Jennifer McPhee
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (July 13/01) - Betty Luzny spends her days ripping hair off women's bodies.

Though she's worked as a waxer at Studio 62 for just seven months, Luzny became fascinated with the art of hair removal as a teenager. At the age of 13, she had a unibrow problem.

Betty Luzny holds up the strip she used to wax her legs at Studio 62. - Jennifer McPhee/NNSL photo

"My mom said -- you have two eyes, you need two eyebrows."

Luzny, who has dyed the hair on her head eight different colours this year alone, likes to keep all her hair to a minimum.

"I've always had short hair," she says. "I'm like -- no, no, no, can't have hair!"

Now she removes growth from other people's faces, legs, armpits and bikini lines.

"The first couple days, having so many naked people in front of you, was kind of weird," she says. "But you get used to it."

"You start to feel like you're doing them a favour, making them feel soft because that's what everyone wants."

Luzny waxes the fronts of her own legs herself. Her boyfriend does the backs.

Women of all ages get de-haired at the salon, especially during the summer and before March break. Most people aren't too bothered by the resulting pain. No one has ever left screaming mid-wax.

"One girl had to bite a towel, but that's about it," she says.

Luzny says the best part of her job is talking to so many people. They tend to open up to her. "I guess if you are showing someone your bikini line that runs halfway down your leg, you feel you can talk to them."

Are people a bit too paranoid about body hair?

"Yes, most definitely," she says. "Women are really self-conscious about it, especially when it's on their faces."

So far, in Yellowknife, men tend to keep their hair. She has yet to wax a man.

"I don't know why," she says. "Maybe it's because Yellowknife is so small and they wouldn't want people knowing."