To Wax, or Not to Wax?

I had been contemplating whether to buy the Groupon deal for about a week before I stopped myself to ask if it was really necessary.

The promotion was a Brazilian wax for $15.00. Or you could get two Brazilian waxes for $29.99. Or you could get four Brazilian waxes for just $49.99! Pretty good right?

It was definitely a good deal considering that most places charge between $30-$50 for one. But when you think of the idea of the service itself; having hair that grows in perhaps the most sensitive place in our bodies violently yanked from the roots, one might ask themselves, why do women wax?

I listened to a panel discussion on The Social the other day. The women talked about who women dress for. They concluded that they dress more for women than they do for men because women understand female fashion more than men do (except for Randy from Say Yes to the Dress).

Surely, Brazilian waxes are not as visible to the eye as our outfit on any given day, so we don’t get waxes for other women. Do we do it for our partner? Or…do we do it for ourselves?

Apparently, some women do.

I’ve been reading online blogs and stuff and there are some women who, only after the excruciating pain, enjoy the feeling of being bare. Completely understandable. But is hair that much of a nuisance?

I think one factor that differentiates whether you’re better off bare is your lifestyle. If you’re active, at the beach a lot, and maybe allergic to razors, Brazilians can work wonders.

I decided to pay attention to my thought process in deciding whether I wanted to purchase this deal or not. Was I doing it because it was cheap? Was I doing it because I was cheap? Was I doing it because summer was approaching?  I didn’t even know.

Increasingly, women are feeling the pressure to take it all off. And apparently, so was I. I pulled the waistband of my pyjama pants away from my body and looked at my nether region. It wasn’t ridiculously insanely crazy. In fact, I realized that I kind of liked the reminder that I was no longer a pre-pubescent twelve year old and all these years had actually counted for something.

But, I found myself enthralled by the idea of jumping on the bare bandwagon. So I purchased the deal. I went for my first out of four waxes, and had to recite every prayer I could throughout the entire process. After it was done, I felt strangely cool, like I was part of this sorority of girls that have hairless private parts.

Personally, I think people, myself included, define themselves by how well they fit “ideals”. Especially women. We’re judged so much by the texture of our hair, the straightness of our teeth, the clarity of our skin, and even what (and who) we do with our vaginas.

Maybe I’m just a little frustrated with the frivolous demands or expectations of being a woman, according to Cosmpolitan. We should get French manicures, we should wax our vaginas and we should do hot yoga in a posh and expensive studio downtown when really, we could just turn on the shower to be really hot and do some stretches in our bathrooms. For free.

I mean, who is funding all of this stuff?

That’s when I realized that I didn’t want to get a Brazilian wax. I was only attracted to the deal because, well, it was a deal that brought me closer to the ideal.

Because surely on any given day, we don’t wake up and think, “Gee, this hair that’s been there for years has got to go. It’s such an inconvenience and prevents me from doing daily activities.”

What did women do before waxing was even an option?

This, precisely, was when I realized we live in a world where there are too many options to actually savor things, and especially accept them in their natural state.

To accept ourselves as perfect beings in our natural state.

While I did have three waxes left, I really wasn’t sure if I would use them. I probably would because I would hate to think I spent the extra money, but probably not because I didn’t have a problem with being au natrel.

I don’t think women who wax have a problem with being au natrel either. Maybe just a preference. But maybe the difference between our desires highlights the beauty of us all.

To each his her own. 

So You're Young and in Debt, Now What?

There comes a point in everyone’s life where whatever money we have is just not enough.

Particularly when we hit post-secondary education, marriage, home-ownership, parenthood, grandparenthood, and the list goes on and on and on.

But being young, we’re at an advantage. Except of course when it comes time to pay the exponentially growing cost of tuition.  Believe me when I tell you that school debt is just the least of your worries.

In fact, school debit is considered “good debt”, according to money guru Gail Vaz-Oxlade. With such low annual interest, we’ve got other things to worry about. Like those evil credit cards that carried the cost of our textbooks, ridiculous hourly rates for parking, and maybe an outfit…or three.

Here’s a little anecdote. When I turned 18, my mother suggested I start building credit for myself. When I applied for a credit card, the bank asked me if I was going on to post-secondary education. When I informed them I was beginning university that September, they gave me $5000.00.

Do you see anything wrong with that story?

Nothing?

The problem is that I said, “the bank gave me $5000.00”, instead of “the bank lent me $5000.00”.

And that, precisely, is the problem with young people and debt. The reality is that too many young people view credit as part of their income; money that was given to them. We forget that while we might have all this money available to us today, we’re going to be paying that back tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after, and the day after that.

If you’re young and in debt, here are a few pointers on how to not let debt consume you.

Start saving as soon as possible.

Its important to get into the habit of putting money away, even if you are currently in the process of paying off debt. Some people’s logic is to pay off debt first, then start saving. This sounds like a great idea, but we are all prone to unexpected expenses, and without an emergency fund, we end up using credit for emergencies! That often lands us right back where we started.

If you can put away just $25 or $50 every paycheck you’d be surprised what you would have in just a few months. While saving for the first time can be very hard, you get accustomed to living on a few bucks less each time. Chances are, this money would have been spent on frivolous things like McDonalds or drinks at a party.

Tip: Have a set amount of money automatically deducted on your payday and put into a separate account so you won’t have to depend on your self-discipline.

      Come up with a realistic repayment plan.

Going online and doing some number crunching helps to map out what your repayment future will and should look like.  With a credit card cost calculator, you type in the total amount owed on each credit card, along with the annual interest rate, and the calculator will tell you how long it will take you to pay off using your minimum payment, and then it will tell you how long it will take to pay off using a different monthly payment.

If you have an idea of how long you want to give yourself to pay it off, you have the option of entering how many months you intend to pay your debt off in. It will give you a monthly figure, and if you can work that into your budget, you’ll be debt free in as short as you will allow yourself to be.

Tip: For a good credit card calculator, try: http://www.debtcanada.ca/budget-calculators/credit-card-payment-calculator

 Don’t worry.

Debt can be a pretty scary thing, but letting it intimidate you and stop you from living your life is pointless. Instead, be proactive about your debt. Challenge yourself to get it paid off in one year or two years, or however long you need.

If there’s anyone who knows the sacrifices that must be made in order to pay off debt, it’s me. Remember that $5000.00 that the bank gave me? I’m still paying it off 4 years later.

The first two years were the hardest because I was so down and out about being in debt that I ended up drowning myself in my own misery. But after doing a lot of research on money-saving, I felt a little more empowered to take a different approach to my debt.

Perhaps the highlight of my financial life so far was when it came time to renew my credit card earlier this month. I kindly declined the bank’s offer to reactivate my Visa for another four years.

It was a hard decision to make, especially when the voices in my head kept asking questions like, “But how are you going to pay for parking?” and “How are you going to buy stuff online?”

But I made it anyway.

Tip: Never miss a minimum payment on a credit card! No matter how much debt you have, if you can prove you are responsible enough to make your monthly minimum payment on time, your credit rating will not be jeopardized by the money you owe. All the bank wants to know is that they are still making money off of your minimum payments.

The stress that can come from not being in good financial standing can do a lot of wear and tear on our bodies, our minds, and our overall wellness. But being in good financial standing doesn’t mean not being in debt.

It means doing something about it.