Moore Style - A New Perspective on Hair Removal with Salome Sallehy

Episode Date: May 22, 2023

When it comes to hair removal we are given a lot of options but all of them seem to be painful, expensive and harmful to our skin and the environment. In this week’s episode, I talk to Salome Sallehy, founder of Sugar Sugar Wax, an incredible product born out of her own necessity and passion to stop the pollution in the beauty industry.  Salome’s sugar wax is accessible, easy to use and has been getting traction with men as well. If you’re like me and you’re sick and tired of painful expensive treatments, this week’s episode will be a sigh of relief!  In this week’s episode, we discuss: [1:!5] About Salome Sallehy [2:53] How Salome got into the beauty industry [9:57] Salome’s sugar product  [16:08] Are men using this product?  [20:46] Can self-care and self grooming coexist?  [26:13] Using sugar wax as an intimacy practice with a partner  [31:07] How to sugar a small area like your brows [34:33] Salome’s favorite date    Connect with Salome:  Website Amazon

Hi, everyone. I'm your host, Celeste Moore, and you are listening to the Down and Dirty podcast, aka the Double D's of dating. This is a podcast for navigating the ins and outs of modern midlife dating. Here, we will discuss the challenges that men and women face in today's dating world. Like many industries, this one is forever changing, and I believe this platform will help those who need or want it. Today, it is the best time to take control of your desired outcome, whether it is a marriage, significant other, life partner, or just to gain the confidence in dating once again. Every other week, we will dive in and talk about different viewpoints that seem to be challenges in today's dating arena. So let's get into today's episode.

All right, everybody, I'd like to welcome you to another episode of the Down and Dirty Podcast. This is number 43. Before I dive into today's episode, though, I would love to introduce today's guest. Her name is Salome Salehi. She is a changemaker in the beauty industry. She founded Sugar Sugar Wax, a sustainable and holistic hair removal and body care company in 2020, determined to raise health and sustainability standards in the beauty and personal hair industry. Salome has quickly become recognized for her innovation and sustainable business practices. Not only are the products developed with human health at the epicenter of function, but every business decision is made measuring the product of ingredients

against environmental impact. And to make a real difference, she believed that education and information should be shared with the public to empower people to make better choices for themselves. So shortly after launching Sugar Sugar Wax, Salome launched Natural Beauty Summit, a non-for-profit platform for experts in health and wellness to share what big business does not want the public to know and to give other change makers in the wellness and beauty a platform to share their stories and learnings wow that is truly truly such an amazing way to to go into the beauty industry and just for i mean but thank you so much for coming on today's show thank you so much for having me Celeste yes I kind of went into the beauty industry with

guns blazing and really made the splash oh my gosh yes you did and and what kind of guided you into this industry because I know that you were in tech for like the last 10 years is that correct yeah for 10 years before I started the company I was in technology and before that I'd been in marketing and business for my whole career so what changed for me was you know I think a lot of people when they start something like this it's because they really need something that no one else is making so being like middle eastern woman there's a lot of hairy situations I had to deal with. And I just also happened to have really sensitive skin. So waxing and shaving were like never good options for me. Yeah. And I remember like, you know, being like 15, looking down just

at my legs and being like, it's just hair, there's got to be an easier way. So that was part of it. And just kind of that desire to create something that just makes life better. That was definitely a part of it. And then I think the other part was the more I learned about the beauty industry and how polluted it is, how inconsiderate it is of the environment and of humans, the more I felt like there's an opportunity to make change. Yeah, that's, that's amazing. I don't know much about the ins and outs, the behind the scenes of the beauty industry.

I'm sure creating something like this was a little, you're like, what is going on? Let me make a difference here. So you created this product because you have sensitive skin and like, you know, shaving, waxing, threading just were, were irritating, weren't the best options. They were inconvenient. I mean, all the above. all of the above all of the above like when you're shaving as a like a young girl you know there's times you cut and nick yourself and you know like the classic band-aids around the ankles

