WAX !

I promised, so I have to do it correctly…

Why de hell would a post on bikini wax could be interesting? Well, because you always find unexpected things when you travel…

First of all, in France, according to my personal knowledge and relations, it seems most people would shave legs and underarms, they might shave bikini too most of the time if they are not too hairy ;). But more and more girls want something lasting longer, so you can wax yourself (if you’re motivated to get dirty) or go to the beauty salon, but students usually wouldn’t have money (and time :p)… So, we now use an epilator (see pic), and is used this way (see pic). Just in case some people don’t know what it means, epilating means removing the whole hair with its root, whereas shaving just superficially cuts a piece of the hair. And the epilator is a kind of multiple forceps that turns and removes several hairs at once.

So, most of the time now, in France (according to me ^^), girls would shave if they don’t have time and need an urgent nice body (swimming? J), but would epilate once in a while. Most of the time, they shave their underarms, but maybe once in a while will wax it (some…). And for bikini, only some rare friends of mine are brave enough to get used to use the epilator in this critical zone, most of them will go to the beauty salon and wax once in a while. Bikini wax actually technically means THIS… Don’t be shy :-o! Ha ha ha, and get ready for torture :p…

So, what did I learn when I was travelling. The first very surprising thing that we found out with my travel companion of that time, in United States, they don’t know about epilator… At all! Which was obviously a problem to buy one… That was a real trouble… We could find it nowhere, no epilator in shops or supermarket… Nowhere… We finally had to turn ourselves to internet to find smthg… That was really surprising… When I finally asked my flatmate about it she was like… But this must be painful, why would you do that?... I was really amazed… In US, razors are ruling the country…

That was really surprising, everyone expects US to be first in technology… I mean not first, because the creators are Japanese :p, but at least have it all… Well no, they don’t have epilators, and don’t know what it is…

And you know why this information is relevant?... Because it is a hint to indicate that there are probably other cases like that, where actually, US has no clue.. And I think in a sense it is quite a relief to think that even in our united world, there are some mysteries hidden from one place to another, and people can still discover new things, and knowledge J… Ok, I know epilation is not the most interesting topic in the world, but who would have imagine that I would explain someone is an epilator and how it works… Well no one, which is why you can learn so much by travelling J… he he he

Ok, next…

What did I learn in

Japan

?…

Well actually I was not sure about my initial theories about Japan before coming, until I talked to a friend of my housemate (here in Melbourne) who actually had the exact same thought.

What was this thought? Well easy, Japan stereotype is to be the cleanest freaks worldwide, or in other words, they are very peaky, and having a shower and bathing has another dimension in history, and is also related with family. In Japan, in many families, when children are young, everyone cleans altogether. And then later, everyone takes a shower, and when clean enough, share the same water kept clean because the shower is taken before the bath. In the past, public bath were very common and used by everyone, and bathing was becoming a sort of special occasion. It seems that, even if now in every Japanese apartment there is a mini public bath as a waterproof room with a little bath and shower, the evening shower/bath still has a special status.

So, after this little introduction about cleanliness in Japan, maybe you will understand that my theory about shaving/waxing there would firstly be a priority of hygiene… Therefore, what is the most hygienic possibility? As we can conclude with the fact that you’re shaved for any kind of surgery, the most hygienic possibility is to remove everything…

That’s what I thought, in

Japan

, girls probably just remove any hair, everywhere.

And my housemate’s friend, here, told me exactly the same thing, she didn’t go to public bath there because she was unsure about how to take care of her hair… But she thought that if she’d go she would just be “bold”, on her own terms :p if you see what I mean…

Well, the answer is, we were wrong…

Ok, Japanese girls are not that hairy that’s for sure, but, whatever, most girls I’ve seen in onsen (3 different ones J), any age category, don’t bikini shave or wax… They just leave it as it is, it seems… (maybe they discretely remove some on the sides in case of beach?...)

And they on the contrary take care of any other hair: underarms, legs, and even shave their whole face (which is a technique to enable make-up to stick better…)…

Personally, I don’t really care, it is a matter of preferences… :p

Any hypothesis of why?

Well, according to a French guy who lived in Japan too for quite a while, girls don’t shave “there” because they would be considered as “easy girls” who have sex all the time… Hmm… Could it be true? Well another hint could make us believe this theory.

A Japanese friend of mind told me most Japanese girl wouldn’t go to see a gynecologist for the same reasons, because it is considered “dirty”… So Japanese girls don’t often check STD or cervical cancer, and most of them don’t take the pill and, hopefully, use condoms…

Japan has the reputation of having the least sexual activity worldwide (according to a durex study…), so maybe they still have less risk to get STD hopefully…

Anyway, surprising?... I thought it was, but more about this contradiction with hygiene…

In

Australia

, it seems to be more comparable with

France

, they know about epilator, and bikini wax once in a while ^^. The only difference I found is, guys can also go for epilation in Beauty salon. Whereas in

France

, except if you’re in

Paris

where you have specialized mixed beauty salon, or have a good friend to do it for you, guys cannot go for a wax in a beauty salon because of the problems of sexual harassment… Isn’t that stupid… So, definitely and as I already felt it, the gay community is well accepted and very present here in

Melbourne

, it’s very confortable.

That’s it for the bikini topic. Hope you enjoyed it :p

Here’s a little picture I randomly found ha ha ha… OUCH !