Carly, if you can't find someone who regularly has/uses hard wax then I would stay with hot/strip waxing. I had one person use hard wax and made me cry, when another aesthetician came in she asked if she could try it, it was much better.
The perk to hard wax is the same area can be re-applied if good depillation (?sp) didn't occur. If you keep reapplying hot wax to the same area, it will become more sensitive (and red/irritated the next day). This is what I was told anyway, I'm not an expert.
My aesthetician uses both types for bikini/brazilian waxes.