the Price of a Bikini Wax

The service involved removal of hair from male genitalia and the surrounding area. Other waxing services include shaping hair into various designs, waxing eyebrows, and waxing larger areas from legs to full body waxing. Price varies with the complication of the procedure and the area that needs to be waxed.

General services included masks and massages and other various beauty treatments.

I probably won't do this again, and I probably wouldn't have done it in the first place if I hadn't lost a bet. The nature of the bet would probably be interesting to readers because it's rather embarrassing, and I might be willing to share the details if I were drunk, but I'm not, so I won't. I will say, though, that winning would certainly have been a lot better for me.

In any case, after losing the bet I went to the nearest waxing shop and paid the woman behind the counter to do the deed of waxing my privates. Being rather nervous about the ordeal to come, I wasn't really paying attention to my surroundings as I was led back to a private room with what seemed to be a massage table. I was joined shortly by the woman who was to wax me, an aesthetician.

I stripped from the waist down, got up on the table, and as the aesthetician was prepping the wax I asked whether she'd ever done this to a guy before. She applied the wax and said, "no, not on a guy, but plenty of girls," and started into pulling out my hair.

Lots of screaming ensued. And I got to see my bits stretched quite beyond what I'd expected them to be able to survive. I got called a big baby and was told girls were far less dramatic about getting waxed than I was. That there was a girl screaming in the next room over told me she wasn't being entirely honest. Or maybe that was an echo.

I walked out bowlegged and my skin was red and very sensitive, in a bad way, to touch. The redness lasted for a couple days and the skin stayed smooth for nearly two months before the hair grew back enough to be noticeable.

As far as pleasant experiences go, this is up there with the night I spent in jail, but the staff of the beauty shop did everything they could to make the experience tolerable. The things some people do for vanity. And to settle bets.

My girlfriend did enjoy the feel of the smooth skin, though, after she got over her amusement at my predicament.

If you're a guy, don't. Just don't. Not unless you've convinced yourself you can justify the need to for sports like cycling or swimming or bodybuilding. Most of us get to be grateful society accepts us being the hairy lugs we are.

If you're a girl, and it's your first time being waxed, know that it really really hurts. A lot. More than you think it's going to. Really. I understand that people become desensitized to it after repeated applications, and can even come to enjoy the endorphin rush that comes with enduring the pain, but that doesn't change the fact that the first time you do it, it's going to hurt.

To make the experience easier, look for a place where everything says "relax, you're safe." The smells, the sounds, the colors of the walls, the demeanor of the staff, the cleanliness of the amenities, they should all be relaxing and comfortable to you. If you're not comfortable, walk away. It's not worth making an already unpleasant experience worse.

Before you get waxed, if you're waxing an area you usually shave, let the hair grow out a while so the wax has something to grab onto. A week is a good length of time, two is better. But one last thing to note is that your hair does not grow back "thinner and finer" like the commercials say. Waxing rips hair out by the root, which kills the follicle the hair was growing in. As hair grows back in new follicles, they'll start with finer tips and you won't get the stubble you'd feel as hair grows back after shaving, but it won't change at all how thick your hair grows back. That's controlled by genetics. And since it will take a few weeks before the hair is noticeable, you might forget what it felt like before, when you had stubble, or even hair, and that will contribute to the confusion.