Taming of my caterpillars

Been awhile eh? I was planning an in-depth how-to/recipe that I thought it would be interesting since it's a traditional Guyanese dish (how many other blogs are offering that?!) but then I procrastinated on getting the damn thing written, edited, photos laid out, etc. And I haven't posted anything in the interim - my bad. I will get to that recipe post, I swear! But let me just get on with a post in the meanwhile:


So The Girl refers to my eyebrows as caterpillars. Instead of knocking her one for this, I have to admit she is right. When I leave them au naturel, the little hairy beasts above my eyes do in fact resemble caterpillars. And unfortunately I let them grow in way too often.

I know an excellent esthetician that does wonderful things to my brows. My cousin Denise waxes, brushes, tweezes, threads, trims and shapes my caterpillars until they become fully-tamed, elegantly shaped, eyebrows. She takes her time and creates perfect brows. I have never seen anyone come out of her room who didn't look way better than when they went in. (She works out of Chris G Hair Salon at Midland/Lawrence, 416-750-1171, just in case anyone is looking for a good esthetician... and she gives a-maz-ing facials too.)

The problem is I don't get to her nearly as often as I should. I let weeks go by. Then the weeks turn into months (seriously) and then I finally stroll through her door and she makes me look human again. During the growing in stage I don't notice how bad it's getting until I glance in the mirror while brushing my teeth and realize the hairy little buggers are back.

The thing is I don't want to go to anyone else. I know there's a nail salon on practically every corner here in Toronto and they always have a back room where you can get waxed, threaded and plucked to your heart's content. But I trust Denise. (I've had a few bad eyebrow experiences over the years.) And I like going to her. Again, the problem is simply I don't get to her often enough.

This past weekend I took the girls (Smalley and Celine - my mother's goddaughter) and my Mom for pedicures. We had a blast picking out our colours, playing with the massage chairs, soaking our feet, giggling while they scrubbed, and oohing and aahing over one another's finished nails.

The woman doing my pedi glanced up at me once or twice and finally said, "I do your brows?" Damn! Busted. It had been approx. nine weeks since the last time Denise had tamed my caterpillars so I know they were looking wild. Regardless, I politely said "no thanks" and vowed to get myself to Denise stat. But this woman was persistent. She continued to ask me, politely mind you, but determined:

"Why? You scare? No worry, I give you nice shape. Only 8 dollahs."
"No, it's okay. I have someone I go to for that."
"Ah yes, you scare. No scare, I give you nice shape. Promise."
"Well..."
"You see, I do you nice. Good shape you face. You no worry."

We continued like this for a few moments and I finally relented. I don't know why. I have not let anyone else touch my brows for at least five years. And really she didn't do a bad job. I explained how I like them to look - but with Denise I don't have to. She just knows. But like I said this lady did an okay job. Better than that really. It's just the process that was a little weird.

She was fast. I mean super fast. She had wax on me and ripped off practically before I laid down. Then she started tweezing like crazy, in a fury almost, and I could see hairs flying up in the air. I started to get worried here, thinking she might be taking off too much (I'm not down with the skinny brow look). And she noticed because at this point she tells me "Stop worry, relax okay? And coze eye, don move!" Then she goes back into hypermode and I try to relax.

But the whole time, she's like climbing all over me. Seriously! She's leaning over me, resting her arm in the crease between my breasts, literally lying on top of me. She's a small woman and granted, I am not. But I swear it was way too much body contact for the waxer/waxee relationship. At one point I was convinced she was going nestled down between my breasts for a nap like Smalley still tries to do! Very strange. Plus she was a little rough. Fast, but still rough. Heck, she didn't even bother to properly remove the leftover bits of wax - for the record she did smear baby oil across my forehead with a rough piece of cotton, but it did nothing to get rid of the wax. It was an empty gesture really. And I walked around with hairs stuck the wax for the rest of the evening.

In the end, I came out with pretty decent brows, but am pretty certain there was a lot more groping going on than was necessary. Next time, I go back to Denise. She knows her place is at the top of the reclined chair and not all over me!

The well tamed version of my brows. Maybe I'll track the re-growth process and then post future pics of the beasties progress... that'll give nightmares!

Oh man, I just noticed the dark circles under my eyes... should not have taken this pic without my makeup on. Sheesh. I need some sleep. Someone send the Sandman my way... and Molly Maid while you're at it!