You’re familiar with the Brazilian, a simple word that becomes cringe-worthy once you realize what it is . Now there’s a male version of the bikini wax, dubbed the “Boyzilian”, and guess what? It’s getting pretty popular.
In an age where men can get a tan, a manicure, or a facial and stand conveniently alongside their masculinity so long as they adopt the safe-word “metrosexual”, a bikini wax seems a little far-fetched. But the Boyzilian is catching fire with all-comers in New York . “What we’re finding is, it’s everybody,” said Mike Indursky, the president of the Bliss chain of spas, which calls their version the Ultimate He-Wax. “It’s the gay community, it’s the straight community, it’s very conservative guys, it’s very liberal guys. All different age groups are coming in. It’s much, much bigger than we ever thought.”
But why subject yourself to that? A 32-year-old Murray Hill music producer has been getting the Boyzilian for about two years, mostly as “an extension of my overall presentation”, adding that if he expects women he dates to woman-scape, he should probably do the same. “If I have that expectation of someone else, I probably would want to return the favor,” he said.
Some guys might do it for the visual-effect. A clean-cut trouser-snake looks… ahem… bigger. “It accentuates it, because there’s nothing to obscure the, you know, implement down there,” said Ramon Padilla, the director of Strip: Ministry of Waxing, a salon in SoHo, which does the Boyzilian for $85.
Cleanliness too. “It’s routine for me now,” says Pirooz Sarshar, a men’s grooming expert who has been giving himself Brazilians for 12 years. “I do the whole thing myself. I feel better, it looks better. I feel like I’m cleaner, and its more sanitary.”
And the pain isn’t such a great turn-off either. Salon owners are saying that men keep coming back. “Guys try it and look and go, ‘It’s better than the mess I had down there,’ ” said Mr. Indursky of Bliss. “And it is. You feel more confident. It actually makes you feel more masculine, instead of less masculine, to get waxed. It sounds like an oxymoron, but it’s not.” However, some are sent on behalf of their partners, according to Mr. Padilla of Strip. “The vast majority say they’re doing it because their wife or their girlfriend told them to do it,” he said. “The wives bring them,” saying “If I’m going to do it, you better do it as well.”
What do you think? Is the Boyzilian for you?
