Image via iStock.
Vaginas are special. How special? Well, for a start, they have their very own and very specialised doctor. And if your gynaecologist was your best friend, you’d probably consider asking her if you were normal? Right?
As a Brazilian waxer, I’m not considered an expert of the female anatomy and I’m possibly not your best friend, but my number one, most commonly asked question in the salon?
I bet you can guess.
“Am I normal?” It’s asked by nearly every client, virtually every day, and in some of the most awkwardly positioned situations (usually when my head is somewhere between their legs). (Post continues after gallery.)
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So why is it so important to be normal? Who critiques it? And did the Brazilian waxing trend expose what’s been stashed under our pubes for years?
RELATED: “The story of my first Brazilian wax.”
I’m never at all sure what to tell my clients, I just want to ease their worries. When bikini waxing morphed into the Brazilian, our lady bits were more exposed than ever, unmasked and on display. I used to think vaginas looked the same; after all, my sisters and I aren’t that dissimilar.
From where I was standing, I quickly realised vaginas came in all shapes and sizes - they are as unique as our fingerprints, and as individual as snowflakes. But mostly, we’re not that different from one another.
Vaginas come in all forms. It has nothing to do with how much sex you’ve had or how many children you’ve borne naturally.
RELATED: "5 things every Brazilian waxer wishes you would stop doing."
As a waxer, I don’t spend too much time looking "down there", I tell my clients, "I’m looking, but I’m not looking!" I’m paying far more attention to the pubic hair – which direction it is growing in, how much there is and the amount of time in which I have to get it all off.
I am particularly hairy, so for me, I’m never too concerned with how a vagina looks; I want to know how hairy they are!
My bikini line starts just above my right knee and continues right around to my left. My hair is thick and dark and I need to wax on a monthly basis. (Post continues after gallery.)
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Very few have the opportunity to see things from my angle, so how do they look? Some are wrinkly, some smooth; some have clitoral piercings while others have moles and scars.
Some have longer or shorter labia and some have bright orange short and curlies (the most difficult pubic hair colour to wax I might add).
Several of my clients with ginger pubic hair who dye with eyelash tint, or coat with mascara so that they appear more ‘normal’!
If we look at illustrations in medical books or photographs in soft porn magazines, the vagina is normally pink; it’s neat and tucked-in, is virtually hairless and has the outer lips larger than the inner lips. (Post continues after video.)
It’s completely normal not to be text-book perfect; but there’s very little out there to compare ourselves with. And besides, if you’re flipping through soft porn magazines, the images have been photo-shopped and digitally butchered, just like every other magazine image we are exposed to – they simply don’t show the genitalia for what they are.
It’s simply the way we are built. Knowing and accepting our unique ‘genital geography’ isn't something mothers usually pass along to their daughters, but it's something every woman should learn.
Are you self-conscious of your 'genital geography'?