and knees so it wasn't great waxing like I can't tell you how many burn incidences there was but also just from an industry perspective the most number of claims that are made on beauty professionals professional insurance is because of waxing and incidences that arise from waxing because also waxing aside from the fact that it's you know basically hot plastic and you're pouring it on your skin and ripping it off you're also ripping off like a layer of your skin which is our largest organ it's our protective barrier that's why after a waxing session you can't be out in the sun because you've taken off a layer of your protective layer and you know threading I definitely did threading for a number of years it was just really painful yeah and I mean and it

was slow and it was painful and you know I there isn't anything I haven't tried I remember using I don't want to name names but everyone knows them the hair removal creams which are just chocked full of really toxic chemicals that basically melt your hair but they also melt your skin if you leave them on for too long it's not good and you know when you wash that down the drain, like it doesn't disappear into thin air, right? So where's that going? How's that impacting our environment? And you know, there's laser, tons of people do laser, but laser is a very expensive. So it's not for everyone. Be even those who do laser are, you know, not always have the results that they imagine they're going to have. And then there's the other factor that if

you're if you're lasering your hair follicles and like let's say you do like both your legs and maybe one other body part that is about two-thirds of your body like like your skin surface area that almost always elicits an autoimmune response so your body goes into slight shock when you're lasering more than half of your skin surface area. And then it's like, why would we do that to ourselves? It's just hair. Yeah. You know, you've made so many points that I just thought were like normal growing up the first time I ever, well, I, the first time I ever took hair off my legs was with Nair and I think thinking like, but I put it on my legs, but then I took it off with a wet washcloth and which like literally took the skin off and you know

of course nicking over the years is a pain in the ass I mean it's just like ow like we've all cut ourselves horror stories of waxing like the best waxers in the world right who oh this plate they do the playboy models and they do this you know and it's like totally ripped off my skin at points and it's just like yeah but there wasn't another option you know this is what you did it was like a b c or d and if you want to get rid of hair yeah and I think we've kind of come to accept these nuances these like less than great experiences as well that's just how it is and you know we've normalized things like ingrown hairs and no never stop to ask the question why do hairs grow under the skin you know like when you have like strawberry skin or strawberry legs

where you have those little red dots that's actually scar tissue around the follicle ingrown hairs is the skin's reaction to being over stripped because when you're shaving skin like skin isn't flat it's not like you know the flat like the screen skin is natural and it kind of grows in like waves and bumps and when you're pressing a razor on it and like scraping everything off your skin's natural reaction is to be like oh my god now i can't do my job i can't protect this person so i gotta regrow skin really rapidly which is why skin ends up growing faster than hair and then the hair gets stuck underneath the skin but like my point is just culturally we've like normalize these things and never even ask the question of why but you know with like sugaring

for example you have none of those things and it's not like magic it's just natural you know what the product is for people that have no idea yeah for sure okay so it's super simple sugar wax is like a sugar based kind of waxy substance it's mostly just sugar and citric acid and what that hat what happens is when those two types of molecules come together they create a bond a bond that binds to dead skin only and so when you apply it like our sugar wax and not all sugar waxes are the exact same but our sugar wax is designed so that you just scoop it out with your hands you apply it like you roll it on because it's kind of like thick and like tree sap so you like kind of mold it to the skin and you flick it off and it takes off all the hair

and the dead skin with it you roll it back up you reuse it like eight to ten times the same piece to clear an area and when it gets like kind of like soft and gooey and sloppy you just throw it in the compost. So because you're not taking off living skin, then you don't get like the strawberry skin or the ingrown hairs or any of that stuff. And it's a great exfoliant and it's natural and it's simple. You don't need tons of like equipment to do it. And you know, like that was always like my vision was like, there's, it's just hair. There's gotta be a simple way of getting rid of it and that's what sugar wax is our wax is specifically formulated so that like anyone can use it because you know a lot of times like we start our hair removal journey whether

you're a girl or boy like pretty early in life and razors aren't safe hot wax isn't safe and so like here's this like almost like slimy putty thing that kids are so good at using they'll like watch the videos once and they'll know how to do it because they're like the slime generation I love it and yeah and you can't like you can't hurt yourself you can't burn yourself it's applied at room temperature you can't injure damage your skin so it's great like we have 10 year olds that use it. That's so great. I know I have a teenage daughter and she's like, she has more hair than I do. She's got the French side of the blood and they're just, you know, thick with hair. And she's like, thanks mom. I'm like, well, I don't know what you want me to tell you,

