DIY Brazilian (Yes, It Is Possible)

I love the Brazilian wax look. A full bush is so not my moment. But here’s the thing—on a very visceral level, I loathe getting waxed. I always marvel at the women who skip off to their wax appointments every six weeks or so, take the hideously violent ripping out of their pubes like a champ, and move on with their lives. Every time I’ve gotten a professional Brazilian wax, I’ve left traumatized. Shaking, cold, feverish, skittish. When I was a beauty editor at Lucky magazine, I was actually kicked out of a famous hair removal spa because my loud yelps were making clients in the waiting room nervous. I’m not positive I’m allowed back. 

So, I do my own Brazilians, at home. No, I don’t bother with impossible-to-use waxes or harsh depilatories (I once burned my cha-cha so badly I had to wear skirts for a week, even though it was 9 degrees outside). I shave. I learned how to do this from my pole dance instructor at Sheila Kelley’s S Factor studio. As a competitive-level dancer, it’s obviously unseemly to perform insane gymnastic feats on the pole with a wild vaj. And during competition season, she needed to be butterball bald constantly—no time for the growing-in period that happens when you wax. So she started shaving.

Don’t be scared, it’s not hard at all. First of all, I do this in the bath, not the shower (this requires a bit of inspired positioning, you could slip and fall). Make sure the razor’s sharp! I use a lightweight hair conditioner as shave cream, and squat, sitting on my heels, with my legs spread wide.

Yikes, this is sounding pornographic.  

Anyway, then I just go to town. Note: when you get to your delicate, hidden ladybits down below, make sure you spread your skin flat between your index finger and thumb, before you shave. If you try to shave soft vaj skin, you’ll nick yourself. Also, please, please only shave in the direction of hair growth. If you do the opposite, you’ll get ingrowns something terrible. Afterwards, I slather on a post-shave, anti-bump cream to prevent razor bumps (like Bikini Zone Medicated After-Shave Gel). 

This is a lot easier than it sounds. When my instructor first suggested DIY shave-Brazilians, I recoiled in horror. That was two years ago—now, I can’t imagine doing anything else. I get in there, get 'er done, and I’m finished in less than two minutes. Try it! Your hoo-hah will thank you for sparing her those medieval waxes.

Tia Williams has been a beauty editor for 15 years, at publications like Elle, Glamour, Lucky, and Essence.com. Back in 2005, Tia created one of the first beauty blogs, Shake Your Beauty, where she wove her love of products through hilarious vignettes from her life as a beauty expert and mom living in Brooklyn. She’s also written several books, including the best-selling novel The Accidental Diva and supermodel Iman’s The Beauty of Color. Follow Tia on Twitter @shakeyourbeauty.