Great thread. I noticed a couple of people mentioned "sugaring" instead of waxing. I do this, and it has changed my life! Ok, maybe a slight exaggeration ;) but I would absolutely recommend it for hair removal! I have been waxing for half my life - I used to get it professionally done, then I moved to "veet" (tried Nads and other brands as well) which seemed to get more useless every time I used it but cheaper than going to a beautician.....
Then I discover sugaring - it is seriously cheap to make (2 cups sugar, 1/4 cup lemon juice, 1/4 cup water) and seriously quick and easy to make (especially if you have a candy thermometer). It is also a lot more gentle on your skin - It definitely takes away the dead skin but doesn't rip off healthy skin the way normal waxing seems to. My skin has been a lot less dry and in better condition since I started sugaring. I use it on my lower legs (don't need to wax my thighs), under arms and bikini line.
A few other benefits - it doesn't seem to hurt as much as regular waxing (although not pain free), and apparently it only pulls the hairs out NOT your skin.... My legs actually haven't looked so smooth in years. As it is water soluble, it wipes off very easily - no more stuff getting stuck to you after you have finished ;). I also seem to get way less ingrown hairs than waxing...
Anyway, here is the recipe I used, I also include the links I looked at to get some more background info:
Used this recipe and directions:http://tipnut.com/body-sugaring/Some notes:-This also works with grapefruit juice (I ran out of lemons once)
-For the cotton strips, I cut up an old bed sheet - you can customise the sizes. I found smaller pieces worked better for the bikini line
I found it useful to:-Lay out a towel to sit on and protect the floor from the mixture (it's quite sticky)
-Have a damp hand-towel with me to clean my hands and the knife I used to spread the mixture on my legs. This stopped everything getting too sticky as I went along (as the mixture is water soluble it easily wiped off - unlike wax!)
-The recipes seem to conflict on which way you should spread the wax and cotton strips and pull them off. The method I use is to spread the wax in the OPPOSITE direction of the hair growth, smooth the strips on in the OPPOSITE direction of hair growth as well. To pull the strips off I would pull them in the SAME DIRECTION as the hair growth. This worked perfectly, and apparently is part of the reason for less pain, less redness and less red bumps
Some other links that I found useful:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugaring_%28epilation%29This is a video that seems to show the original way to do it, but I didn't have the slab of marble to cool it down ;) - and the metal kitchen bench didn't work for me :):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoS1uuddqcM&feature=relatedAlso here is another video tutorial with the recipe I used, good as you can see the colour it should be etc...:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v-p8pW07iE