CULTURE: Want to get 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.

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.