and if it doesn't have any water in it, germs can't live in the wax. So how do infections occur? Well let me show you what happens when you wax. This skin diagram shows the surface of the skin and a hair and the hair goes all the way down into the bottom of the follicle and when you wax you pull this whole hair out. And in doing that, if this is the hair, it gets literally, violently ripped right out of the skin and when it does that there's a little bit of damage to the lining of the skin inside. Well, even if they prep you with alcohol on the surface before they wax you to sterilize the surface of the skin, there are still germs, normal germs, that live in the lining of the hair follicle and as a result of stripping the hair out and causing a little damage here you allow those germs to actually get into the body and that's what causes the infection. So, while it's unusual for it to get infections after waxing it does occasionally happen. It's not because of the technique of the person doing the waxing but it really has to do with the germs that normally live in your skin and unfortunately there's no way to sterilize that canal to sterilize those germs that are deep down in the hair follicle.