Brazilian Bikini Waxes Make Crab Lice Endangered Species Bloomberg

Brazilian Bikini Waxes Make Crab Lice Endangered Species - Bloomberg Pubic lice, the crab-shaped insectsthat have dwelled in human groins since the beginning of history,are disappearing. Doctors say bikini waxing may be the reason. Waning infestations of the bloodsuckers have been linked bydoctors to pubic depilation, especially a technique popularizedin the 1990s by a Manhattan salon run by seven Brazilian sisters.More than 80 percent of college students in the U.S. remove allor some of their pubic hair -- part of a trend that"s increasingin western countries. In Australia, Sydney"s main sexual healthclinic hasn"t seen a woman with pubic lice since 2008 and malecases have fallen 80 percent from about 100 a decade ago. "It used to be extremely common; it"s now rarely seen,"said Basil Donovan, head of sexual health at the University ofNew South Wales"s Kirby Institute and a physician at the SydneySexual Health Centre. "Without doubt, it"s better grooming." The trend suggests an alternative way of stemming one ofthe globe"s most contagious sexually transmitted infections.Pubic lice are usually treated with topical insecticides, whichonce included toxic ones developed before and during World War 2.While they aren"t known to spread disease, itchy skin reactionsand subsequent infections make pubic lice a hazardous pest.

Photographer: Dado Galdieri/Bloomberg Growing up on the Brazilian coast, the owners of the J Sisters Salon routinely waxed to... Read More Growing up on the Brazilian coast, the owners of the J Sisters Salon routinely waxed to accommodate the ever shrinking bikinis worn on the beach. In 1994, they introduced the waxing technique at their New York Salon. Close

CloseOpenPhotographer: Dado Galdieri/Bloomberg Growing up on the Brazilian coast, the owners of the J Sisters Salon routinely waxed to accommodate the ever shrinking bikinis worn on the beach. In 1994, they introduced the waxing technique at their New York Salon. Clipping, waxing and shaving the groin destroy the optimalhabitat of pubic lice. The practice has helped spur sales ofdepilatory products for companies such as Procter & Gamble Co. (PG)and Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc. (RB/) P&G, Reckitt Benckiser The global market for depilatories was worth $4.69 billionlast year, according to London-based Euromonitor InternationalLtd., which estimates sales increased at a 7.6 percent averageannual clip the past decade. Cincinnati-based P&G, Slough,England-based Reckitt Benckiser and Energizer Holdings Inc. (ENR),based in St. Louis, dominate the market, which Euromonitorpredicts will reach $5.6 billion by 2016. A majority of college men and women in the U.S. andAustralia remove all or part of their pubic hair, researchers atKenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, reported in a 2011 paper,citing surveys and research by other scholars. In the U.K., 99percent of women older than 16 years remove some hair, mostcommonly from the under arms, legs and pubic area, a 2005 studyfound. Brazilian waxing took off internationally in the early2000s, possibly spurred by the attention it was given ontelevision shows such as Sex and the City, said Spring CooperRobbins, a senior lecturer and sexual health researcher at theUniversity of Sydney. J Sisters Salon About a block from New York"s famous Fifth Avenue shoppingstrip, women in fur coats and Louis Vuitton handbags are filingin and out of a beauty salon on a recent Friday afternoon. Theyperch on metallic silver and red floral sofas in the receptionlocated in a Midtown Manhattan office building, waiting for awoman dressed in white to escort them to a waxing room. The shop run by Jonice Padilha and her sisters Jocely,Janea, Joyce, Juracy, Jussara and Judeseia may be ground zero inthe war on pubic lice. Growing up in the Brazilian coastal cityof Vitoria, the sisters, like other women there, routinely waxedtheir pubic hair off to accommodate the ever shrinking bikinisworn on the beach. In 1994, they introduced the waxing technique at the JSisters nail salon they opened in 1986. Things exploded fromthere, Padilha said. About 200 clients a day, including celebrities such asSarah Jessica Parker, come for treatments ranging from completehair removal to custom designs. Regulars returning every fourweeks pay $75 for a Brazilian. Men of all ages and sexualorientation are going for the "Sunga" wax, a $90 treatment inwhich all pubic hair, including on the testicles, is removed. Hygiene and comfort are key reasons customers keep comingback, she said. "Environmental Disaster" "It"s like a freedom," said Padilha of the salon"ssignature bikini wax treatment. "When we started the salon 26years ago, we never thought it would be a success." Nor was it expected to aid in the fight against pubic lice,she said.

