wax heaters

Paraffin heaters are usually around the 55degC mark, wax heaters (we're talking hair removal wax I assume) are usually quite a bit hotter. If your wax heater turns down low enough it might work tempwise. Not sure how it would work applicationwise though.....
Were you thinking of brushing it on, put it in a bag, using bandages, just dunking you thumb directly in the paraffin, or some other method? Paraffin works on achey joints by having enough applied to warm up the area, so for fingers/thumbs, it's usually cover the whole hand up to the wrist, you'd have to have a pretty big wax heater to do that!

Paraffin heaters are usually around the 55degC mark, wax heaters (we're talking hair removal wax I assume) are usually quite a bit hotter. If your wax heater turns down low enough it might work tempwise. Not sure how it would work applicationwise though.....
Were you thinking of brushing it on, put it in a bag, using bandages, just dunking you thumb directly in the paraffin, or some other method? Paraffin works on achey joints by having enough applied to warm up the area, so for fingers/thumbs, it's usually cover the whole hand up to the wrist, you'd have to have a pretty big wax heater to do that!

Very nice, I had no idea.
So basically a regular wax heater is too hot to be used for heating the paraffin stuff?
Maybe it could burn you if put too hot on the regular wax heater, assuming your applying it somewhere on your skin/scalp.:confused:

Paraffin Wax Treatment

Hiya,:)

just qualified as a nail technician and we used a paraffin wax heater in college, to do a treatment on the hands and feet. What we did was laddled some warm wax into a bowl lined with tin foil (less messy), then used a brush to brush on the warm wax to the entire hand & wrist area, then when fully covered, you wrap in tin foil and leave to penetrate for 10mins. The treatment is beneficial to anyone with arthritis and joint problems, i suffer myself and it was an amazing experience when i 1st had a treatment done! Would recommend it for anyone, it also helps if you have very dry skin.
Its fun peeling it off too! Then we had a hand &arm massage with cocoa butter massage medium, leaving the skin feeling soft, smooth, exfoliated and totally refreshed! Heaven after a busy day:045:!

Caz.:)

Thanks guys
Yes Cola I was just thinking of scooping some out into a small bowl and brushing it on. I would never have thought to use bandages. What a great idea! so would you lie the dressing in the pot to soak up the wax then bring it out and bandage it around the hand?

Something else which has me confused: The large paraffin wax heaters are designed big enough to place the whole hand in them. Now this must take up a fair few containers of parrafin wax. I presume for Health & Safety that once one person has placed their hands in the wax, that you would have to discard the rest as it would then be contaminated, so would you have to fill the heater with wax again if someone else wanted to have a go? I dont see how this treatment when sold in salons can be cost effective if that is the case. It would cost more to fill the heater than the actual treatment . Or am i wrong in thinking it cannot be used over and over again?

Advice would be welcomed x

Regulations may be different in your part of the world (I'm not in the UK), but due to the 55deg and no water, it's generally considered an OK environment to be able to use the wax on different people. When you put the hand into the paraffin it immediately starts to solidify next to the skin, so I suppose they think anything off the skin is in that immediate solid bit, plus the temp and no air/water. Paraffin baths have been used in hospitals for joint pain for years without problems.

Having said that, I'm always a bit uncomfortable with the whole dipping thing, particularly dipping feet. I've done paraffin treatments in a few different courses, so here's a few different methods -

* Dipping - this uses the least paraffin, and would not be cost effective if you had to throw out the rest of the paraffin in the paraffin bath after dipping when it would mean it uses the most paraffin.

* Get a plastic bag (life a freezer bag) pour hot paraffin in, put foot/hand in, squelch paraffin around to cover the hand or foot. WARNING for some reason, it feels really hot this way on the feet, I think it's something to do with not lifting your feet out

* Get large latex glove, fill fingers with paraffin, put hand in glove - the paraffin from the fingers is usually enough to cover the whole hand.

* Have gauze sheets, dip those in the paraffin and then place on the body (particularly good for large areas like back, though with the right sizzed gauze it can work well on feet or hands) You can then brush more paraffin on over the gauze to thicken it up a bit. You need the heater really close to the body so you can't drip the gauze much and it stays hot.

* use bandages with the same effect as the gauze sheets, dunk them in paraffin, wrap around area, can't be too long, you're not wrapping up a sprained ankle, you're just putting paraffin over the area, really they're more like gauze strips than bandages

* there is a fancy machine that is sort of like a sandwich press where you put special bags prefilled with enough paraffin, warm bag in machine put on hands/feet.

The important thing with the paraffin is to get an occlusive layer - no gaps, work it around the wrist/ankle well, you're keeping the heat in. You get the heat treatment, and it's also very hydrating for the skin, makes it sweat, you get salts/toxins out in the sweat, the sweat is then reabsorbed, hydrating the skin, and taking hopefully taking any nourishing cream put on before the paraffin into the skin too.
Paraffin for facials is usually a bit lower than 55deg, it's more about penetrating product rather than penetrating heat into the muscles.

georgec, hair removal wax is usually at a higher temp than 55deg. Some hair removal wax heaters just have high/low, where high is mainly fast melt and low is over 55deg, some just have an on/off switch, some have a temperature control dial, and there is a possibility that even if there is a control it doesn't go low enough, all depends on the heater.

The wax heater i have can be used for both ,it has 6 compartments for either roller wax or paraffin spray wax cartridges,i also have a parafin wax bath ,must admit i prefer the dipping method