The Lady of the Spa

I don't wax my legs, I don't go for regular massages or pedicures, I haven't had a manicure in years -- but the one girly thing that I do is get my eyebrows waxed.  Its one of those things that once you start doing you just can't stop.  I mean, its not like you can hide your unwaxed eyebrows under your pants all winter long- - they stare right back at you and yell "PLUCK ME OR WAX ME" everytime you look in the mirror.  Despite all we've been through these past few weeks, my eyebrows didn't stop growing, and as things started to return to normal, the evil eyebrow hairs started to yell at me in the mirror again.  So yesterday was the day.  Toby was having a good nap, Rob was catching up with every CSI episode that was taped on PVR while we were away, and I bit the bullet and drove into Collingwood to get my hairy eyes dealt with.

I don't go to a fancy salon or anything -- I go for convenience.  In fact, the reason I picked this particularly grungy salon is the there is NEVER anyone in there.  I can walk in at any time of day -- weekend, holiday or weekday and there is always the same nice girl sitting at the desk just waiting.   I always humour her by saying, "do you have time for an eyebrow wax sometime today?" to which she checks the book and then says, "Why yes -- I can take you right now!"

ONE time- - I think it was a Saturday in the summer - - there was another customer in the room getting her feet soaked. When I asked for a waxing she didn't even have to check the book, "No - -sorry. We're SWAMPED today."  That was the one and only time I was turned down.  Usually, its like my own walk in waxing centre.

So I went in yesterday and the same cheerful girl was there.  This time when she saw me though, her politeness went out the window.  She took one look at my eyebrows and GASPED.   "Oh my GOD!  LOOK at your EYEBROWS."  She ushered me into a room quickly and shut the door.  "How LONG has it BEEN!!?!?"  I couldn't remember exactly.  Sometime before Christmas.

She was NOT impressed.  She warned me that it was going to HURT.  She then applied a coat of wax on my horrifying-ly-hairy eyebrows and then paused,

"I'm going to have to put TWO COATS of wax on or its just going to STICK to your FACE"

So she put more wax on.

Then she paused again,

"Are you SURE you're ready for this?  Its REALLY going to HURT."

(WHat choice did I have, now, with TWO coats of wax on my horribly-horrifically-hairy "face"?)

So I braced myself.  And it hurt.  But this is all in the context of I-just-spent-the-last-two-weeks-sitting-vigil-over-my-son-in-the-icu-at-sick-kids so  it really wasn't all THAT bad.  I think she had been hoping for more of a reaction.

She then waxed between my eyes and told me I was REALLY LUCKY that I didn't grow hair BETWEEN my eyes or I would have had a UNIBROW and look like MEDUSA.

I thought medusa had snakes coming out of her head. But maybe tiny hairs is the equivalent when you're an aesthetician.

After much huffing and puffing on her part, she finally finished my eyebrows.  I'm surprised she didn't charge me extra for all that I had put her through.  And as I was leaving she yelled after me,

"I sure hope you've learned your lesson!"

I smiled on my way out.  Every stranger we met at Sick Kids - -even the parking attendants - -seemed to walk on eggshells around us and treated us with an excessively polite manor.  How nice it was to be yelled at.  It was a little reminder that life is going back to normal, again.