but this is such a great, like you said, someone as young as 10, someone as, you know, inexperienced in the game as maybe a, like a guy, you know, let's just, let's put it out there sorry man you just need us women to put you in the right direction but that's awesome so this I mean it's very I think I've heard of prior to your company a little bit of sugar but I didn't know much about it it's is it very new to the industry still even the industry itself is learning okay because I think the first generation of sugar wax that came out was for professional use actually when I started the company there was no at-home sugar wax but like the professional products you need like 40 hours of training to get the technique down

and what we wanted to do was say like well we're like okay you can apply it by hand it's basically foolproof how do we make the consistency so that anyone could like basically master it within a few times of trying it out so our consistency is really what's different and it's just a thicker consistency it's what we call an adaptive formula so it starts off really hard like tree sap and you're like oh my god how am i going to put this like how am i going to spread this but as soon as it makes contact with the skin it softens so you just pull it right on and the more like contact it makes with the skin the softer it is the easier it is to apply and it just holds together whereas like the first generation of sugar waxes which were the

professional they're meant for a quick service so they're a lot softer so if you've never done it before it can be very intimidating because now you're trying to hold honey in one lump and that's really hard to do. Yeah. How are you supposed to apply that before it, you know, falls all over your face or, or your, whatever you're trying to wax. And another form of sugar wax that maybe is a little bit more easier to find is what we call a botched batch. It's when it doesn't quite like come together the way it's supposed to, whether it's because of like, you know, the pressure temperature or too much water but it's kind of honey like and in the 80s they called it cold wax it was really easy to use because like it's like wax the application you apply it with

a spatula you remove it with strips and you don't need a warmer because it's already soft um and that's fine too but because that type of wax has more of the water molecules it's going to still stick to your skin it's going to bind to those living skin cells so it's going to hurt a little bit more and you know you a little bit doesn't go a long way like ours like one lump is used like eight to ten times whereas when you apply something remove it with a strip and toss it then that's gone so you're going to run through the formula like eight to ten times faster because you're using so much okay yeah that's a good one I tend to geek out on these details I know I love it this is what I want to know this is what hopefully my audience wants to know because

you know I do have a male female audience it is directed towards men so they're probably like what what am I going to do how do I do this I'll tell you a fun fact I'll tell you a fun fact Celeste, I don't know if I've shared this with you in the past, but we actually won ask men.com best body hair remover award. You do. So men are using it. Yeah. And men like 20% of our customer base is men. Men actually have a much easier time because the hair is coarser and thicker. So when you have that coarser, thicker hair, the sugar has more surface area to bind to. so it just comes out so much easier and fantastic yeah and guys you know they're like they like being smooth and shiny just like us girls they do I think that even like a little like obviously

my clientele is a little bit you know mid-age range but the younger generation like 20s and 30s they're all waxing their whole bodies and and and like it's a thing to shave everything And I'm like, no, you just need to sugar. Now this is so much easier. Oh my gosh. I'm so excited about this product. It's so funny. So I'll tell you a little bit of a story about like, you know, kind of what we, what happened with someone, but like it kind of button debunk some of the myths that we have about guys. So a person, a TV personality had heard about the sugar and she's in California so she was like you know I want to talk about this on TV and I'd love for you to like show me how to use it so I'm like yeah for sure so when I went to meet with her I'm trying really

hard to keep it discreet so I went to meet with her and she was like oh like I've had everything lasered like 15 times so I have no hair but my boyfriend who is like in his 50s he like basically like would always go for waxes before COVID and then after COVID it all kind of fell apart but like he just wants something that he can do himself so like can we test it on him I'm like yeah sure so here is this like you know very I guess hetero metro man who is like old school and like all the things that like my dad is right gentleman like chivalrous all the things and he was like he's like I'm ready for it and when we sugared like so I was showing her how to do it and she was doing it on him she was like yeah yeah no this is good stuff because like it

wasn't that painful right and he like he loved it and she's like you know so now it's like a regular thing that they do together and awesome you know it's kind of like changing the way we think about like hair removal is like this private hush hush oh no one can know that I'm going to get my bikini waxed right to like couples are sugaring each other and like having a huge laugh about it that's awesome and he was like ready for something to be painful but it and it was like oh I can I like this yeah this is nice it was like this is great this is great especially I can't even imagine for the guys that have like really hairy backs you know you see that yeah horror movie of with oh my god 40 year old virgin you know where they're you know his whole chest and everything

And it's like, you see the bleeding and it's like, just suck it up. This is what you need to do. Like no woman wants a bunch of hair coming out of a shirt, all squirrely on a date. You're not right. Like let's sugar, but I mean, I love that. I love that. There's like, you said, you created something that is painless. It's good for you.

