Catherine Wargo Roberts

"Smooth" is a humorous, frank look at one unspoken subculture of the beauty industry: bikini waxing. The book follows the narrator's journey from her formative childhood constructions of beauty through her liberal arts education and into an unlikely career as an esthetician.

 

The book also addresses historical trends in body hair fashions and methods of body hair removal, including Freud's opinion on the esthetics of genitals, 19th century cultural critic John Ruskin's refusal to consummate his marriage upon finding that his bride possessed pubic hair, and findings regarding body hair by modern human sexuality researchers.

 

Woven throughout this richly wrought picture of the industry are the narrator's experiences in the waxing room: her close emotional bonds with the women who are her clients, including stories that are heartwarming, outrageous, tear-jerking, and belly-laugh inducing. The author attempts to illuminate a subculture that few people are talking about, even though its participants include millions of American women.

 

Her message is clear: she wants all of her clients, and all of her readers, to feel good about their bodies. She wants to help eliminate shame from the conversation about body hair.

 

And she wants to finally answer the question on countless women's minds:

"What is my bikini waxer thinking?"