A benefit from Sex and the City
Hayley Dixon at the Daily Telegraph reports:
The lice are being threatened with extinction due to the disappearance of their natural habitat as “Brazilian waxing” becomes increasingly popular.
Doctors from the British Association of Dermatologists (BAD) believe that they have now pin-pointed the moment the trend went global after an episode of Sex and the City which aired in 2000.
The pubic louse, or Pthirus pubis, have plagued humanity for thousands of years, with archaeologists discovering specimens in the UK as far back as the 1st century AD.
From 1997 to 2003, incidence of the lice dropped from 0.41 per cent to 0.17 per cent, and sexual health clinics around the world have reported that the once common complaint is now extremely rare.
At the same time hair removal grew into a multi billion dollar industry, and in Season 3 when Sarah Jessica Parker’s character Carrie Bradshaw visited Los Angeles for a wax it signalled the beginning of the end.
Dr Kun Sen Chen, due to present his findings a the association’s annual conference, said: “What we have seen at work is the law of unintended consequences, in popularising hair removal Carrie Bradshaw and co. have contributed to ridding humanity of pest that had plagued humans for millions of years. Sadly there isn’t an Emmy for that”.
Before the rise of a global mass media the lice were able weather the changing fashions of bodily hair, he added.
I always knew that show had to have some redeeming features 🙂