Awhile ago I wrote about leg waxing with sugar. But since I’m always interested in going even more “primy”, I wanted to try a more free and bio-regionally available body hair remover. So when my friend Brian gave me a full can of pine pitch I knew just what I was going to do with it. Sometimes pitch is hard and crystally, but this stuff was naturally soft like taffy. I warmed it up inside a pot of boiling water, double boiler style, and tried it out. Lo and behold it worked just like the sugar, maybe even better.
From what I can see, one advantage is the pitch is liquid at a lower temperature so its less easy to burn yourself, and also you don’t have to boil it, and either use a thermometer or test it repeatedly to get it to the right consistency. The disadvantage is sugar dissolves in hot water, pitch doesn’t so its harder to clean up. I would recommend doing it outside or on newspaper, using a dedicated container like the aluminum can for melting and a dedicated pitch utensil like a flat stick or butter knife for stirring and spreading.
Then be careful not to get it all over. You’ll get some of it stuck to you anyway. As my friends in Northern California know, alcohol or oil helps dissolve resin. I found a rancid glob of butter in my fridge and used that to get off the remaining sticky. It worked like a charm. Then I rinsed my legs because I didn’t want them to smell like rancid butter, even though they were very smooth and shiny and a great photo op at this point…next up, bikini line! ouch.
What does the pitch attach to so that you can peel it off? Do you use fabric or something? Is there a primitive alternative?
Hi Connor, yes I didn’t go into details because I wrote about a similar process in the sugaring blog, but you smear on the pitch, on a leg this would be downward. Press down a strip of fabric on top of it, also downward, peel it off yanking upward against the growth. Buckskin scraps would work if you have em. You can use the same strip over and over and each new layer will stick to the last until it becomes so caked with goo it gets unwieldy.
You can still use the hairy, dry skin filled pitch for other purposes if you are not easily disgusted. I put mine back in the can.
Cool, thanks! Maybe I’ll need this if there is a swimming competition after the world ends. You never know…
Damn i have never thought about using pine pitch to shave with , and me being from the deep, deep south where pine is so abundant . Well i have seen
some pine pitch used for removing a splinter or bee stinger , but never hair .
It could be that im a guy and just never thunk it . I like this blog yall make me
laugh . Im way down here in the longest bayou in the United States , 359 miles long born here raised up here . I can’t wait to read more from yall . bye…
Just a reflection: real primy would be not minding shaving at all! Its a better alternative in all ways, because peeling and shaving always opens the pores to infections, not to mention that hair has a purpose both in winter and summer, protecting us in different ways.
I respectfully disagree, well it depends on the definition of primy, but most primitive cultures go to elaborate lengths for beauty, and hair removal is just one thing that could happen. In indigenous cultures the norms, taboos, rules, style etc. are much more structured and rigorous if anything. In the USA although there is a dominant culture, anything goes, pretty much. I have a choice of whether to remove my hair to fit into the larger culture or keep my hair to define myself as a member of a certain subculture. In Portland oregon it really doesn’t matter. I don’t mind hair. I go back and forth with the leg hair. I hardly ever remove any pubic hair because the costs (pain and discomfort) override whatever benefits there might be. I would love to hear more about the protective mechanisms of hair, but I didn’t get any infections from the pine pitch waxing process. I get more wounds climbing through the brambles, and lets not even get started with piercing. I think that letting average people know that there are primitive “environmentally friendly” alternatives to any “need” they might have, is an important part of breaking the corporate cycle, even if we may deem such “needs” silly, or extravagant. Basically there is a stereotype that in order to live off the land you have to be dirty and eat sparingly and sleep on the cold hard ground, and of course that is not true, although a viable alternative as well.
Is pine pitch toxic….as terpentine is said to be?
I have been collecting Pine pitch, resin,sap, thinking it’s all the same…but Im not sure….I made a lovly salve with Virgin raw coconut oil and local bees wax and it’s awesome as a foot cream, Ihavn’t had a reaction…..just pleasure,
But I dont know if there may be a long term use effect that may be toxic…
Please share your thoughts.
Thanks,
Sandi