Wingspouse Blog

I frequently take dinner to my son who works at the mall. It’s hard for him to grab something without being late to work. Well, this week I was heading toward the mall exit when I passed one of those booths displaying colorful henna tattoos and brow shaping photos. I had previously watched an Indian woman rolling some kind of hread over another women’s faces, but I didn’t want to stare. This day, however, the booth was unmanned and I could look more closely at the pictures and signs. I wanted to know if the signs were claiming that this thread technique would iron out wrinkles, or what? I stopped to look.

As I bent over to look at the picture more closely, a woman popped out from one booth over and asked if I wanted to try it. “Uh… no. I was just looking. I’m not sure what I would be trying,” I explained. “Sit down,” the woman insisted in a beautiful accent, “I do your browfor free.” She was pointing to the area of the face where a “unibrow” would sit. Since I was a little curious and that area was safe to mess with, I agreed. In just a few plucks of the thread, I was done. “That wasn’t too bad,” I said, “It’s kind of like a manual epilady that actually works. I didn’t want to admit that she had found more hairs to yank than I expected. She smiled and urged me with “I can do your brows and make them look better. See these photos?” I have always been hesitant to have my brows done by someone else for fear they would slip and… “oops, so sorry.” For some reason, I said yes. I trusted her now.

She did that thread thing all over my eyebrows. The underneath part felt like nose hairs being plucked and my eyes started to tear. As she shaped them, she leaned close to me. I decided to ask what I had been wondering. “Do you do something with that thread to smooth out wrinkles?” I asked, “I  saw you doing something around a woman’s mouth.” She laughed and then leaned down closer as she whispered, “No. I can remove hair from all over the face. You could use it around your lips and chin. You have beautiful skin but those hairs cover it up.” Her eyebrows raised like she was waiting for my approval. Now I realized just how close she was to my face. I didn’t think anyone else saw those! I sighed and said, “Okay. Just do it quickly before someone sees you doing it.” She went to work!

I felt hairs pulling out left and right. I was imagining how painful it would be on a bikini line! I don’t think a minute went by and she was almost done. Then I looked up as I heard another woman’s voice address me. “Does that help with wrinkles” she asked? I wanted to say yes because the truth was eve more embarrassing. The indian woman looked up and smiled, “No. It removes the hair.” I was busted. The young woman continued to watch as I was smeared with cream to help the sting. “Does it hurt” she asked. I stopped and thought about how awkward it was and how I just wanted to end the conversation quickly. “No” I answered, and I paid the lady.

What would you have done? I will still go back and have it done again because it really made a difference, but that woman was probably not ready for what was coming to her.