One of my proudest achievements, next to having a rather uncanny ability to guess celebrity lookalikes, was the fact that I had never gotten my eyebrows waxed.
It was my ice-breaker at cocktail parties (invitations have been slow lately, BTW), my go-to during awkward silences, just something I always liked to mention for shock value.
“Never?!” people would ask. “Not once?!” they’d scream, incredulously.
I’d shake my head and smile modestly, “No, jamais--which means never in French.”
The truth is, my eyebrows have always been relatively thin and light, and I’ve always been a fan of Brooke Shields (and, since meeting her a few weeks ago, Annie). So the last thing I wanted to do was get rid of them, you know?
On my way home recently, however, I passed by a very pristine-looking brow bar overflowing with young, stylish ladies, decked out in Rag & Bone’s finest, carrying Proenza Shouler PS1 bags. The ladies I can only aspire to be! I had to be around them! So without thinking twice or looking both ways, I ran across the street and entered the salon.
Immediately, I was thrilled I did. The ladies welcomed me with bright white smiles and perfectly framed faces under exquisitely arched eyebrows.
“Have a seat!” Tamarinda (name changed to conceal her identity), the Eyebrow Master, said warmly as she guided me toward a tall, white, leather-bound stool.
I sat and closed my eyes: “I’m all yours.”
And boy, was I! Stephanie (oops) trimmed, waxed and tweezed my brows in under five minutes, making for an overall very pleasant waxing experience. My eyebrows appeared shaped and structured without looking any thinner at all.
I smiled, paid, and left happy. Oh, and tipped. Let that be known. I don’t want a bad rap.
But that’s not even the point of the story! See, I have very sensitive skin, which, since the waxing, has erupted into a vicious rash all along my temples and part of my forehead. A fierce red trail lines my eyebrows as a shingles-like reminder that I got waxed.
Knowing an irritation was likely, I, of course, immediately applied both Aquaphor and my trusty Vitacilina (there’s my Mexican reference for this post) to the area directly following the procedure. But to no avail! My forehead is an angry outbreak of seemingly adult-onset acne, and my usual blemish remedies have failed me.
I run to the mirror every morning like Marcia Brady after she gets hit in the nose with the football (Was that just in the movie? If you haven’t seen the movie, watch it--it’s hilarious. Even my mom likes it, and she doesn’t usually take to American entertainment. [She’s Mexican.] That’s two!) only to find a redder and harsher eruption on my face.
People at work started to notice this morning. And I got the wax a week ago! So I fled the office for Duane Reade (naturally, I picked up a few other things that I had to have--who knew Beanie Babies were back?!) a few minutes ago, where I was recommended Cortizone-10 ointment, for skin irritations, inflammation, and rashes.
I’ll keep you posted on the recovery. In the meantime, have you had a similar experience? How did you get the post-wax rash to go away? How can I prevent it from happening again? (Ha! Like I’d ever do this again.)