New Jersey’s reputation for big-haired women may have just been taken to the next level: The state is considering enforcing its ban on Brazilian bikini waxes. As Reason says, when hairless genitalia is banned, only bandits will have hairless genitalia.
The state Board of Cosmetology and Hairstyling is moving toward a ban on genital waxing altogether after two women reported being injured in their quest for a smooth bikini line.
Both women were hospitalized for infections following so-called “Brazilian” bikini waxes; one of the women has filed a lawsuit, according to Jeff Lamm, a spokesman for New Jersey’s Division of Consumer Affairs, which oversees the cosmetology board.
Technically, genital waxing has never been allowed — only the face, neck, abdomen, legs and arms are permitted — but because bare-it-all “Brazilians” weren’t specifically banned, state regulators haven’t enforced the law.
“The genital area is not part of the abdomen or legs as some might assume,” Lamm said.
…well there’s your first problem.
Spa owner Linda Orsuto, who owns 800 West Salon & Spa in Cherry Hill, estimates that most of 1,800 bikini waxes performed at her business last year were Brazilian-style.
“It’s huge,” she said, adding that her customers don’t think their bikini lines are anyone’s business but their own. “It’s just not right.”
She said many customers would likely travel across state lines to get it and some might even try to wax themselves.
Back-alley Brazilians and do-it-yourself waxes are no fun for anyone involved.
I’m all for greater health department oversight of salons — some of the practices I’ve seen are pretty disgusting. One of the more common ones is re-using those popsickle stick things on the same client — putting wax on the stick, using the stick to spread the wax on the client’s skin, and then putting the stick back in the wax and re-spreading. It’s not sanitary, since wax isn’t hot enough to kill all the potential germs you just redeposited into the vat. When you’re dealing with the innermost folds and countours of someone’s most private parts, you don’t want unsanitary conditions. Or, to put it more blunty, I don’t want someone else’s buttcrack germs spread all over my crotch. Waxing can also cause burns and ripped-off skin if done improperly. So please, New Jersey and other states, regulate away so that people don’t walk out of their salons with infections and open wounds.
But banning a bare beaver? There are surely problematic aspects to waxing — including the usual feminist and gender issues, which we’ve all spent more than enough time navel-gazing (vulva-gazing?) about — but are Brazilians really so physically and socially problematic that we need to ban them? Maybe I’m just getting old, but the Brazilian craze seems to have died down a bit anyway. The salon I go to now offers a “French” wax, which isn’t as extreme as a Brazilian, because there was a demand for something not quite as bare. Seems to me that, regardless of the pubic hair trend du jour or my own feminist views on waxing,* health departments should be regulating public health and safety, not pube design. Certainly the great state of New Jersey could find something better to do with its bureaucratic spare time. Although if they are going to waste time and resources micromanaging the aesthetics of the local beaver population, I know at least one guy who may be interested in helping out.
Thanks to Tom Foolery for the link.
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*Those views, for the curious: I don’t really care.