Monday, May 19, 2008

Beauty hurts - duh

I admit it, I'm a sissy when it comes to beauty. I'm slightly vain and I can't handle the pain that beauty sometimes entails. And no I didn't mean for that to rhyme.

I bring this up because Friday I went to Spa Nordstrom's to get an eyebrow touch up before the wedding this weekend and my Eyebrow Girl (which is what I'll refer to her as) told me I was a sissy when it comes to waxing. And sadly, she is right. Actually I'm kind of a sissy about anything beauty and pain-related.

Now in my defense, I have very sensitive skin so my skin hates the wax more than normal. When I left my appointment on Friday and met up with my friend Ryan, the first words out of his mouth were, "dude what happened to your face?" Touching. And Eyebrow Girl made this comment after tearing a particularly large piece of wax off the skin just below the eyebrow, so that is already sensitive. And I've mentioned before how bad I am at simple beauty rituals like plucking my eyebrows so waxing seems to be my only option to keep them under control. It's an abusive relationship.

But moving along, the recent waxing incident reminded me of the simple phrase that my stepmom reiterated to me when a hot cocktail dress was cutting off circulation in my chest, "beauty hurts." As a girl, I can absolutely say, yes it does.

I've suffered for beauty, especially when you live in the city where everyone is beautiful, beautifully dressed and put together. You find yourself obsessing about mani/pedi's, getting a wax touch up and making sure you don't leave the house without some kind of make up on. And now I am a follower. I've done the highlights fed through the shower cap with the crochet hook (yes it's painful), waxed, had plantar's warts removed with needles before sandal season and worn shoes that look hot while walking to the printer but hurt for about 20 minutes after.

I declare my sissiness for beauty pain proudly. Friends who wax more than me, tease me about this because I sound like such a "newbie" and say, "well if your feet hurt, wear the comfortable shoes!" They are right and this pain is brought solely upon myself but it's nice to be all made up sometimes and have that newly "cleaned up" feeling. So I just bring the aloe lotion for my eyebrows, slap on some Band-Aids for the feet and take a deep breath to get into the dress, all in my fabulously highlighted hair.

10 comments:

Tipp said...

Hey girl.

I am not sure how to do it on Blogger, but with Wordpress we have to get the embed code off of Youtube and put it in the HTML portion of the post.

I am sorry I am not more help!

Arielle said...

Have you ever gotten a facial? When they do extractions it HURTS LIKE WHOA. And I have a really high pain threshold. I am no stranger to suffering for beauty. I don't mind getting my eyebrows waxed, it's when the Eyebrow Girl does rapid fire plucking to get the few stray hairs that really gets me.

Anonymous said...

Try going to Sisters at Watertower. They are a Chicago girl's best friend. Ask for a Brazilian and say ShoesAPlenty sent you. ;-)

Stephanie said...

I've never had my eyebrows waxed. But since I can be a compulsive plucker, there wouldn't be that much left to wax anyway.

Anonymous said...

You just made me painfully aware (haha) that I need both a haircut and a brow wax.
I always try and get the last brow wax appointment of the day so I can just go home in the dark and lay with an icepack on my face all night because my paleness goes uber-red. How does my coworker get her brows done on her lunch break and come back NOT looking like she skinned her face?

Unknown said...

As you know, no sympathy here. I've waxed my own brows and upper lip since high school and I think I've acheived freak status at my salon because I can chat my way through a brazillian wax as if I were at a cocktail party. Hang in there kid....eventually you get used to all of it.

Anonymous said...

It's all worth it! I'm with Arielle too - I thought waxing hurt, but facials don't even compare!

Anonymous said...

I'm convinced I'm not very good at being a girl. I do none of the standard beauty stuff (i.e. waxing, makeup, updo's etc.) I can't even dress myself half the time.

Wait. I lied. I did get waxed once. In my nether regions. Ouch. Beauty hurts and then some!

Rachel said...

I have a very bad back, but if I want to look good you better damn well believe I will have some serious heels on. The next day I am cross eyed with pain but knowing I "worked it" gets me through it.

One thing though that I can't get myself to do is the Brazilian wax. When I think about it my face gets all scrunched up like a church lady, but I am secretly jealous of those that have the guts to do it.

Movie Maven said...

if you're gunshy when it comes to waxing, try threading. i find that it hurts about the same *while* it's happening, but much, much less afterward (because it doesn't touch your skin).

found your blog via 20something bloggers...looks fun!