There are stories of customers leaving wives for ear pickers and a life of in-home ear pleasure.īut all this ear fun can have unintended consequences.Įar specialist Dray cautions against unsafe ear picking. Frisky ear pickers sometimes blow into customers’ ears. Those who become highly skilled develop a following.Įar pickers ply their trade with a mix of intense concentration and flirtation - one reason men often don’t want girlfriends or wives to know about their ear experiences. The procedure, ear pickers say, takes about a week to learn but months to perfect. The overall effect is so soothing it’s not uncommon for customers to doze off. The tools include a tiny razor to shave hairs, a miniature shovel-like device to scoop up wax, tweezer-like objects to scrape the inner ear and little cotton balls on sticks that are twirled inside the ear to tickle the skin. “It’s like a massage.”Īfter scooping up some ear wax, she scrapes it onto the customer’s hand as a way to show off her handiwork. “Some people like it really soft, others like it to hurt,” ear picking proprietor Nhan said. The ear picker, frequently a young woman wearing a head lamp, begins to gently probe. He then reclines in a barber chair, tilting his head to one side. It’s not uncommon for ear pickers to give a customer Vietnamese coffee or tea before he settles in. A picking and a shave can cost as little as $2, plus tip. Those offering the service range from a guy with a chair along a busy street to air-conditioned barbershops with several ear picking specialists and shops where the staff wear alluring uniforms. But in recent years, practitioners in Vietnam have elevated it beyond simply removing ear wax to an experience on par with massage, said Hien Nhan, a former Californian who owns Lido’s Spa in Ho Chi Minh City. And a few Vietnamese barbershops in San Jose have quietly offered the service. They have the magic hands.”Įar picking has long been practiced in Vietnam and other Asian countries. “Everybody is afraid the first time - but after, it’s, ‘Oh my God!’ ” said Katie Dang, a 20-something singer who spends time in the United States and Ho Chi Minh City. Though the practice is mostly popular among men, some Vietnamese women enjoy regular ear pickings, too. It helps reduce the tensions of living in the bustling, horn-honking metropolis of 9 million people, fans say. Just as a shampoo in Vietnam is more than washing hair - it’s also head massage, shoulder massage and a refreshing facial - ear picking is more than cleaning the ear. That explains why some customers have been known to blurt out, “Will you marry me!” Ear pickers usually ignore such exclamations as they would words of endearment from a drunk. And there are a lot of nerves that converge in the ear.” “The skin in your ear is super thin - it’s paper thin,” he said. Todd Dray, an ear, nose and throat surgeon at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center-Santa Clara. For another person, it’s a mind-blowing experience.” “For one person, it may just be a tickle. There is a spot near the ear drum that, when touched the right way, “tingles,” said 26-year-old ear picker Nguyen Thi Le Hang. Indeed, fans of ear picking gleefully talk about “ear-gasms.” He likens a good ear picking to good sex. “It brings a lot of happiness,” said Silicon Valley resident Nguyen Tuong Tam, who always heads to a hot toc upon arriving in this city, also known as Saigon. Many returning Vietnamese-Americans head straight to these barbershops, or “hot tocs,” after disembarking from long United and EVA Air flights at Tan Son Nhat International Airport. But it’s the picking that elicits moans of ecstasy. It’s part of the country’s pampering culture and is offered in corner barbershops, the oases where Vietnamese while away hot afternoons with luxurious shampoos, relaxing shaves and facials. Though the procedure may sound like torture, men line up day in and day out to experience this unorthodox probing. HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam - To most Westerners, the idea of paying someone to stick little scoops and tweezers into their ears is downright unnerving.
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