AUBURN — Ashley Goulet’s male clients rarely arrive alone.

Usually, a wife comes along, as either a hand to hold or a gentle enforcer for the weak-willed and hirsute husband.

Goulet waxes.

“The wife usually stands in the room for support,” Goulet said. Some guys hollered. A few got up and left. Most whine, but they come around eventually.

“If they stick with it and do it every three to four weeks at first, the hair’s going to grow back like 50 percent less.”

It’s not the job she imagined when she started six months of training to become a licensed aesthetician.

She imagined instructing women on how to treat their skin, tinting their eyebrows and giving facials.

Seven years later she does all of that, giving women and men relaxing treatments that clean, exfoliate and massage their faces, arms and hands.

“People think it’s a luxury thing,” she said. “I just think it’s important to have the mind-body-soul connection.”

However, waxing became her specialty.

“I just jumped right in and I ended up being a really good waxer,” said Goulet, 29. “The thing I’m known for is my speed.”

Jobs that other people take an hour to complete typically take her 20 minutes, she said.

She helps women rid themselves of unwanted hair, from head to toe.

“I treat it just as if you’re coming to the doctor’s office,” she said. She works in dedicated space at Auburn’s Studio C Salon & Spa. Her room features the same paper-topped table used by physicians. She wears medical gloves and leans on her 10 years of work in nursing homes, begun when she was a teenager.

“I take care of people,” she said. She tries to set people at ease with simple instructions and works quickly.

She powders skin before applying the wax. After the wax is stripped away, she applies a soothing moisturizer.

“When it’s done, it’s awesome,” she said. People feel cleaner and, often, more confident.

Then, there are the guys, who are still a small fraction of her business. Waxing for men covers areas above the waist. She also helps them with their facial skin, something men tend to treat poorly.

They use too little sun screen and fail to use the right scrubbing products.

Most could use her help. Goulet sees them on the sidewalk and at the beach. Sometimes she’s tempted to approach them with a business card.

Instead she’s learned to market her skill to women.

“I’ve tried to encourage men,” she said. But usually, it’s the wives who find her and set up the appointments.

The men tend to whine worse than the women over the pain.

“I have some men who are like, ‘There is no way in hell I am coming back to see you. And it’s not because I don’t like you. It’s because it sucks!'” she said.

“The women are definitely stronger than the men,” Goulet said.

Most men who stick with waxing treatments are rewarded with less pain.

“You’re skin kind of gets used to it,” Goulet said. “Usually, once somebody gets through the first one, they’re better.”

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