MANILA, Philippines ? Bye-bye, bush! The end of the bush era is here!

Those are not send-offs for America?s most unpopular president. They?re actually advertising campaigns for a Brazilian wax by a Singaporean company that?s in the business of hair removal.

It is striking to note that more and more Filipinas are into hair removal. ?Brazilian wax,? as the process of complete hair removal in the pubic area is called, is offered now in many salons and spas.

This Singaporean company, however, is a first in the country, in that it offers integrated services for hair removal ? the works.

Roberta Abad, managing director of Harem Inc., the Philippine franchise holder of Strip and Browhaus, has turned her bane into business. She was walking along Orchard Road in Singapore in 2007 when she spotted the one-stop shop, Strip and Browhaus, which promised to address her pet peeves.

?I?ve had bad experiences with eyebrows. Although I had a favorite person to go to in the salon, the job was never consistent. One day she was good, the next time, I was bald. If she wasn?t there, I?d have to come back,? she recalls.

Her encounters with Brazilian waxing were more traumatic. Shaving left the skin rough. Brazilian waxing was painful, and could result in inflammation and infection if not done properly. In a foreign resort, the aesthetician left Abad?s skin patchy and bleeding. In many instances, Abad experienced severe pain that lasted for days.

While working for a telecommunications company in Jakarta, she saw a branch of Strip and Browhaus. Much to her surprise, the Brazilian wax was painless, done in 15 minutes and sanitized, leaving her skin smooth and soothed throughout the procedure. On her subsequent visit, the hair regrowth was finer.

Abad wrote the principals, which prescribed that, for franchising, the two brands should coexist. In November last year, she opened Strip and Browhaus at Serendra in Bonifacio Global City, and will soon launch her back-to-back outlet at the Greenbelt 5 mall.

The core of these two brands is epilation, or the elimination of hair from the roots, for enduring results. The techniques include waxing, Intense Pulsed Light, threading and tweezing.

No double dipping

Hair removal, especially in the pubic area, has been traditionally done for hygienic reasons or to reduce body odor due to the buildup of odor-causing germs in the hair. Today, many Filipinos who remove pubic hair do it more for aesthetics.

Abad says Strip adheres to strictest standards in hygiene and sanitation. The room is set in warm temperature and all the facilities are kept clean. Each client is given a set of gloves for the aesthetician?s use, plus wipes and disposable spatulas. It is not hygienic to dip the same spatula into the wax pot after it has been used on either the armpit or genitals.

?It?s a dip-and-throw, dip-and-throw, dip-and-throw method. You?d think it?s crazy. Go to salon or get home service. A girl may have used the wax for an underarm procedure. Then another client comes and undergoes an upper lip hair removal with the same spatula dipped several times in the same wax pot. Gross!? says Abad with a grimace.

In Brazilian wax, the pubic area is thoroughly sanitized and smoothed. For first-timers or clients who have not had a Brazilian wax in a long time, the hair is trimmed down first. A special wax is applied per section of the pubic area, and stripped off as soon as it hardens. The skin is immediately relieved with a special emollient to avoid redness.

The session starts from the pubic area where the growth is abundant, down to the vulva and finally, the butt crack. For men, the aestheticians are trained to avoid hurting the most sensitive area, the testicles.

The Strip offers quirky add-ons. For instance, there are designs for the pubic region such as the heart, an arrow up for the females suggesting upper persuasion, and an arrow down for the male, suggesting lower persuasion.

Post-care treatment

A post-care treatment, Hoochie Coochie Quickie, pacifies redness and sensitivity and moisturizes the skin after the Brazilian wax. It smells and tastes like spearmint. Go figure.

The Strip has formulated its own post-wax treatments, made from plant extracts and vitamins that prevent ingrown hair and slow down hair growth while calming the skin.

Abad says the Strip has had clients from the bubblegum crowd to grandmothers getting their armpit and lower areas waxed. The common denominator is simply concern for good hygiene.

The Strip?s Brazilian (for the men it?s called Boyzillian) wax doesn?t use the sugaring method which adheres to the skin and, when pulled, pulls the skin with it. Abad points out that every hour, the temperature of the wax is monitored.

For those who?ve graduated from waxing, Intense Pulsed Light or IPL is the painless way for hair removal. The targeted broad-spectrum light is directed at the skin surface with a hand-held device. It penetrates the skin until it hits the hair bulb where the highest concentration of melanin is located. As the light is turned to heat energy, the bulb and most of the hair shaft immediately dissolve. The strong heat emitted by the hair also wipes out the hair-producing follicle.

Asked if guys like the hairless look on girls, Abad replies, ?Yes, a lot has to do with smell and being hygienic. Skin looks and feels like a baby?s. Also, girls like guys who are bald down there. It?s a vice-versa thing.?

Brow-shaping

While the Strip?s most popular services deal with the underarms, legs and private parts, Browhaus also services the areas that frame the face ? the brows and lashes.

While most brow services are a hit-and-miss thing, Browhaus uses precise techniques to get perfectly shaped and filled-in eyebrows. The aesthetician follows a facial grid. The goal of brow-shaping is to ensure that the beginning of the eyebrow is aligned with the center of the nostril, the peak is at the last third section of the eye and the tail is in line with the outer corner of the eye.

Other factors are also considered, such as complexion and the person?s age. The aesthetician can create eyebrows that would balance a face that?s beginning to show muscle laxity.

Browhaus has developed its own methods of tweezing and threading which are faster, painless and more accurate. The core service is Browgraphy; here, the brows are sculpted and tinted using organic dyes to brighten up the face. The effect lasts for as long as six weeks.

For thinning brows, the Brow Resurrection is the equivalent of the eyebrow tattoo. The aesthetician applies lifelike hair to create soft, natural and sensual brows. The eyebrow reconstruction lasts two years, with brow tune-ups in between.