To Try: Anal Bleaching

It comes as a sign of how popular anal bleaching has become that Qatari princesses will fly thousands of miles just to buy the kit.

“Four of them recently came into my shop and picked up five anal bleaching kits each,” said Cindy Esser-Thorin, who owns Pink Cheeks skin care salon in Sherman Oaks – a veritable institution in the Valley. Cindy’s been waxing naughty bits and bleaching “winkers”—that’s what she calls the sphincter, “cos when you apply the bleach down there, they wink at you”—for folks from all over the world for 34 years.

“They flew here on their own 747. Then they jumped back on their plane and flew to New York for a couple of days of shopping,” she added. “They have to come here to buy it because if they shipped the kits into Qatar, it gets confiscated by customs.”

This Qatari princess story, though, is a perfect example of how the story of anal bleaching has been a fast and furious one. What was still considered something of a novelty as recently as five or six years ago has exploded in popularity – due in no small part to the porn industry.

“About ten years ago, they started adding the part about anal bleaching in questionnaires for new talent,” said an entertainment lawyer, while waiting for his waxing appointment at Pink Cheeks. “Now it’s a standard question in the industry.”

While the porn industry certainly shone a light on these bright shiny new winkers, most people have cottoned onto the hygiene aspect of it, said Cindy.

Women make up most of her clientele. “Their husbands like them to have it done. I’ll wax them and get them ready, and they’ll leave with the kit to do the rest.” Gay men make up about the other thirty percent. But even though more and more people are doing it, there still exist misconceptions about the procedure – misconceptions I have to admit that I shared before I met Cindy.

For one, I assumed that people had their winkers bleached—yes, I’ve started calling them winkers, too—because discoloration down there is a result of…well, how should I put it… natural processes. But Cindy explained that it’s actually due to natural pigmentation in the skin.

What is more, not everyone needs to rush out and buy the kit. “Some people come in and they’re this natural very light ash color already down there. I tell them straight that they don’t need to have it done.”

The time it takes to work can vary pretty drastically. One of Cindy’s customers told her that it had worked within four days. Others can take weeks. The trick, she said, is patience – don’t get busy with the bleach if you’re not getting the results you want immediately.

“And you should always keep a bottle spare for maintenance.”

Only very rarely do people experience burning, Cindy said. If they do, she tells them to apply the bleach less liberally – once every two days or so, rather than every day.

As the self-proclaimed “Pioneer” of anal bleaching, it’s no surprise that Cindy has garnered something of a cult following. She was chosen by the filmmakers behind the movie “Bruno” – they were looking for someone to bleach Sacha Baron Cohen’s character in the film. She remembers the day when “Bruno” came for his appointment: “This funny little Austrian chat show host turns up, hours late.”

Cindy didn’t know she was going to be in the film until one of her customers told her that she had seen her on the big screen. But her only regret was that she wasn’t a little quicker-witted when Bruno asked her whether his boyfriend would like it.

“I wish I knew I was going to be on film – I was tired by that point, and just wanted to get finished and home. If I had known, I would have replied, ‘he sure as hell is gonna like it. He ain’t down there to floss his teeth when he’s bobbing for apples!’”

Dare to anal bleach? No need to embarrass yourself by pulling down your skivvies and baring your balloon knot to a stranger. You can totally try this at home.