The male resistance to waxing is melting away By Olivia Barker, USA TODAY
Wed Aug 24, 7:02 AM ET



They skulk in, alone or dragged by their wives or girlfriends - follicularly endowed fellows seeking a drastic solution to their body hair hang-ups: waxing.

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"They're somewhat scared and kind of shy because it's new to them," says Hector Peña, general manager of Manhattan's Nickel. The spa for men has seen a surge over the past two years in the number of clients willing to subject their skin to those strips of white muslin all in the name of confidence - on the beach and in bed.


Backs, shoulders, chests, brows and (gulp) nethers are increasingly fair game for de-furring. (Or "manscaping," as Queer Eye for the Straight Guy's Fab Five call it.) Forget the tufted torsos epitomized by heretofore hunks like Burt Reynolds and Tom Selleck - they've gone the way of the gold medallion necklace.


Hollywood is taking a hard line against hairiness this year. Consider Hitch's Will Smith, who counsels Kevin James that dating success is as dependent on a fuzz-free back as dancing skills. In My Date with Drew, Brian Herzlinger sees his Chia chest as an impediment to snagging a snuggle session with Drew Barrymore. (Maybe he shouldn't have worried: Barrymore revealed her hirsute armpits at Marc Jacobs' February show, to much clucking from the follicle-phobic fashion flock.)


And then there's The 40-Year-Old Virgin's Steve Carell, who, in the summer's most painfully memorable scene, has ape-ish abs reduced to what Paul Rudd dubs a "man-o-lantern." (Carell, who really did go under the wax-smeared spatula, aborts the procedure after a few patches are yanked off.)


Having too much body hair is akin to having too little head hair, says Stan Williams, fashion and grooming director of Maxim magazine. "A lot of guys are concerned about it, but it's not something you really talk about."


At Nickel, where waxing is the most popular treatment, 60% of the appointments are made by women on behalf of their husbands or boyfriends. Customers range from twentysomethings to fifty-somethings, Wall Street types to truckers. "Girls inquire all the time, 'What do I need to do to get him to come in there?' " says Peña, who began turning his unibrow into two on the advice of a girlfriend.


Not all men are convinced. "Chest hair is back, like fanny packs and aviators," says Jonah Enbar, 20, a rising senior at Northwestern University. "I want it to grow."


Body hair "makes you a man. It's a maturity thing," says Bates College senior Chris Robinson, 21. "I bet it would be ridiculously painful" to take off. But he could be persuaded: "If a girl asked me, yeah, I would do it."


Still, Williams waxes horrific about the eyebrow-raising extremes. "Go to any club and look at these young guys" who have thinned their brows to Norma Desmond wisps. "It's pretty frightening."


When it comes to his chest, the average man clips it or simply lives with it, Williams says. If it's a source of relationship anxiety, "then why are you with (that person)?"


Waxing makes up 35% to 40% of the business at Joq Day Spa for Men in Atlanta. "Men are just becoming a lot more conscious of what their body looks like," spa director Christopher Keever says. "They realize you don't need to go around looking like the missing link."


Even cowboys get the back-hair blues. At Napoleon's for Men, a 2-year-old hot-shave-and-haircut hangout in Boise, guys who are no strangers to reins and rifles will occasionally call and ask whether waxing hurts. "I say, 'You can handle it,' " receptionist Dayna Ross says.


Fear not: Williams says there's a reprieve in sight for those with Brillo-padded pecs. Fall fashion is "woodsy," he says. "So when you emasculate the guy and whip off his hair," it doesn't jibe with what's on the runway - no matter that the men modeling those clothes are as smooth as Michael Jordan's pate

I consider hair on a man sexy and manly. I wouldn't try to drag him to the salon with me. I would make an exception for back hair, but that is it.

Mach said:

That's just as ignorant as saying a guy who shaves is not very masculine.

Kind of silly

Smooches;)

of course, now the hip thing with the gays is to be hairy again. don't worry, guys - in about two years, it'll be hip for you guys again, too.

elusivefatale said:

ditto. If it's totally unruly, trimming works nice. But no need to remove.

elusivefatale said:

What kind of Oximoronic Hypocritical statement is this!

CarrieMpls said:

exactly.

Has anyone seen Cynthia Socks?