Healthy for the environment. I mean, that's like, it's win-win. It's a no brainer. Yeah. I'm big on win-win. I know. I mean, this is, this is really great. I, I hope everybody is listening because, you know, I talk a lot about, um, you know, self-care and self-grooming and self-care is not just, you know, it covers like a really broad spectrum. What do you think of how these two, do you think, you know, self-care and self-grooming can coexist and and what do you think about that absolutely I mean I think like you said self-care is a really really large spectrum of the way it's just the way we care for ourselves whether it's like

feeding ourselves like nutritious food or taking time to you know kind of like calm your mind have a little meditation. It's so much more than just like bubble bath and candles. And one of the things that like, I really appreciate when I'm having like, like when I'm sugaring myself is like, Hey, I could do it at any time. So, you know, kids are off to bed and I've got my sugar and I put on my favorite podcast, less more, or, you know, and, um, or put on some music and it's just a slow process and you're just kind of being like intentional and mindful about that time with yourself and, you know, kind of taking care of your skin, taking care of you, whatever that looks like. Right. I think that everything that we do can be a practice of self-care if we just approach

it mindfully. I like that. Does that make sense? It makes a lot of sense. Yeah. And I think that's really what, you know, when I talk about basic grooming things, you know, what women want. And I think that there's this disconnect sometimes with guys, right? Like, you know, I took a shower, I brushed my teeth and it's like, I always tell them to take your time, right. To really like love yourself to really like care for yourself. And I think this is such a great way and a product to really, like you said, take your time, like really kind of set, set the tone, set the mood and just kind of nurture yourself. And that can look like a lot of things, but for the sake of, you know, sugary. And I think that's really a great point. And you know, with sugar wax,

like you can't do it fast it is not like one and done it's not like zip zip zip like shaving like you know you might nick yourself you might miss a couple of strips but you're done in a minute right it is a slow process like every application is like three pulls right so it sort of forces you to get into that slow mindset and just like hey this is me time right now And, you know, we could take that approach, even with the way we dress ourselves, right? When we're getting dressed in the morning, putting something on that self-talk that is happening automatically in our heads of like, okay, I need to, oh, this doesn't fit. Or like, oh, like this has gotten like too small for me or too big for me. Or like, I look so frumpy in it or whatever it might be. like even the act of getting dressed could be a beautiful act of like self-care and just approaching it mindfully. It's like, I love my body. I love protecting my body. And I love the way it feels when I'm warm, you know, like I had this conversation with my kids because they're

very little and they're, you know, not at the point where I can make them do all the chores around the house but I love I love getting them to help me with laundry because it's something that they can do and it also they're mindful when they throw something in the wash you know in the hamper then they know that they're gonna have to like fold it but then my son's like mom like I really don't like doing this and I'm like why don't you like doing it he's like it's boring and I'm like okay well let's think of it in another way like what do your clothes do for you he's like they keep me warm and I guess they like protect me from the elements and I'm like yeah well isn't that a really important job and don't you like don't you want to take care of your

clothes that take care of you by like folding them nicely his whole mindset changed he's like well when you put it that way what we're doing is pretty important and you know even folding laundry could be a you know an act of self-care that's awesome I really love that I love that you're teaching him to like see things from a different lens instead of yeah it's a chore now this is like yes yeah I really love that and I you're right I think we all need to kind of of sit back sometimes and kind of look through things in a different lens or just ask yourself you know like guys like ask yourself like if you want to have that like bubble bath with a candlelight like why don't you feel like you're entitled to that you know so just kind of

questioning what the norms are and what we really really want like what's going to serve me what's going to make me feel all good and delicious inside I love that yes well you know what and I meant to after you told me about the the tv woman who was sugaring her husband or boyfriend I'm sorry I don't remember which one but you know there is such a that could be such a cool intimacy thing with your partner and I was thinking that's also such a great way to get in touch with each other and do something like help each other I mean what's more primal than primates grooming each other you know what I mean like it's it's very intimate it's a beautiful act of love and you know the fact that the sugar is actually sugar and it's so clean you can literally eat it

