Rowan Cox:Male Stripper.

Just ask 26-year-old Rowan Cox. For the past 12 months the aptly named hunk has been working as a stripper — and the behaviour he’s witnessed has often left him speechless.

He’s been GROPED, PROPOSITIONED and had his costumes RIPPED off him so often that he has to regularly replace them.He’s even been CHASED down the street by one adoring fan.

He says: “I don’t know what comes over some of them when they see a stripper — it’s like their inner-beast is unleashed.

“During my show I’ve had women probing my naked behind, groping at my full frontal, tearing my clothes off to paw at my flesh and even offering to pay me for sex.

“I had no idea women had it in them to act like that.”

Rowan, from Bow, East London, is a trained actor and had fitted his auditions around a series of part-time office jobs.

But struggling to make ends meet, he decided to try his luck flashing the flesh instead. He honed his physique in the gym, shaved all over, stocked up on baby oil and practised bump and grind dance moves, then signed up with an agency.

In February 2012, Rowan had his first booking — a 25th birthday party in Dover.

Rowan, who performs under stage name Romeo, recalls: “I had to get changed into my fireman’s outfit in the street because I hadn’t thought of the practicalities. I was in my boxers in the road and could see all these hyper-excited girls peering at me through the window.

“I took a deep breath, grabbed my oil and squirty cream and went for it.“Walking into a room of screaming females for the first time was madness — I’d never experienced anything like it before.

“I wasn’t nervous about revealing everything. But when I whipped off my thong, the shrieking went through the roof and I did wonder what I’d got myself into.”

Luckily, Rowan’s acting training gave him confidence to handle hot and bothered audiences during his raunchy routines and his career took off.

He now gets up to ten bookings a week for hen dos, birthday parties and ladies’ night stage shows and can earn from £300 to £900 weekly.Rowan says: “I’ve found myself getting my kit off in all sorts of strange situations. Once I had to walk into a restaurant in my fireman costume and tell everyone they were being evacuated — except for the birthday girl.

“Recently, some colleagues booked me for their boss’s birthday. I had to go to her glass-windowed office in working hours for a pretend job interview.

“I blagged my way answering some questions then made a big fuss about being hot and whipped off my shirt and tie.

“She was a professional, corporate woman but the moment I got down to business with the baby oil she completely lost control. She was screaming her head off!”

While Rowan can never predict how women will react to his routine, he says certain crowds are always more rowdy.

“The younger they are, the worse they are — especially when they’ve been on the booze. One job was on a party bus in London, packed full of lairy twenty-somethings.“I’m 6ft 2in and go to the gym daily but I was a bit scared of them. They were like a pack of animals with their hands everywhere.

“One girl was out-of-her-mind horny and wouldn’t stop groping at me.

“Another job was for a group of hammered girls in their twenties. I’d done my bit on the dancefloor and was getting dressed when one girl emptied my bottle of baby oil over my head. I had to run with the oil dripping everywhere as she chased me down the street.

“I have four costumes — fireman, sailor, policeman and James Bond — but I’m always having to replace them after they’ve been ripped off my body by frenzied women.”

Older women can also be just as predatory. Rowan says: “One ladies’ night in Ipswich had an audience in their fifties that really meant business. They were shoving notes in my pants just so they could cop a good feel and trying to perform sex acts on me. Often the quiet ones surprise you most. At the end of the night one straight-laced-looking woman asked me how much I charged for an hour together. I politely explained she had the wrong idea.”

Although he is propositioned frequently, Rowan — who’s single — tries to keep it professional.

He says: “Some guys who strip are real players but that’s not me. I have taken a couple of numbers in my time and occasionally I have started to get aroused performing if I spot a girl I fancy. It’s rare but if it happens it happens. On at least six occasions I’ve even been asked if I’ll have sex with women.

“But I don’t let adoring audiences go to my head. I’ve had nasty comments too — women shouting mean things about the size of my manhood or about my job. You develop a thick skin and us male strippers all get on.”

Rowan admits his work has made things tricky in his personal life.

He says: “My family and friends accept it’s just a job. It’s fun, pays well and gives me the time to go to auditions and pursue my acting dreams.

“But it makes relationships tricky as girls have their doubts about you. I split up with one ex last year because she just couldn’t handle it.

“When I tell people what I do, most don’t take you seriously as boyfriend material. They just assume you’re a player.”

He also admits it has changed his perspective on women: “Now I could never pay someone to take their clothes off — it would be too weird.

“I think the two sides of stripping are different, though. Men can be really sleazy with female strippers but even the worst over-the-top women aren’t that seedy with blokes.

“Yes, some go too far but the majority are nice — they just let loose and get the giggles. Some are so innocent and mortified they can’t bear to look at my bits.”

Occasionally, Rowan even gets to keep his clothes ON. He says: “One of the oddest jobs was when a son booked me for his mum’s 81st birthday at a pub in Brighton.

“When I walked in, I saw a big group of grey-haired pensioners eating lunch — some of them hooked up to oxygen tanks. I put baby oil on the birthday girl’s wrinkly hands and she loved it but when it came to dropping my trousers, I felt really awkward.

“To my relief her son stepped in and said to stop at that point.”

Rowan doesn’t plan to play Romeo for ever but for now is set to continue stripping.

He says: “I suppose it’s bizarre to go to work in a sailor suit and shave your body daily because women can’t oil up a hairy man.

“But it’s normal for me and I enjoy it. I get to observe a side of women most men will never ever see. But one thing’s for sure — if I ever get married my bride-to-be is banned from having a stripper at her hen do.

“No matter what they might pretend to their fellas I know what X-rated antics go on when girls are unleashed on a guy with his kit off.”