No pain no gain!??

Thanks to various credit card companies, I have recently been the lucky recipient of a number of vouchers, covering the entire beautifying process from facials to relaxing and deep tissue massages! After I overcame my delight at receiving such goodies to beautify myself before my first day at a new job, I sat down with my calendar to make appointments!


I have never actually been for a facial, and so my first appointment was for a “bio-oxygen facial”! After trekking across Chinatown to find the wonderfully hidden little spa, I was sweating and frazzled! Stepping into the cool interior of the spa and inhaling the (so-typical) incense did help to calm me before I faced a stack of forms and disclaimers to sign, having to reveal details like my weight and height. While I was wondering how this affected a facial; my beautician turned up and led me to a private room.


As I relaxed on the bed waiting for her, I thought about how relaxed I would be in the aftermath of the facial. And indeed, the facial did start off well with a cool scrub, then a steam. The worst part began when she started using her nails on my face to dig out blackheads! While I was worrying about the hygiene level of her nails and open pores on my skin, she was gleefully humming a tune to herself! Just as I thought I was no longer going to be able to take the pain of her long nails squeezing my pores, she began to use what felt like a needle to pierce my skin to remove the said blackheads. When the tears began to flow, she asked if I would like some anaesthetizing cream to help numb the pain. As at this point I was literally sobbing, I just nodded while she muttered that it would be an additional $50 (for a facial that only cost $38).


She rubbed some cream on my face and continued prodding and poking; I do not know about the pain reduction; but my tears must have washed off most of the cream. Thank goodness, it ended soon after and after a quick mask, I was ready to go. As I stepped out of the room, I was ushered into another room for a “sales talk” where they tried really hard to convince me that I wanted to cry in sheer pain once every three weeks for 6 months, at a discounted package price of only $3000! As I escaped the spa, I praised God that I had the wisdom to schedule a massage with another voucher instead of another facial.


Delightedly, I went off for my massage session the next week, and at the risk of sounding like a prude, the idea of wearing nothing under the gown except disposable knickers was a terrifying thought to me. Telling myself to grow up, I lay down on another bed in another spa and awaited another beautician/masseuse. This time though, the pain began immediately! What was supposed to be a “relaxing massage” involved the masseuse (a rather healthy-sized woman) clambering onto the bed, knees on either side of me, and kneading my poor back with her full body strength. After shedding more tears (believe me, I am not usually a cry-baby); I squealed for her to lighten up! Which accordingly she did, and I breathed easy, for about ten seconds… eventually I gave up trying to tell her to go slow and simply told her that I was in a hurry and had to go, so she could cut short the session.


As I admired the leftover sore spots on my face from my first facial and the huge blue-black bruises that decorated my back from my massage session; I picked up the phone and cancelled the remaining “free” sessions the vouchers offered. I fully understand both the clichés “no pain, no gain” and the concept of “no such thing as a free lunch”. Perhaps I am not meant to enjoy such beauty treatments, be that as it may, I am pretty happy the way I am. As a lesson learnt, I went out and splurged on a new book to relax (alternative to massage) and a box of Tate’s lavender tea (alternative to detox facial). All my credit card companies take note; I prefer tea and books, so keep such pain-free vouchers coming!