And then that sweet, sticky residue that is left on the skin is, you know, it's there. Right. So it's not like a gross thing and it's just, you know, you can have so much fun with it. Yeah. I do love that part because you didn't talk a little bit. All right. I was listening to, you know, what level intimacy predicts grooming your lover. Right.

I mean, so I think that that's such a great, such a great segue. Oh, totally. And I think it's a new level of intimacy. I think, you know, when you start dating someone, you might not be like, Hey, do you want to sugar my back this week? But like, as you kind of like, you know, get to know each other and have that like extended intimate time with each other, and you're just getting comfortable and like appreciating and adoring the other person and all their body parts then that's a great time to you know like level up the intimacy and sugar together I think girls like it for different reasons than guys but it's just a fun thing to do together and because it's one of those things that's like with sugar wax it's not

like you're going to burn each other so there's no risk involved and you know there's no perfect way of doing it so you could literally just play with like a little lump of sugar and just have fun and I'm telling you girls like they want to help with their man's grooming like right at the outset because there's little things that show up that you're like you know like I could fix that or like you notice you're like like I fixed that on me why aren't you why am I I'm why are you not being held to the same standards you know what I mean very true yeah so just kind of and a lot of times guys are maybe not as well versed in this type of stuff because girls you know we kind of have that like little bit of a tribal thing where we grow up and we learn from our moms and aunts

how to do all the things like the threading the eyebrows and all of the the things guys don't have that like necessarily within their in their own bonding time so in the context of a relationship it's the perfect time to kind of introduce it and be like and i i know tons of women who do this and and guys at first they're like oh and then they're like they love it because they're like yes yes I want that patch gone from my back which like bothers me but I don't know how to reach it and I don't want to go to a salon so it's kind of perfect yeah you can do it in your own home or wherever you need to like you said a lot of men have a little bit of fear of going into a salon or feel weird about it I mean they shouldn't but you know it's a little bit more foreign to

them. And, you know, just showing up at a salon, like, you know, you're going to see mostly women and it's just intimidating. I think it's a little bit more of a palatable experience when like you're going into a men's wax bar and like Paris has a lot of these and it's just for men and it's like women can go if they want to, but they specialize in like men's grooming and that's a little bit more comfortable but most part of the U.S. there's no men's wax bars it's just like come to the salon yeah there's a place I used to live in New York and they have like it was just this whole experience you know you can do the shave or you can do the the barber I mean it was like petty man it was just but it's all for men and I love it and you know they do the bourbon

And it's, it's got a little more kick to it, but they need more of those. Like let's offer sugaring in this, you know, flat this, this area for men to make them feel more comfortable. But like you said, this product can be done at home. So you don't need that. What if doing like the perfect arch on your brows, like a smaller area, how, how do you do that with the sugar? So you just use a smaller lump.

And like, so one of the things that I do is I train estheticians to do sugaring facials because the professional products, the professional sugaring products are not, are not like really conducive to using like in small areas. Cause you can't really mold them. So estheticians come to us and I actually train barbers as well. And they use it on men's ears and nose and, you know, the, after, after the shave, sometimes there's like a little bit of fuzz over here. They'll do that. So one of the things that when I'm training my estheticians is that they don't even get into the eyebrows until like the fifth hour. So the sugar is like fifth hour of practice, right? Sugar is like it, once you understand the consistency of it

and like like little things like keep the room cool to keep the sugar hard so that I could mold it exactly where I want it once you kind of get a hang of the consistency and you know like what consistency you need how to apply it then brows become like such a breeze but after the fifth hour of practice we get into that and I know people who do it at home you know once they've done a few sugaring facials on themselves and they they're kind of like okay I get the hang of this like now it's getting soft and I feel like it's getting too soft so like I'm going to either like change my environment or start a new piece but with the brows I would always say grab a fresh lump so it's nice and hard and it's clear so you can like really see where you're

