Queen of wax

_{Courtesy of Marilyn Jaeger}

IT WAS LIKE the Second Coming, or maybe Thomas Keller opening a French Laundry II here in the East Bay. Tongues were atwitter because San Francisco bikini-line-waxer-to-the-stars Marilyn Jaeger was opening a spa in Oakland’s Rockridge neighborhood.

So many publications have written about Jaeger’s services, her celebrity clientele, and her success that it’s easy to imagine her as the fairy godmother of beauty treatments, a Glinda the Good Witch in a white lab coat with a wax-covered spatula for a magic wand.

Whoops, wrong movie. Jaeger is dark haired, with tattoos and a vocabulary just vulgar enough that you know nothing fazes her. Which makes it easier to strip down for one of her famous bikini-line waxes. Jaeger is the queen of the bare-all Brazilian style of waxing, but she will begrudgingly agree to do a “traditional” bikini line.

As she works, Jaeger is a master conversationalist, gathering your life story in about three minutes. She’s as lightning-quick with the waxing. You’ll be back out in her hip, understated lobby, sharing an after-every-treatment hug before you even know what has happened.

Marilyn Jaeger Skincare Studio, 5257 College Ave., Oakland, (510) 985-8359, www.marilynjaegerskincare.com ; waxing $15–$90, facials $55–$145.