Women are very well groomed here, which you would hope for in a region where women are blessed (or cursed) with thick, dark hair. Hair removal is as much a cultural obsession as it is a hygienic and religious responsibility. So it seems like lately, outside of the Morsi debates, this has become my other favorite topic of conversation amongst friends and females. My roommate might even say that I've become obsessed.
Where men are covered with lots of untamed body hair, women are completely without; With the exception of their eyebrows and the hair on their heads. In the West, we don't really have strict limitations on what can stay and what must go. Having been blessed and cursed with dark, thick hair, I've been obsessed with grooming from a young age as well. I've tried every kind from plucking, threading, bleaching, waxing, laser-ing, you name it, I've done it. Part of what I loved about living in Astoria, the most ethnically diverse neighborhood in the world, were the plethora of hair removal options there were, thanks to my fellow Greek, Arab, Indian, Eastern European, etc., residents.
But typically, the one thing I've always overlooked is arm hair. I don't think I know of a single friend who removes her arm hair, and I also don't think I ever noticed if a girl friend has it. I certainly never paid attention to the fine hairs on my forearms. Who cares, right?
Well, Egyptians do. They think it's gross. Just like we would think it would be gross to see a women without her legs or armpits shaved. Arm hair falls into that same category. And after a few conversations, I started to feel really self conscious about it. Egyptian women will say things like, "Oh yeah, we know foreigners don't remove their arm hair, it's fine..." But some women will instead say, "We think it's gross... and don't you too?" My family has never said anything to me about it. But after my blond roommate mentioned that someone said her nonexistent, blond arm hair was gross, I thought well, shit, mine's dark, so it must then be really gross!
I started to worry. Do I get excused for being a foreigner? Or do people see my arms and think ewwww, gross!? Do my students see it and think so too? Will guys get turned off by the sight of it? For the first time in my life, I started paying attention to it, and everyday it seemed to be getting worse, uglier, really unattractive. I started checking the arms of every Egyptian woman: all bald. I began thinking about all the people I've been meeting, all the social situations I'm in. The short sleeve shirts, the bare arms... has it been noticed? Are appetites being ruined over the sight of my arms?
So finally today I couldn't let it go any further. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. I walked into a salon and asked for a waxing. Instead of waxing, I was introduced to a new method of hair removal, known here as sweet. What it is is an all natural concoction of sugar, water, and lemon juice, cooked into a caramel. The caramel is then smeared onto the area and ripped off, and that same piece is just re-used over and over again. You can find the standard wax and cloth strips in some salons, but you'll find sweet everywhere. It's even considered healthier and better for your skin because it's natural.
Waxing is never a pleasant experience in itself, but this sweet stuff is torture. Just the smearing-on is painful enough because she's pulling sticky caramel onto your skin to grab onto the hair, and then she is in this constant motion of smearing and ripping that seems to last an eternity. And arms are pretty sensitive. How many of us have techniques at ripping off bandaids quickly to minimize the pain? Well, this is like ripping off 100 bandaids in sequence.
The first arm hurt like hell. By the time she was done, my arm felt and looked like it was severely sunburned: it was red, swollen and hot, with a serious stinging feeling. So when she moved onto the other arm, I lost it. It was so painful that tears were just pouring down my face. I couldn't control it and she said, "If you're crying over this, what would you do if you had a lot of hair? Some women have it much worse than you!" I was told that this was especially awful because it was the first time, and next time should be much easier. I've had plenty of waxings before, but this was just a whole new definition of horrible. It's been hours since I had it done, and my arms are still burning, red, and hot. But I do have to say though, they feel sooooo soft. They've never felt like this before!
So was it worth it? That's to be determined. Will I go back? That's also to be determined. We females seriously got the short end of the stick here. We have to put up with so much pain and bullshit in our lives. Next time I see a guy with a bandaid on his arm, I swear to God, I'm going to rip it off ever so slowly and enjoy every second of watching him squirm.
No comments:
Post a Comment