I enjoy a trip to the spa as much as the next gal - there's something about the pampering that does as much, or even more, than the treatments, whether it's a massage, mud, or my latest favorite, parafin treatments. On my most recent trip I was talked into a 'Parafango' wrap with my whole body covered in hot wax. Parafango claims to do a whole bunch of things including help with weight loss. For me, my skin feels great after any parafin treatment.
Lately I've found that I'm having wrist pain from being at the computer keyboard for too long and parafin treatments at the spa seemed to help, so when I went in for the Parafango I asked for extra wax on my wrist and arm. The warm parafin feels great, my skin feels great, and my wrist feels soooo much better.
Nothin beats the full body parafin treatment at the spa, but I was looking to replicate the therapy for my arm to help alleviate the wrist pain. In my research I saw that people use parafin therapy for arthritis and other aches and pains not just as a skin treatment so I wasn't crazy believing that it helped my wrist.
Looking around there are many places where you can find the parafin, a heater that warms it to the right temperature and the other accessories needed to have a full wax treatment at home. In looking around I found that Parafango is just a combination of parafin and mud made by one particular vendor. You can't buy it for home, but since I enjoy mud treatments as well I bought a different brand's parafin/mud blend.
The process is easy. It takes up to eight hours for the wax to melt if the warming unit is full so you have to start it beforehand, but I plug it in before I leave in the morning and it's ready for me in the evening. The warmer I purchased claimed that wax has to be disposed of after it cools -- it doesn't. I just unplug the unit when I'm done and plug it back in again when I'm preparing for another treatment.
There are many great varieties of parafin that I still have to try: scented ones, different muds blended in and more.