Author's note: Consider the story below romanticized autobiography-a window into my intimate personal routine and thoughts. It is both arousing and scary to share something this personal so I hope you enjoy. The story is short, and ends abruptly, but I promise it will continue (it did in real life). Your comments are always welcome! -Carol
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Most of my friends HATE grooming. Bring up depilation at a girls night out and you will get nothing but a torrent of groans and complaints about nicks, razor rash, painful waxing, terrifying electric depilators or expensive laser treatments. But for me grooming is an autoerotic exercise-an intimate and arousing ritual that I relish and anticipate.
First of all I don't shave my legs and underarms in the shower as I rush to prepare for work. Years ago, I enlarged my bathroom. I knocked out a wall and installed a floor-to-ceiling bay window facing the woods behind my house. The boring white bath/shower (with genuine plastic surround) went into the trash. In its place, a beautiful free-standing claw-foot tub with carved feet and solid brass fixtures now stands framed by the window. When I groom, it is under the stars, reclined luxuriously in hot, lavender-scented water and surrounded by candles and soft jazz.