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Friday's facial
Nov. 29th, 2006 03:53 pmFriday, Mariannette and I went to Nanjing for our girl's day out. So much fun :)
First, we had to find our way to the beauty salon by way of a hand drawn map that Sailing had made for us. It had the name of the salon written on it in Chinese. We had the taxi driver drop us off at Wal-Mart(it was on the map she'd drawn) and we took about the next half hour to find the salon. It was only 2 blocks away. But we did find it!
We entered the salon to find a hallway lined with mirrors and balloons accompanied by loud music. There was no one in sight, but the place was clearly open because of the music and all the lights were on. I even called out "Hello?" which, thinking back now I should have called out "Ni Hao?". We followed the deserted hallway to the end where we found a flight of stairs. At the top of the stairs we found the salon. We had asked Sailing to arrange everything for us. I asked her to find a place where we could get facials because I'd been told that was where women go to get theie eyebrows and lips waxed. Mariannette and I were both in severe need of these services. I assumed that when Sailing made the appointments, she had explained to them that those were the services we were interested in. I also assumed that we would just show up and they'd know exactly what we'd need done. I was wrong.
As it was just Mariannette and I, with no one along to translate, things quickly became confusing. They showed us the price book, which was completely in Chinese. There were prices running from 280 rmb (the price Sailing had told me, and the one I was expecting to pay) all the way up to over 1000 rmb. We pointed at the 280 one and pointed back and forth to ourselves, hoping to indicate that we both wanted that one. We next tried to make sure that brow and lip waxing would be including. We made the universal motion for waxing (a lifting and ripping motion away from the lip). That didn't seem to work, they looked very confused. I next called Chris and tried to have him explain what we wanted. He attempted to, but it turns out that he doesn't know the words for eyebrow and lip waxing. Why should he? He's never had occasion to use or hear those words before. After she got off the phone with Chris she smiled and nodded, indicating (we hoped) that she finally understood what we wanted.
I followed here to the desk, where she again showed me the price book and asked (I thought) if we both wanted the 280 package. I thought this was already established. Next she gets out the calculator. Clearly she wants me to understand what the price is. Mariannette finally says "I think she wants you to pay." Ahhhh, that's what's going on here. I expected to pay afterwards. We pay and are ushered into the back for our facials.
In the back room, we're given these hot pink, see-through towel type things with elastic gathered at the top. They clearly want us to put them on...At first we attempt to only take off our sweaters and leave on our t-shirts, but that doesn't fly with the beauticians. We have to take everything off, excepting our bras. The pink-things go on like a tube top. Next, we're told to lie down on the table. I lie down on my stomach, which makes no sense considering we are there for a facial. I'm so dense sometimes. I also leave my shoes on, which is stupid also. You always take your shoes off in China! I was nervous and feeling a bit silly. Finally I get situated on my back and she covers me with a towel. She wrapped my hair up in a towel (which was too small. My head must be much larger than the average Chinese woman's head. The towel wouldn't stay on and kept slipping off.) What followed next was heavenly. They rubbed lotion and lotion into our skin. There was also much massaging going on, from our chest up (not below the towel). As before when I had the massage in Suzhou, it was slightly painful. I've since learned that this is the traditional style of massage in China. Particularly when she massaged my face, it really hurt. She pushed very hard on the place on my jaw right by my earlobes. I thought I was going to fly off the table, it was so painful. I grabbed her hands and told her not to do that again. She understood me. The facials were finished up with a white, very thick mask. It looked like marshmallow fluff. After that was over, they motioned for us to get dressed, which we did. Hmmm, no waxing .... what now?
We tried again to show them with hand motions what we wanted. Plucking at our eyebrows, ripping motions away from our face, it just didn't work. They mimicked us, but we all ended up just laughing at ourselves and each other. Finally we were able to get Sailing on the phone and asked her to explain what we wanted. OH! Ok, now we understand. We paid more (70 rmb each) and sat back down on the table. Turns out they thought we wanted our legs waxed. NO! Thanks anyway, just brow and lip please. Once all that was cleared up, we laid back down and the waxing/plucking began. The didn't wax our eyebrows, they shaped completely by plucking. Ouch. Although my eyebrows were tidy when she finished, they were still much thicker than I'd normally like them. However, I didn't ask her to do more because it hurt too much. Next came the lip. The beauticians walked out of the room and back in again with a jar of wax and a roll of clear packing tape. Yes, you can see it coming can't you? So could we, but we didn't do anything to stop it? See what we women will do for vanities sake? They smeared the cold wax on our lips(they didn't heat it) and then put the tape on top of the wax. Next came the ripping off of the tape. It hurt! And, they didn't rip with the grain of the hair, but against the grain, which made it worse. Poor Mariannette. Her beautician did re-waxed and re-taped her three times! Apparently the cold wax/tape method is not quite as effective as the hot wax/cloth method because it was followed by plucking. That's right ladies, they plucked our lips. It hurt so bad.
We've decided never, ever to do that again. When I go home for Christmas, I'm going to find some sort of dyi product to bring back with me. Ah well, Mariannette and I just chalk it up to the authentic Chinese experience. Next we went to lunch and shopped for hours. It was wonderful and the facial from hell quickly faded into the background.
