Wax-o-rama!

Update 1:

I tried Felicia's suggestion and went to Day Spa in Hannam-dong. The atmosphere is better and the cost is higher. Most important, I think the woman who worked on me was better, um, more thorough.

Their number and how to get there is below in the comments just in case you want to try them.

Between the two, I think it's a clear win for Day Spa but if you want fast (like you're leaving for Bora Bora tomorrow) you might want to chip 10k off the price, say "sod atmosphere" and just go to the Green Turtle. They have two locations, so barring everyone going to Bora Bora on the same day they most definitely would be able to squeeze you in.

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You know I was thinking maybe this is a bit on the TMI, too much information, side of the fence. However, it's rare that I blog about the truly personal stuff in my life outside of my health or situations where someone has irritated the living crap out of me. Outside of that, I mostly keep my blogging to my opinions on this, that, or the other.

With summer approaching I figured it was time for a wax. Yeah, I know...ouch. However, I think the whole "ouch" factor is overdone so that people can just let others know they've gotten a wax. I figure screw that! Just get a blog and write about it. The whole Internet will know you've got one. That's just my humor actually. You can't help having a bit of an off color sense of humor when your parents watch reruns of the Benny Hill Show and let you stay up and watch it too.

The primary reason I'm doing this is to try to build a case that Seoul is more of a modern city than people realize. You can't deny that a city is modern when you can pay someone to rip the hair off of your nether regions with warm wax. Also, it's pretty obvious that most of the K-bloggers are dudes and they're talking about dude stuff and getting into comment wars with each other. The female K-bloggers should blog about our stuff at least every now and then. And maybe have nice comment discussions rather than brawls.

Anyway, the thing I must admit was that the prospect of getting one done here made me more than a bit nervous. I mean this is a society where a full bush is seen as a good thing and a sign of fertility (yeah, whatever...with a few exceptions all healthy adults posses pubic hair). Out of sheer fear of the unknown I got one when I went home to L.A. before I went on the cruise o' much fun in February. My waxer Jodi Shays is just incredible. However, Jodi doesn't make trips to Seoul and I've yet to graduate to the "jetting to the States every few weeks" strata of expatriate. After waiting a bit too long for a redo, I went today and it wasn't as bad as I imagined it would be.

Now I'm writing this because I'm sure this can be a dilemma if you don't know where to go. There are two spots in the Itaewon area of Seoul that do bikini and Brazilian waxes pretty much on a walk in basis. It's the same salon that has two locations. The Green Turtle is located on the third floor above the Coffee Bean which is across from the Hamilton Hotel. The other location is just behind the Hamilton Hotel and Hard Rock Cafe. It will cost you 30,000 won for a bikini wax and 60,000 for a Brazilian. I'm sure there are other spots in Seoul like the Apkujeong area that has reputable places. I'll do my research and report back in due time with an update.

I think shaving is from the dark ages, of course, those who have gotten laser treatment think waxing is from the dark ages. I guess it's all relative.

For those who want to know, here is the contact info for the Green Turtle locations. In the Coffee Bean building: 02-790-6696 or 02-790-6266. The one behind the Hamilton Hotel: 02-790-6059 or 02-795-0588.

Some people have a beef with this establishment. Just run a search for "Brazilian wax and Seoul" and you'll find a thread on the ESL Cafe on it. I'm assuming their reasons are legit, but keep in mind there are a lot of expats here who have issues with just about everything Korea presents to them. That is take it with a grain of salt, realize where you are and maybe try it for yourself and make your own decision. It can't be worse than the reactions on that YouTube video ;-)

Some funny waxing blogs:
Jezebel: Benny The Tech Geek Gets A Bikini Wax
and another: How The Brazilian Explains The World. The second one has now set off some strange ass bikini waxing feud...which is written about here: The Shine blog at Yahoo!: When did getting a bikini wax become a crime?

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