Real women don't wear fur

The `Brazilian' bikini wax is taking New York by storm - but it's not for the faint-hearted. By Sharon Krum

Forget about going the Full Monty. This season everyone's going the Full Naomi. Everyone in New York, that is, who can get an appointment at a beauty salon called J. Sisters International, to undergo the trendy but seriously painful practice of pubic hair waxing. Seriously.

Whether you want the "pornstar" rectangular strip look, or a wax trip right back to your pre-pubescence, these girls can deliver the goods. Oh, and in case you are curious about the impact on you sex life, know this. Devotees swear your man will be so turned on by your Lolita persona he can easily dispense with the Viagra.

Diplomatically called the "Brazilian" bikini wax, and favoured by supermodel Naomi Campbell among other high wattage celebrities, (Naomi was in the salon the day the Independent on Sunday called), the Brazilian wax has superseded the standard bikini wax by about 10,000 hairs and has New York women clamouring for appointments."The Brazilian wax is a great wax because it cleans everything away," Campbell said last week in the New York Observer. "The business I'm in, I need to do that and I'm supposed to do that. They don't ask me to do it, but I just feel free to do it on my own. I just do it for my own personal reasons."

According to Jonice Padilha, one of six Brazilian-born sisters who run the super-hot salon on West 57th St, the boom in Brazilian waxing has a lot to do with what Campbell slyly described as "personal reasons". Some women go the Full Naomi, she confides, as a little secret between themselves and their lovers. Others can act out a porn star or stripper fantasy. Men, she swears, find it highly erotic to be with a fuzz-free woman.

"I know for me it is more sensual, you feel more open for intimate sex," she said, alluding to Monica Lewinsky-preferred behaviour. "It does make a difference. You feel clean." She shoots down suggestions from critics that a Brazilian wax is a step back for women, regressing them to the days when they were hairless and probably boyfriendless, save for a poster of David Cassidy on the wall. "Men love it, it's true. It's a fantasy for some to be with schoolgirls. But women tell me they love it too. They feel sexier, freer."

For the faint-hearted, stop reading now. The Brazilian wax takes up to 20 minutes and costs US$45. Either sister Janea, Jussarra or Juracy will baby powder your nether regions, then drip hot brown wax directly on the site. You are then covered with a cloth that rips the hairs out along with the wax. Every inch of the vulva is covered, including the labia. "Sometimes I walk by and hear screams, but then seconds later they are laughing," says Jonice.

The six sisters moved from Vitoria, Brazil to Manhattan 12 years ago to start a nail salon, adding new beauty treatments as they expanded. The Brazilian wax has long been a staple of South American life, says Jonice, but they were unsure it would fly north of the equator. "In Brazil, with bikinis so small, it is part of my culture. But how it would go in New York, we had no idea. It started slowly, but now its a bombshell," she gushes. "We have a two week wait, and we can do up to 200 women a day."

The J. Sisters clientele reads like a movie premiere guest list. Along with Naomi there is Kirstie Alley, Kyra Sedgwick, Jennifer Grey, Tracy Pollan, Christy Turlington and Vanessa Williams, who all submit their lower halves to the sisters.

There are also magazine editors, trust fund babies, and senior citizens. Why should pretty young things have all the fun? "We have 65-year-old women who come in and tell us how much their husbands love it. They tell me they wish they had done the Brazilian wax years ago." If only Freud were alive to see this. So much for penis envy.