Facial

After all that complaining about my husband and football season, Dirk did the sweetest thing. I had mentioned several times about two months ago that I was not happy with the way my skin was looking. I have also enjoyed going to the spa in Europe and getting facials. It has been several years since I got one. My skin looked like a teenagers bumpy acne with old lady wrinkles on my forehead. I will admit, I complained long and loud about the lack of spa’s in our tiny town. For my birthday, Dirk found a place that would do a facial. On one of those infrequent days off, I headed in to see what our little ol’ town had to offer. Honestly, at this point, I’d take anything!
I wasn’t expecting much from the hair salon that also does facials. I was pleasantly surprised though. I did have to wait about half an hour after my appointment time. As you might imagine, I had already decided this place SUCKS and I just want to leave and have my money back. Who waits half an hour?! I was in a mood by this time. The lady that came out to get me was very apologetic and did not make excuses, which is very uncommon.
She began by offering me water and coffee. She gave me a big fluffy robe and left the room so I could change. I’m not exactly sure why one needs to take off all of their clothing for something that only involves the face, but I’m down for getting comfortable. Keep in mind I have only been to a day spa. So, you normally have several hours of full body treatments, sauna, hot tub, and such before the facial part comes. So, I really didn’t know what to expect. I get to lay down on this super comfortable reclining chair that is heated! It was great. The lady covered me and my fluffy robe up with some light blankets that were also heated. I was so snug, I never wanted to get up.
After that, I had my eye’s closed and was so relaxed I was almost comatose. So all I know is what the lady said she was doing and how it felt. She began by washing my face with what felt like those facial wipes. Then layer some damp warm towels over my face to “open the pores”. I had seen my pores before I got there, they were pretty open! She then got out this loud power tool sounding thing and began “exfoliating”. It felt a lot like how one of those nail tools looks. It kind of tickled and I can’t believe it did much. But after a few minutes she was satisfied. Next, she got this huge lamp and put something cold and kind of heavy over my eyes. She explained that this lamp was going to show her under my skin. That sounds pretty gross to me, but she did it anyway. She said something about having some sun damage on my chin, but apparently it wasn’t that big of a deal. Then she did the weirdest thing. Something I have never had happen before.

This lady put some kind of fan directly on my face that I swear blew out the wind directly from hell. It was the hottest thing I have ever felt. Suddenly my face felt HUGE and sweat started pouring out. Then she just left it there! She kept asking if I was OK, but my mouth my so dry I couldn’t talk. Not to mention, I felt like my face was so heavy I wouldn’t move my mouth if I tried. I had to breathe this air that I really thought might catch my nose, throat, and lungs on fire. It felt like this lasted a lifetime. I couldn’t even guess how long it really went on.
When she finally took away the fan, my face felt so weird. Like I could feel every thing in the air passing by. It got very cold very quickly. Next, the lady said she was going to “vacuum” my face. At this point, I had no idea what she might do. Thankfully, she only used something that felt like silly putting to suction something off my face. She said it was unblocking my pores. It sort of reminded me of that slim that kids use… ya know, the stuff that looks like a hand and you slap it down and it smooshes back up slowly… just like that… all over my face.
I was just starting to relax again when suddenly the lady was poking the crap out of my face with this really sharp thing. I couldn’t really tell if it was her fingernails (I would hope not) or something like a dentist uses to scrap plaque. She poked that thing all over my face. I couldn’t imagine that after everything she did there would be anything left in my pores… they must have been worse than I thought.
She then washed my face with a towel with very warm water. I couldn’t help, but wonder lying there with my eyes closed (I had been thinking things a mile a minute this whole time) where she was getting such hot water and I didn’t see a sink back when I had eyes to see with and I didn’t hear any water running. I found out after wards that it was water from a crockpot sitting on the table! It did feel good though after all that poking.
Then she put on this really nice face mask. I have no idea what it was, I would Eucalyptus because that’s what it felt like. At this point, my face is kind of starting to burn. Then the lady did the best thing of all. While the mask was setting, she massage my arms from the elbow down and my hands with some yummy smelling lotion. This didn’t last nearly long enough!

After she washed it all off, she began to massage my face with this really hot oil. It was nice, but now my face was really beginning to hurt! It was starting to burn all over and all the rubbing really made it worse. There was so much oil! It was nice, but I felt like I was being marinated.
I was really happy when she washed that off. I had a jolt when she then put really COLD towels on my face. I guess to close the pores back up. By the time she put on some final lotion, I was so happy it was over. This was nothing like what I was used to.
I know that each time you get a facial you break out pretty back for a couple of days then everything should be all better, for a little while anyway. That doesn’t make it any easier to accept all that pain to be broken out again! The lady told me to do a mud mask once a week to “help keep those blackheads under control”. Now that made me feel better!
My husband told me the whole next week how smooth my skin was. The best was when he told me that he couldn’t see my “wrinkles” as much and my skin might be tighter. When I was about this, he quickly reminded me that it wouldn’t last long!
He even said that I have less blackheads. When I asked where they were before he answered “I don’t know, but you said the lady told you it would help with blackheads so I just figured”. If nothing else, I have learned that my husbands tries to do right and he listens at least sometimes!

The things we ladies do to look our best…..