First, we had to find our way to the beauty salon by way of a hand drawn map that Sailing had made for us. It had the name of the salon written on it in Chinese. We had the taxi driver drop us off at Wal-Mart(it was on the map she'd drawn) and we took about the next half hour to find the salon. It was only 2 blocks away. But we did find it!
We entered the salon to find a hallway lined with mirrors and balloons accompanied by loud music. There was no one in sight, but the place was clearly open because of the music and all the lights were on. I even called out "Hello?" which, thinking back now I should have called out "Ni Hao?". We followed the deserted hallway to the end where we found a flight of stairs. At the top of the stairs we found the salon. We had asked Sailing to arrange everything for us. I asked her to find a place where we could get facials because I'd been told that was where women go to get theie eyebrows and lips waxed. Mariannette and I were both in severe need of these services. I assumed that when Sailing made the appointments, she had explained to them that those were the services we were interested in. I also assumed that we would just show up and they'd know exactly what we'd need done. I was wrong.
As it was just Mariannette and I, with no one along to translate, things quickly became confusing. They showed us the price book, which was completely in Chinese. There were prices running from 280 rmb (the price Sailing had told me, and the one I was expecting to pay) all the way up to over 1000 rmb. We pointed at the 280 one and pointed back and forth to ourselves, hoping to indicate that we both wanted that one. We next tried to make sure that brow and lip waxing would be including. We made the universal motion for waxing (a lifting and ripping motion away from the lip). That didn't seem to work, they looked very confused. I next called Chris and tried to have him explain what we wanted. He attempted to, but it turns out that he doesn't know the words for eyebrow and lip waxing. Why should he? He's never had occasion to use or hear those words before. After she got off the phone with Chris she smiled and nodded, indicating (we hoped) that she finally understood what we wanted.
I followed here to the desk, where she again showed me the price book and asked (I thought) if we both wanted the 280 package. I thought this was already established. Next she gets out the calculator. Clearly she wants me to understand what the price is. Mariannette finally says "I think she wants you to pay." Ahhhh, that's what's going on here. I expected to pay afterwards. We pay and are ushered into the back for our facials.
In the back room, we're given these hot pink, see-through towel type things with elastic gathered at the top. They clearly want us to put them on...At first we attempt to only take off our sweaters and leave on our t-shirts, but that doesn't fly with the beauticians. We have to take everything off, excepting our bras. The pink-things go on like a tube top. Next, we're told to lie down on the table. I lie down on my stomach, which makes no sense considering we are there for a facial. I'm so dense sometimes. I also leave my shoes on, which is stupid also. You always take your shoes off in China! I was nervous and feeling a bit silly. Finally I get situated on my back and she covers me with a towel. She wrapped my hair up in a towel (which was too small. My head must be much larger than the average Chinese woman's head. The towel wouldn't stay on and kept slipping off.) What followed next was heavenly. They rubbed lotion and lotion into our skin. There was also much massaging going on, from our chest up (not below the towel). As before when I had the massage in Suzhou, it was slightly painful. I've since learned that this is the traditional style of massage in China. Particularly when she massaged my face, it really hurt. She pushed very hard on the place on my jaw right by my earlobes. I thought I was going to fly off the table, it was so painful. I grabbed her hands and told her not to do that again. She understood me. The facials were finished up with a white, very thick mask. It looked like marshmallow fluff. After that was over, they motioned for us to get dressed, which we did. Hmmm, no waxing .... what now?
We tried again to show them with hand motions what we wanted. Plucking at our eyebrows, ripping motions away from our face, it just didn't work. They mimicked us, but we all ended up just laughing at ourselves and each other. Finally we were able to get Sailing on the phone and asked her to explain what we wanted. OH! Ok, now we understand. We paid more (70 rmb each) and sat back down on the table. Turns out they thought we wanted our legs waxed. NO! Thanks anyway, just brow and lip please. Once all that was cleared up, we laid back down and the waxing/plucking began. The didn't wax our eyebrows, they shaped completely by plucking. Ouch. Although my eyebrows were tidy when she finished, they were still much thicker than I'd normally like them. However, I didn't ask her to do more because it hurt too much. Next came the lip. The beauticians walked out of the room and back in again with a jar of wax and a roll of clear packing tape. Yes, you can see it coming can't you? So could we, but we didn't do anything to stop it? See what we women will do for vanities sake? They smeared the cold wax on our lips(they didn't heat it) and then put the tape on top of the wax. Next came the ripping off of the tape. It hurt! And, they didn't rip with the grain of the hair, but against the grain, which made it worse. Poor Mariannette. Her beautician did re-waxed and re-taped her three times! Apparently the cold wax/tape method is not quite as effective as the hot wax/cloth method because it was followed by plucking. That's right ladies, they plucked our lips. It hurt so bad.
We've decided never, ever to do that again. When I go home for Christmas, I'm going to find some sort of dyi product to bring back with me. Ah well, Mariannette and I just chalk it up to the authentic Chinese experience. Next we went to lunch and shopped for hours. It was wonderful and the facial from hell quickly faded into the background.