Why I Got the 'Manzilian' Wax

Jed Lipinksi didn’t realize it at first, but it would prove to be impossible for him to write a story about male waxing without getting waxed himself. After steadfastly declining several offers, Lipinski found himself getting a “Manzilian” from none other than Janea Padilha herself, the inventor of the Brazilian. And “the pain was almost unbearable,” he writes on Salon. “Afterwards, I felt shaky and emotional, but invigorated, as if I’d just walked away from a car accident unscathed.”

Along the way, Lipinski gleaned various fun facts about manscaping, which is growing in popularity. Among the more amusing tidbits: Women are “not comfortable with their husbands and boyfriends getting waxed by other men,” Padilha says, but men are concerned about becoming aroused by a female waxer—so, one aesthetician explains, “we hire only older women for the waxing, like your grandmother.” One 35-year-old female waxer explains why: Some men assume “that since they're naked, you're gonna give them head,” she says, recalling a time a client got so aggressive she had to taze him.
(More Brazilian wax stories.)