Pubic hair waxing is an increasingly common practice around the world. Interestingly, a specific style of 
waxing became known as the “Brazilian wax.”
“A Brazilian bikini wax was born in New York, not in Brazil,” explained Jonice Padilha from the J.Sisters salon in Manhattan. The establishment was a pioneer in the early 1990s in popularizing this type of waxing abroad.
Jonice Padilha is the youngest of seven sisters whose names all start with the letter “J” and became known as J.Sisters because Americans struggled to pronounce their names.
Today, the salon is popular among the rich and famous, and the sisters claim to earn up to $6 million (R$ 19.2 million) a year from waxing and hair and nail treatments.
The sisters’ journey will be told in the book Wax and the City by Brazilian writer Laura Malin, which currently has no set publication date. There are also plans to bring the story to the big screen.
“It’s an inspiring story of women who succeeded on their own, who came from nothing, illegal immigrants who achieved success in the United States,” Malin shares.
Jocely did not speak English, Malin explained. But gradually she became an expert in restoring damaged nails. Her reputation grew, and she ended up attracting a powerful client: arms dealer magnate Adnan Khashoggi.
Through him, Jocely met influential people like Brooke Shields, Rod Stewart, and editors from fashion magazines like Elle and Marie Claire, and her sisters came to work with her.
In 1987, the sisters opened their first manicure salon. A few years later, the capixabas began offering a different style of waxing – until then unnamed. Instead of just removing hair from the bikini area, the new technique removed everything, leaving only a little hair as decoration in the front region.
Later named Brazilian wax, the technique originated from an idea by one of the sisters, Janea.
In the 1970s, while on vacation in Bahia, Janea was shocked to see pubic hair sticking out from the back of a young woman’s bikini on the beach.
“So we have hair there?” Janea thought.
After getting confirmation at home in front of the mirror, she went to a salon and asked the waxer to remove the unwanted hair from her backside. “Are you crazy? I’m not touching you there,” the aesthetician replied. But Janea was determined. Armed with hot wax and a mirror, she decided to wax herself. After a few attempts – somewhat painful – she achieved her goal. The next step was to convince her sisters to do the same. The reaction, Malin said, was enthusiastic.
Questions aside, when the “Brazilian” waxing was introduced by the capixabas to New Yorkers, the trend caught on quickly. “Our only mistake was not naming the technique J.Sisters wax,” Jonice said. Soon, rivals appeared. In 
magazines like Playboy and Penthouse, models also appeared almost completely waxed. According to Jonice, representatives from Playboy even called the salon, claiming authorship of the invention. “The invention is ours, we do this on our site,” the magazine’s representatives reportedly said.
In defense, Jonice reportedly said that this type of waxing was common in Brazil.
“They were very brave to leave a small town in Brazil and head to New York without money and without speaking English,” said Karen Castanho, a producer working on a dramedy based on the sisters’ story. “They have so much energy; I’ve never seen anything like it.” Filming for the feature J Sisters (the title is provisional) is scheduled for 2018.