If you heard the term Brazilian 30 years ago, it was most likely used to describe a person native to Brazil—not a term to describe a bikini wax. Although being hair-free down there has been recorded in history as early as the ancient Egyptians, it was only in 1982 when the waxing style hit the spas of North America.
Although it may seem like a modern grooming practice, removing pubic hair is not exactly a new concept. The earliest traceable origins of hair removal stem from the ancient Egyptians, who used homemade tweezers, pumice stones, and beeswax to remove all the hair from their body (including down there). Skipping forward 3,000 years to the Roman Empire, it was once considered uncivilized to have any pubic hair. Successful men and women would create their own razors out of flints, use tweezers, creams, and stones to remove unwanted hair. If you notice, many paintings during this time depicted women as fairly hairless. It wasn’t until the late 1800s when American entrepreneur King C. Gillette patented the first safe, disposable razor for men that hair removal started to become more customary.
Over the modern decades, new forms of hair removal came to the market. However, hair removal from a woman’s nether region was rarely a part of the conversation. That is, until the late 1980s when the phenomenon known as the Brazilian wax came to North America. In 1982, seven sisters from Brazil immigrated to America, leaving successful salons in their hometown of Vitoria, Brazil. Despite the language barrier, the sisters gained experience in other salons and slowly built a clientele of celebrities and magazine editors. In 1987, all seven sisters, with names starting with a J, opened the now infamous J. Sisters Salon in downtown Manhattan. The business did quite well in its early years, but it really started to gain attention once they introduced the “extreme bikini wax.”
They had been creating a bare canvas out of women’s nether regions for years in Brazil, as it is customary to wear tiny bikinis there, but nothing like it had yet been introduced to mainstream America. Due to their clientele of well-connected celebrities and magazine editors, it didn’t take long for this trend to spread across the country and infiltrate almost every local salon and spa. As the pioneers of this new era of self-grooming, the wax is named the Brazilian to commemorate them.
The Brazilian has become more popular over the years and is now considered the norm of hair removal. A 2016 survey conducted by JAMA Dermatology found that 62 percent of American women remove all of their pubic hair consistently. Brazilian waxing specialists offer a variety of different waxing styles with high-grade wax infused with essential oils, which helps reduce pain in more sensitive areas. We understand having a Brazilian wax can be a nerve-wracking, vulnerable experience.
Conclusion
While the Brazilian wax may seem like a modern trend, its roots trace back through history, with influences from ancient Egyptian and Roman grooming practices. The Brazilian wax gained mainstream popularity in the late 1980s, thanks to the innovative efforts of seven Brazilian sisters. Today, it is a widely accepted and practiced form of hair removal, offering women a convenient and effective solution for maintaining smooth, hair-free skin.