applying it. And like literally the size of like an edamame bean, you know, just a single edamame bean, just a tiny one. And sugar is always applied against the direction of hair growth. So you would just kind of like hold the brow back, like apply it towards the center line and then flick it in the direction of growth. And it's so funny that you mentioned that because I actually did my mom's brows last night. Cause she's like, it's like, like her eyesight isn't, you know, what it used to be. And at night without like having all the lights, she was like, I can't do it. Can you do my brows? And it's so quick. It's just like, boom, boom, done, boom, boom, done. And it's super easy. but once you get the consistency of it and you know how to handle the sugar, you can literally

sugar anything. That's so cool. I'm so excited to try the product. So I've been waiting to talk to you before. I'm like, just to ask you more questions. So yes, I think this is such a great, like great, great, great, amazing product safe. Like you said, good for you. Good for the environment. I love it. I absolutely love it. I have one personal question for you that I ask all of my guests just to kind of, you know, it's, it's just a cool question. I always ask, like, what was one of your favorite dates? It could be current relationship or past. And what was it? Favorite dates? Oh my gosh. I hope my husband doesn't hear this because it wasn't with him. but definitely one of my favorite dates was it was like I think our eighth date or something

and we took a short little flight one down to Las Vegas and I like I think Las Vegas as a party place that's what it's really known for but I think for couples it could be so much fun. Like it is like, you know, the ultimate in dining in entertainment. So it's the ultimate date. And that's what it was. We watched a beautiful like Cirque du Soleil show, had an amazing dinner, had a spa day the next day, probably one of the most beautiful spas I've been in at the Wynn. And then just flew back after lunch, which was, that's my favorite day. but that sounds amazing yes I love it well I appreciate you sharing I think a lot of guys want to know well what was like one what's a favorite date and what they want to get you know

what can I do what what's some cool ideas so I appreciate you sharing that yeah what I loved about that date is like when you're early on in the relationship you know you really like each other you've done a ton of things with each other already or like whatever a handful of things but you've done enough different things that you've seen each other in different settings but like that kind of like you know handful of dates in eight to ten dates in is where you kind of really need to get to know the person right and I think that that ability to take that time away and focus on the person and be able to go through some different experiences with them makes or breaks the relationship. And in that case, it broke the relationship, but I still had a great time.

At least you didn't waste any more time, right? Yes. And that goes for all parties involved, you know, like I think at some point early on in dating, you need to just find like a large window of time to just spend together and do a few different things and just see how the person reacts to you and just see, is there synergy here? Exactly. I love that. You like called it right on the money. So, well, thank you again for sharing that. I love it. Okay. So important. Where can people purchase your product or find more about sugar, sugar? Yeah. Yeah. So we sell on our own website, which is sugar, sugar, wax.com. That is where you're going to find bundles and deals and all the instructions. Like there's a how to sugar page

that literally goes body part by body part and step by step. So that's a really great resource. if your listeners are in canada i would highly highly recommend just going to amazon amazon.ca because it's so expensive to ship to canada and whenever we get orders from canada i'm like oh god just go to amazon okay you'll save a bunch of money yeah and also a couple of our products, the sugar and the powder are on urban outfitters as well. But, um, yeah, if you want the full range and you want bundles, go to sugar, sugar, wax.com. I love it. I can't wait to try it. I'm going to send you an email after and let you know. Absolutely. I can't wait for you and your daughter to try it. Oh my gosh. She's going to be so excited. So I appreciate

you coming on the show and talking about this amazing, wonderful thing that, you know, that we can offer everybody. And I look forward to it. Well, thank you so much for having me on. It's been so fun to chat with you and like, just talking about the guy angle. That's not something I get to do a lot. So I love doing that. Well, you are awesome. And it's like, well, you like know everything. So I love it. Well, thank you again, Salome. Have a wonderful day. You as well. Thanks. Bye-bye. Bye. Thanks for tuning in to today's episode. Come and hang out with me on Instagram at Celeste Moore Image. Let me know your thoughts on today's episode because I always love hearing

from you all. You can find all the links and resources in the show notes of the episode on my website, celestmore.com. Okay, that's all for now. I'll see you in the next episode. See you next time, friends.