If you’ve yet to visit this salon, it’s a must. Yes, the hairdressers are brilliant — but so is absolutely everything else. A rarity. I go for waxes then try to fit in one of their Aveda Aroma massages whenever I go.
Price: From £19 for chin or upper lip, to £90 for a half leg, underarm, bikini, and eyebrow.
This much-loved hairdresser does waxes incredibly well, with Odette using Market Bee hot wax, a choice meaning less pain and less irritation. Good things, basically.
Price: Waxes start at £30 for eyebrows, with a full leg wax priced at £75.
Using wax handmade by the owner comprised of Brazilian resins, bees wax, and infused with chamomile extract to soothe, this Soho stalwart has been waxing away for over 13 years now.
Price: A chin wax is £10, while at the upper end a full leg hot wax is £60.
This gem was a recommendation from a fellow beauty journalist I was working with at a magazine years ago, and I’ve since nipped in for plenty of waxes, always finding them and their Italwax hot waxes efficient and well-executed.
Price: Waxes start at £30 for a G-String hot wax, then edge up to £60 for a Hollywood.
Where: Branches include Mortimer Street, Exmouth Market, and Edgware Road.
More spa than quick wax experience, they use Lycon wax here, which they whip off while you relax in one of the eminently calming rooms. It would be hard to leave without tacking on a facial or manicure. I never resist.
A really good option if East, Urban Retreat have a reputation for excellence across the board, and I’ve always found their waxes deliver on being ultra-professional, very fast, and as minimally painful as it’s possible for tearing hair from the root to be.
Price: Starting from £10 for a lip wax, up to £45 for a Brazilian.
If you go to Vaishaly and don’t also book in for eyebrow shaping, you’re missing a trick. Either way, the skill of Viashaly and her team as they go about removing hair with their Perron Rigot rose hot wax is unparalleled.
Price: From £10 for an eyebrow wax, up to £50 for a Hollywood.
I’m always reassured when the words ‘hot wax’ are front and centre — it is by far the least painful and most thorough kind of wax for removing coarse hair. As expected from the name, this place are wizards when it comes to the hot wax thing.
Price: Starting at £16.50 for an upper lip, with a Hollywood costing £65.
Where: 2nd Floor, The Kilinik, 16 Devonshire Row, EC2M 4RH.
Offering both hot wax (of the ashmira variety) and strip (which I rarely opt for, but there it is), once you’ve found the salon (no mean feat — Harrods is a behemoth), it’s worth checking out all the other services, too.
Price: Ranging from £30 for ears to £275 for a full body.
