My visits to European Wax Center (EWC) are quite rare, like once every year or maybe even two. I've…read morenoticed once per year, they always put out a promo where you can get 50% off a new service, where "new service" is defined as any service that you have not received within the past 12 months.
In this most recent case, I hadn't gone in two years, so really, any service would have been considered "new" to me. I went with the Brazilian Wax, which I did two years ago, and also tacked on an eyebrow wax because when in Rome. Or somewhere else in Europe I suppose? lol
There are only two wax specialists at the Long Beach Towne Center location who can do Brazilian Wax on men: Millie and Brianne. I actually had Millie as my waxing specialist on a visit back in 2022, and while I thought she was good enough for me to recommend to others, I wanted to see how Brianne would compare.
Immediately after I made my appointment, I gave them a call to see if the 50% off could be applied to the Brazilian Wax. Terrace (sp?) over the phone fielded my call and, initially, stated that since I had gotten the Brazilian Wax before, I couldn't use the 50% off on that. However, she immediately retracted her statement before I could say something when she realized that my last Brazilian Wax was way more than 12 months ago.
I had forgotten about this until the evening before, but there are some check-in forms you need to fill out prior to your arrival, or if you neglected to do so, I'm sure they would have asked you to fill them out before your appointment.
I arrived about 20 minutes before my scheduled appointment time and spent the next 10 minutes exploring the adjacent businesses. When I came in, Aaliyah at the front desk greeted me by name. What?! I suppose it's because there aren't too many male customers of European Wax Center, but that was kind of cool, yet also a little creepy lol.
It took 5 to 10 minutes before Brianne called me back into one of the rooms. I personally would have preferred to do the eyebrow wax first since that seemed to be easier, but she said we were going to do the Brazilian Wax first instead. I had the Brazilian Wax done a couple of times before, so I kind of knew what to expect, but man, it still hurt, even though I was expecting it to hurt a little more.
Brianne wasn't bad, but I didn't really get good vibes from her since her demeanor was quite sassy during my appointment. She also didn't really give me any warning as to when she would pull the wax off my skin, and when she was doing my eyebrow wax, I legit thought she was going to poke one of my eyes despite her telling me to relax my eyes. But nevertheless, she did a good job of waxing.
Before she took me back to the lobby, she reminded me that I shouldn't exfoliate for a couple of days after my wax, and she also asked if I'd like to purchase any products prior to leaving, to which I declined.
When I came back to the front to pay for my services, I was about to put my card into the reader, but Aaliyah said they had my card on file, so I didn't even need to take my card out of my wallet. Interesting, but I also hope they don't charge me for something I didn't approve beforehand. Actually, they did schedule an appointment for exactly four weeks later at the exact same time at the exact same location. Now that, I would not approve since this was my rare Wednesday afternoon off, and with how my schedule has been this year, I doubt I would have been able to make it, in time at least. So I simply told Aaliyah to cancel since I myself wouldn't even know when would be the next available time, though truthfully, I was never planning to go for the remainder of the year unless I get another discount lol.
Let's face it, waxing is pretty pricey, but a good experience to try if you haven't!
I left, but then returned shortly when I noticed I didn't get an email receipt that confirmed my payment. I asked Aaliyah, and she was gracious enough to send not one, but two copies of my email receipt; they just came in rather late.
The day after my appointment, I received an email from EWC giving some tips on what to do and what not to do after the appointment.
Besides the unauthorized future appointment, which I did confirm online was no longer booked, the receptionists at the front desk deserve 5 stars. But neither Millie nor Brianne impressed me enough to want to do a Brazilian Wax here again, unless they hire a different wax specialist by next year. I think 4 stars is fair, but I would likely choose a different location next time.
