Pains of beauty

My friend Diana is having a ‘not so interesting week’. She decided to do her eyebrows over the weekend because the Indian lady that usually does them was not in when she went to the salon that Saturday.
The idea of transformation has always been alluring to her. She loves to experiment, not just with beauty, but also with her fashion choices. So she decided to sit home and wax her unruly brows.

Total disaster
The result was obviously a total disaster and she says “the experience was excruciatingly painful.”
“I have no idea how it happened but the wax cream scrapped off a lot more hair from the right eyebrow than it should have,” she mumbled as she stared at her disfigured brow in the mirror.
“I decided to wax my other brow a little more to make them look identical. This ended up being the hardest thing to do - the left brow looked even worse.” After braving the pain for about an hour, she retreated.
She tried all sorts of remedies including trying to shade back the eyebrow just in time for work on Monday, but none helped.
Her saviour was a pair of ‘nerdy sunglasses’ with frames that sit on the eyebrows concealing the mess. She says that her workmates are complimenting her on the sudden love for ‘eye wear’, which apparently look good on her. If only they knew!

In the pursuit of beauty
Diana’s predicament is not unique, women go through crazy horrible experiences in pursuit of beauty. Stella, another beauty obsessed friend shared that she has burned her forehead a couple of times trying to iron her hair at home. “If it wasn’t for my bangs, I was going to call in sick at work the next morning,” she said. She still uses the darned thing often and adds that she has nothing to do about it other than being more careful.
While I think she must be relieved of that iron before it burns the life out of her, I agree with her on the part where she says there is nothing she can do about it. “There is a time I used to go to hairdresser who literally burned my ears with that iron every single day I went to her beauty parlour. The reason I did so was because she was the only one that always did my hair well. I got prepared for a burn or two every time I entered her parlour till I found someone better,” Stella adds.

Trauma facials
Both ladies tell about a ‘skin expert’ at one of the malls on Kampala Road whose obscenely expensive and traumatizing facials seem to give off the best results. “My friends and I always pay her a visit when we have excess money to spend and of course are ready to brave her facials. She literally drives her sharp fingers into your heated up skin to extract those annoying black heads,” Diana shares.
Stella’s experience is not different. “The equipment she uses also emits so much heat that sometimes you feel like your skin is peeling off. The results are always impressive though - you leave the place with a ‘faint’ smile,” she laughs.

Try this at your own risk
Melissa, another of friend mine who is obsessed with her ‘bikini perfect’ body went through almost the same experience. This girl will do anything to keep her body in shape. In her quest for a ‘hot body’ she once went to have her body waxed after which she swore never to let her body or herself go through such pain again. “Even if you are paying me I can never go back to that place,” she talks about her waxing experience. “It hurt so badly, the thought of it sends chills down my spine!”
Many women go through even worse experiences, and this is attributed to the people they go to who actually are not so good at what they do, but somehow end up with impeccable results.
Have you gone through an unglamourous experiences in pursuit of beauty before?

Quick tips

Steven Mukisa, a beauty expert at Steven’s Beauty Clinic+Medspa, says that this is all unfair. “A facial must never hurt. And avoid doing D.I.Ys (do it yourself) that involve those irons,” he says. “Always fix time in your tight schedule and visit a proper beauty parlour with a skilled skin or hair expert.”