What Is Sugar Waxing? DIY Hair Removal Trend Leaves US Teen With Burns

A 46-year-old woman named Natalie Renken from Iowa, United States shared an incident from February of her teenage daughter receiving burns, and blisters, with skin peeling off like a 'paper towel'. The horrifying incident occurred as the 17-year-old tried out a beauty trend from TikTok on her FYP ('For you' Page).

The injured teenager, Allison Boles (17) was trying 'Sugar Waxing'; a popular do-it-yourself (DIY) trend from social media which has been all around the internet lately. This hair removal beauty trend is made out of home ingredients sugar, honey, and water, and not the standard wax, according to reports. But how did it lead to severely injuring a teenager?

DIY Gone Wrong: US Teen Suffers Burns After Popular Sugar Waxing Trend

The incident, which occurred in February, left 17-year-old Allison Boles with burns so bad they required a trip to the emergency room, and all this just for following an internet trend. Boles got second-degree burns that will take over four weeks to heal.

According to Renken, Allison's mother, upon reaching home found Boles in the kitchen "cooking something" Renken describes her daughter as always "crafty and making something" as she saw Boles near the stove but did not think of anything. But later Renken's nightmare situation escalated to rushing her daughter to the hospital. 

About an hour or half later, Boles confessed to her mother about burning herself while trying an online beauty trend. Describing the grave burns from the waxing trend, Renken horridly described how there was a blister on her daughter even larger than the size of her thumb and burst into peeling skin that felt like a paper towel to Renken's disbelief but it was actually her daughter's skin peeling overnight!

Tragedy struck as Boles followed the natural hair removal 'Sugar Waxing' recipe from a video that originally originated from Egypt but Boles found it on her TikTok recommendations. While Boles was not necessarily finding a natural hair removal recipe, however, later when she saw it in her TikTok feed, she watched more such videos and researched about the same.

The video that Boles followed instructed her to cook the natural ingredients of sugar, honey, and water on the stove instead of using standard wax ingredients and further instructed to reheat the glop in the microwave that was to be refrigerated for 1-2 hours. As the teenager followed the instructions, after taking out the reheated glop of wax from the microwave and stirring it for use, the hot wax splattered all over her thumb, causing it to blister. The blister grew to be several inches tall and even bigger than her thumb. It then burst overnight. 

When Boles was rushed to the hospital, the doctors informed them that this was the second similar case coming to them after another patient tried the 'sugar waxing' online beauty trend and explained how putting hot wax to refrigerate just for 1-2 hours causes flash cooling not letting the mixture cool down evenly and causing hot pockets in the mixture, and when reheated these pockets get even hotter while other parts will be just warm, causing combustion reaction that will pop the wax and splatter around which can be dangerous. 

Boles's experience serves as a cautionary tale for teenagers and young adults who are increasingly turning to social media for beauty hacks and plunging into trends. While sugar waxing can be an effective hair removal method when done correctly by a professional, attempting it at home, especially without proper guidance on safe heating techniques and application, can lead to serious injuries.