Threading

Yesterday I got my hair cut and my eyebrows done. Now, the haircut is no big deal. I'm in the process of growing my hair out and so it was just a little trim. I love getting my hair cut by the way and am extremely sad to report that my favorite hair stylist, Sable, is moving to Seattle. I think that's a good thing though because I got the WORST haircut of my life in Seattle. Think little orphan Annie and you'll know the kind of haircut I got there. So, if she can go and improve the hair cutting situation in Seattle, more power to her, I say. So, my hair looks fly and healthy.

I also got my eyebrows done yesterday. I used to get them waxed but one day someone suggested to me that I get them threaded. Threaded? What's that? I was intrigued. She told me there was a threading boutique in the mall, to go and check it out. It's much better than waxing, she said. The first time I got it done was in July, a few days before my wedding. I loved it. Loved it so much. I had just gotten my eyes done two weeks prior to that, but really needed to be touched up for the wedding. The first time I got threaded I didn't have a lot of hair action going on in the eyebrow region, so I didn't feel a lot of pain.

Let me just explain threading for a minute. In my experience, there are these little Indian women who have magic thread. What they do is this: they take a long piece of thread, lace it through your unsightly eyebrown hair, and tighten. When they tighten, it pulls out errant eyebrow hairs. It's almost like magic, your eyebrows look so good. I honestly don't know the ins and outs of it, but if you want to know more, go here. All I know is that the first time I got it, I loved the results and did not feel much pain.

The second time I went was right after school started. It had been about six weeks and the brows were starting to resemble caterpillars. I went in and the little Indian lady leans my chair back and goes to work. This was the first time I experienced what I will call "the 40 Year Old Virgin curse out". I don't know if any of you have seen the "40 year old Virgin" with Steve Carell, but there's a part where he goes in to have his chest waxed and generally his character is really sweet and polite. But when the lady rips the wax paper off his chest, he begins to curse her out because it hurts so bad. As the lady was winding the thread through my eyebrows, I was cursing her out (in my mind, only in my mind) a la Steve Carell. I had never experienced any pain equal to that. I was physically turning my head away from her and tears were coming out of my eyes. I would also kick my feet on the chair and my hands would grip the sides of the chair in agony. And in my mind was a string of profanity. She then asks me in broken English if it hurt. YES! I said. It hurts a lot worse than last time. She says, "the more hair, the more hurt." I knew, oh I knew, what she was getting at. Don't wait six weeks anymore if you want to get this done. Now, at the end, even though I was a little disoriented from all the pain, my eyebrows did look fabulous. Ever since that day, I've gone back every four weeks and the pain subsided greatly. Until last night.

I have been really busy with school and have not been taking care of the brows. I couldn't put it off any longer, as they were starting to look like maybe they would crawl off my face. I went in expecting the worst and boy, did I get it. Also, my nose started running profusely and I had the urge to sneeze several times. I had a different gal, who said to me, "never never wait so long. It hurt too much." You're dang right it hurt too much lady. If you only knew what I was saying to you in my mind. But now, my eyebrows look nice and neat and that region is only a little sore. I don't know, I'm really considering going back to waxing. I left the threading salon feeling guilty about my mental curse out. She was only doing her job, it was my fault for waiting so long. But the beauty of waxing is that you can wait two weeks or two years and it will all feel the same.

PS. I like how waxing feels. The warm wax first and then just a little pinch on your eyebrows. But the results are not the same. However, I never feel guilty after getting my eyebrows waxed. I find myself in a conundrum.