Adventures in Spas

I always like getting spa treatments in other countries because you never exactly know what they are going to do to you. Extra anxiety points if you don't speak the language because you don't know how to politely tell them to stop.

I went for a facial in India before leaving Delhi to get rid of some of this caked in smog and pollution. Three weeks in China followed by three weeks in India and I'm amazed my skin has held up as well as it has. (I know everyone talks about smog in China, but in my experience pollution is worse in Delhi than Beijing.)

It was going ok. I was in a small room covered by yellow-and-white striped towels that I think my family used to unearth for beach trips. I was ordered to keep my eyes closed as my face was rubbed over and over rhythmically with some kind of mask. It was mostly relaxing. Then the woman got a load of my horribly ungroomed eyebrows.

"You're eyebrows are too long!" she exclaimed.

"Um, yeah I know, I've been traveling," I said. (I also haven't had a haircut in months. Thank God it was in a shower cap.)

"I need to take care of these!" she said.

"Um...ok."

"What do you do?? Tweeze them?"

"No I get them waxed, I've just been gone." (I'm getting more nervous here.)

"Oh, that's a horrible method."

"Well it usually works for--"

"Hold this skin tight!"

"Oh, ok."

Now remember, my eyes are still closed. She proceeds to start doing what feels like hacking away at my face with a straight edge razor. Tears are streaming out of my eyes and my grip keeps loosening on the skin around my eyebrow making it sting more. I was thinking, "How long do I have to endure this and what the hell could she be doing??"

Finally I said, "That really hurts!"

"It's better," she said. She finished with the left brow and I opened my eyes and said "How are you doing that? It's horrible!" I was half expecting to see a chainsaw in her hand. Instead she had a piece of string wrapped around two fingers, and held in her teeth. She smiled. "Indian method. Rips out the whole root."

"Is that razor wire?" I asked. She grabbed my hand and showed me on my arm hair. I'm still not sure how she did it-- but it was like one of those rope tricks kids do. She pulled the string from different angles causing it to wrap around the hair and then -- rip. I was so amazed at the ingenuity I let her do the other brow. They do look pretty good. (Even if they're still sore.) I didn't know anything could be more painful than waxing. American women really shouldn't complain!