BAREFACED SIGHS

You don’t know how much you have needed a facial, ladies, until you have had one!

At the weekend I was explaining to James some of the complications of being a woman , particularly in summer [not that I really think that he, being a man of the world, needs instruction from me!] It’s just that women spend the summer worrying about the constant depilation problem, whether parts of us look bronzed enough to be shown in any circumstances [and some put themselves at tremendous risk over this] and of course, a girl dare not step outside without checking the shade of varnish on her toenails. I was also trying to get him to see [well, not “see” literally – I mean “understand” ] that all this takes logistics: I mean, it is best, is it not, if varnishing your toenails first thing in the morning, to have donned certain items of underwear first?

I had decided on Friday that I could no longer wait for the following:
a waxing job on my jawline
a pedicure
a full facial
an eyebrow shaping

There are many beauty salons here - in fact I can think of six within walking distance – but in Modica as in the UK, many will not wax part of your face and do a facial treatment on the same day. I appreciate the reasons why but I do not want to walk home in the hot sun after a facial waxing treatment and it is an extra bother to go back a day later for the facial itself.

It so happens that Raffaele the hairdresser has a new manicurist who will come to the house to carry out more complex procedures, so I’d made an appointment for today. In two and a half hours and for forty euros I had all the above treatments carried out, efficiently, calmly and painlessly. [She did ask, as every beautician I have ever visited has, “Why do you need the jawline done? There is nothing there!” I replied, as ever, “I know there’s some hair there and you can see it in certain lighting.”] Simi, I hasten to add, was a very good doggie-girl whilst observing all this!

Oh, there is nothing like having your feet “done”, reader, and the sensation is topped only by the way your make-up just glides on after a facial! So I am sitting here thinking that if all this can make me feel so much better, and I can only afford such an indulgence occasionally, how wonderful you must feel if you can have such treatments every day! No wonder the rich and famous [usually] look so good, even allowing for airbrushing! No, I am not fool enough to imagine that even those who claim they have had “no knife” look that brilliant on cosmetics alone and it is one of the tragedies of our era that women, because of the images pushed at them all the time, will subject themselves to invasive and non-essential surgery because of this eternal quest for youthful looks. [This is to the older woman, perhaps, what thinness is to her younger counterpart.]

But I have digressed: I will say again that I now feel better and, dear gentlemen readers, I am sorry if I have bored you but at least you now know that a woman always needs to get her knickers on before varnishing her toenails!