"Pubic grooming has led to a severe depletion of crablouse populations," said Ian F. Burgess, a medical entomologistwith Insect Research & Development Ltd. in Cambridge, England."Add to that other aspects of body hair depilation, and you cansee an environmental disaster in the making for this species." Pubic lice, known scientifically as Phthirus pubis, infestabout 2 percent to 10 percent of the human population,researchers at East Carolina University said in a 2009 study. Incidence data aren"t kept by the World Health Organizationin Geneva because the gray, six-legged, millimeter-long lousedoesn"t transmit disease, and national authorities such as theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and U.K."sHealth Protection Agency don"t collect the information. Lousy Data Researchers instead track pubic-lice infestations fromsurveys and records kept by clinics such as Donovan"s, whichreceives about 35,000 annual patient-visits annually. "Historically, it"s been very difficult to get incidencedata on pubic lice simply because people don"t like to reportit," said Richard Russell, director of medical entomology atSydney"s Westmead Hospital. "In over 40 years, I could count ontwo hands the number of people who had brought pubic lice in foridentification and admitted to knowing what they were." A 2003 study of sexually transmitted infections inAustralia found pubic lice was the most common symptom-causingailment, with at least a third of people experiencing aninfestation at some point in their life. Most people self-treatthe problem with a topical lousacide bought from pharmacies,Donovan said. Ten years ago, U.K. doctors noticed a dwindling in cases ofpubic lice even as patient numbers and prevalence rates of othersexually transmitted infections increased. Going Hairless Janet Wilson, a consultant in sexual health and HIV, linkedthe trend with the growing popularity of pubic hair removal sheand colleagues observed among patients attending thegenitourinary medicine department at the General Infirmary inLeeds, northern England. In a letter to a medical journal in 2006, they notedpatients began getting a procedure known as the "Brazilian,"in which all but a small strip of hair is removed. Women and menwho have sex with men took up the practice initially. Now,heterosexual men are doing so also, Wilson said. She and colleagues are analyzing patient records to see ifit"s lowered rates of pubic lice further, and will present theirlatest findings at a medical meeting in May, she said. "We put the flag out, so to speak, if we see a case ofpubic lice nowadays," Wilson said in an e-mailed response toquestions. "The "habitat destruction" of the pubic lice isincreasing and they are becoming an endangered species." Skin Trauma One in seven American men ages 25 to 34 years have hadtheir body hair waxed, according to a Mintel Group Ltd. reportpublished in October 2011. "Now there are tutorials about the proper -- and safe --way to shave the chest, arms, or groin

depending on how hirsutethe individual may be," the report said. Waxing, shaving and plucking hair can cause skin trauma,breaching its protective barrier and potentially aiding thespread of other sexually transmitted infections, said CooperRobbins at the University of Sydney. Non-sterile depilationproducts and procedures increase the infection risk. A 20-year-old Australian woman with poorly controlleddiabetes was hospitalized with a lifethreatening bacterialinfection of her genitalia following a routine Brazilian wax,doctors reported in 2007, noting a lack of published data oninfectious risks. Ingrown Hairs "No matter what type of hair removal is used, there is therisk of ingrown hairs," Cooper Robbins said. "That alsocreates the opportunity for infection." The female louse needs to mate only once to remain fertilethroughout her lifetime and can lay eggs every day. Once hatched,the young lice begin feeding straight away, gorging themselveswith blood until discovered, according to Cambridge entomologistBurgess. Lice species that inhabit the human body generally stick tocertain domains, with head lice staying near the scalp, bodylice preferring to hide in clothing between blood-meals on thebody, and pubic lice lingering predominantly in the coarse hairof the pubic and perianal areas, said Russell at Sydney"sWestmead Hospital. Chest Hair "In the case of fairly hirsute men, they will move up thehair of the stomach which connects to the pubes and sometimesget into chest hair," he said. "In both men and women, theyoccasionally get into the axillary hair under the arms." The pubic louse is closely related to the gorilla-afflicting louse, Pthirus gorillae, from which it probablydiverged 3.3 million years ago, researchers said. The life cycleof the female pubic louse ends if it"s unable to find a suitableplace to lay eggs, Russell said, making it plausible that pubichair removal is reducing populations of the insect. "It makes sense from the point of the view of the biologyof the beast, but how you"d ever find out, I don"t know,"Russell said in a telephone interview. In the case of pubic lice,"habitat destruction is a good thing," he said. To contact the reporters for this story:Jason Gale in Melbourne at j.gale@bloomberg.net;Shannon Pettypiece in New York at spettypiece@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story:Jason Gale at j.gale@bloomberg.net