Everywhere I go in my small, insignificant, local town there are signs advertising beauty salons. “Eyebrows £5”, “Cut and blow dry: £18, chat with hairdresser: FREE, relaxing afternoon: FREE”. But one of the signs on a stunningly minimal hair salon stands out from the rest: “Pubes Trimmed”. With true, blunt, Yorkshire directness, this place does what it says on the tin. It doesn't state whether the service is for men or women – perhaps there really are some men who would welcome a Union Jack shaved (or waxed?!) complicatedly and itchingly above or (shock, horror!) around their tackle. Maybe there are women who want their neat triangle shaped into a heart as a gut-wrenchingly tacky surprise for the husband. This particular trend is one that I can see suiting those women in low-cut tops and short skirts who think this would be a good idea to put some life back into their failing marriage, poor sods.

I venture, blushingly, into the studio.

“Er, well, I was wondering what you could...do...you know...” My voice tails off as the cheery hairdresser grins with worrying abandon.

“Ah, yes, we're the first ones here. Well, here are some designs. Have a look.” She flicks through a slim light blue file (how clinical) to the section marked 'Girls', and shows me the tabs marked 'Girly', 'Gothic', 'Romantic'.

Oh, and what a collection. Pussies beautifully waxed (yes, they don't just trim here, thank goodness) to perfection, with designs (in the 'Girly' section) ranging from initials to stars to suns to moons to (oh please, no!) designer label logo imitations. In the 'Gothic' section, there's a beautiful, precise lizard, a snake complete with forked tongue, and numerous over-complicated yet striking tattoo-like shapes. 'Romantic' simply consists of many very different shaped hearts, including what looks like a filigree one. Surely that must be a joke, I ask the pubic beautician. No, she replies, there's an art in applying wax – it's a long training course, but allows one to accurately shape hair (or the lack of it) on any part of the body using tiny wax strips and something which she described as being a little like a hot wax pen. “Of course”, she smiles, “we have to trim it all first to get an accurate shape.”

It sounds excruciating, but as a long-running fan of the straightforward bikini wax, I know that really, it wouldn't be too bad after the first time (like everything, really). Still, I didn't really want to have any particular shape, but I'd sleep on it, have a think. But for all my Gothic wantonness, I'm not tacky. Anything but – and I'm just not sure that having a shape (even a lizard, or random tattoo-shape) carved into my pubic hair would really enhance...well...anything. Not my state of mind, certainly not my sex life; although it would be a good talking point when drunk. But apparently, in the two months since they first opened, the salon-studio has had over seven hundred customers, of which two hundred and ten have had pubic 'work' carried out. That equates to (quick calculation) about six per day – is this town really so laughingly desperate for some excitement that it turns to this?!

So I thanked Miss Pubic-Hair Shaper, said I'd think about it, and wandered out onto the placid street, lined with black-stone buildings and farmer's market shoppers clutching wrapped vegetables, cheese and paper bags full of biscuits. It's like two different worlds colliding. But the fact remains that I am full of admiration for the sheer skill and precision placing-and-pulling of miniscule wax strips which goes into the shaping of someone's hair-that-dare-not-speak-its-name.