Great Escape: By a Thread

So a visit to a non-descript salon in one of those alleys between Walnut Creek's Main and Locust streets to get my eyebrows shaped may not constitute the fantasy getaway. No, it's not on par with lounging on my own private deck at Calistoga Ranch ior sipping champagne in a sky-high room in San Francisco's Mandarin-Oriental Hotel. 

But, sometimes the small indulgences and the 15-minute pampering sessions are all any of us need to recharge and feel halfway human again. 

I was much in need of such recharging last weekend. And certainly, my eyebrows were in total disarray. If my eyebrows were my Toyota Corolla, they would would be months past their 5,000 mile check up. 

An eyebrown delinquent, I had let little hairs pop up with impunity along my upper lids. In general, I'm pretty bad about upholding the standards of contemporary beauty. I put off pedicures, and getting my hair cut and highlighted. I love facials but can't afford them on my journalist's salary. And, no, I will never go in for Botox. 

With regard to my brows, these beauty standards say that a well-shaped brow is the key to a well-groomed look. Brows, according to these rules, frame the eyes. As the old proverbs say, the eyes are the mirror to the soul. 

With my messy eyebrows, I was starting to look and feel--deep in my soul--pretty haggard. Life, work and everything else was getting in the way of so many things, including a drop-in visit to the Brow Bar at Macy's in Broadway Plaza for an eyebrow wax job. 

But last Saturday afternoon, I had a rare hour to myself so I decided to go in for some girly pamperimg. I stopped by the Locast Street nail salon where I usually get my pedicures.  The women there told me they could see me in a 45 minutes. 

Fine, I said, I could find a way to fill those 45 minutes. Maybe a visit to Cafe La Scala on North Main Street for a mocha. 

But, walking a few doors down from the nail salon, located in an older commercial complex across the street from the Lesher Center for the Arts.  I came across M&M Thread Salon. This newly opened salon promised to offer me the "eyebrows of my dreams." A lone aesthetician by the name of Monsoon Pandey sat in the small, neat shop, waiting for a customer like me to pop in.

How was I to get the eyebrows of my dreams? With the use of threading, Monsoon explained. Threading was a "unique and natural method of hair removal," M&M boasted in literature posted around its shop. 

I had vaguely heard about threading. When I noticed that the price for threading both my eyebrows was only $11, I was close to saying, "sign me up." 

Then I noticed Monsoon's cleanly arched brows. They were absolutely lovely, and she said they were the result of threading. "I have a friend do mine," she said.

Monsoon was eager to introduce me to this technique, which she said was common among women in her native Nepal and has been the preferred method of eyebrow shaping for women in the Indian subcontinent for centuries. According to a website on threading, the technique may have originated in Turkey and is common in the Middle East.

Monsoon said she learned to thread from her mother. 

Monsoon said M&M had recently opened its third location in this Walnut Creek storefront; its other locations are in Berkeley and San Francisco. She knew of one other shop in Walnut Creek that offered threading. 

Monsoon sat me down in a salon chair and asked me to lean back. She showed me the spool of cotton thread she was to use. It looked like a spool of white thread you might use to sew a blouse, but this thicker cotton thread, she said, was specifically made for hair removal. 

While I was to sit back, she asked for my help in stretching out the skin around each brow. That meant holding one hand on my eyelid and one one hand on my forehead, and pulling the skin in opposite directions.

Monsoon dexterously wound a length of white thread around her nimble fingers and got to work.  Zip, zip, zip.  That's what I heard as she twisted, rolled and criss-crossed the thread along the surface of my skin, entwining hairs and quickly lifting them from the  follicle.  

Threading is said to be quick and hygienic, removing hair from the root without harming the skin. This method is supposed to be good for for sensitive or mature skin. It costs less than waxing because it doesn't involve the costly chemicals used in waxing and other hair removal processes. 

My eyes were closed so, I could not see how Monsoon was moving the thread around my brows. I felt a tickle, not the slight burn and rip of waxing. Later, Monsoon and I vide0taped her threading some hairs off my forearm, to give me a look at how she did the threading.

When she was done, Monsoon held up a mirror to show me a pair of clean looking brows, slightly thinner than before but following the natural arch above my eye.  

I was pleased, and I left her shop feeling less tired and haggard.

The session was quick, friendly and painless. With my neat new brows, I gained a more well-groomed look that gave me a quick boost in self-esteem.

I was on my way to being female again.  Next stop would be the nail salon for the pedicure. In the next few weeks, I gues I'll need get into a salon for some leg waxing--after all, spring is coming, along with shorter skirts and, ugh, bathing suits.  Oh, and my most important feminine maintenance chore is to get in to my hair cut and highlights retouched. Gotta blonde myself up. 

So, much a girl must do to feel she's keeping up with the demands of girldom. So much money to spend. In this way, boys have it easy. 

But, with my new brows, I am on my way.