The Quest For Girlyness : Where I’ve Been And Facials

You may have noticed that I have not been posting, at all. There is a good reason for t this, but that good reason also ran out of mileage a few months ago. You may know that I have some anxiety problems, and sometimes, when those problems rear their head, I curl up into a ball and do nothing until I’m sure it’s clear. This time, I’ve decided to actually deal with my anxiety problems. This is working….well it’s more like, it’s almost working. It works in spurts. Working on dealing with my problems is good, but makes me want to stay in a constant state of isolation. I want to avoid everything when I’m trying to not avoid fixing my life. So, like I said, it’s almost working. We’re making progress, and then I feel like the world is ending and hide from the world for a week.

For you all, this means that I have not only not been posting, but I have not been reading. You have been helping me by not posting yourselves. Good for you!

Now that that’s out of the way, I’m sure you’d all love to hear about girl things that I’ve been trying.

Last January, I went to my first facial followed by a make up lesson. When I arrived, they took my black coat and gave me a nice cup of Alterra coffee. The spa is a converted house that I think use to be a bank or a reality office. The waiting bench is in the middle of the sales floor, right in front of the cash register. I waited for a few minutes and watched everyone bustle around me. I, of course, started to feel a bit over whelmed by all of the women, who clearly knew more about being all womanly than I did. I set my coffee down as they handed me a clip board with some paper work on it. I filled it out, listing all the products I used on my face. 1. Noxzema foaming cleanser. End list. I use to only use it while I was working at the factory, but at the last makeup lesson I had learned I needed to use it every day. Serious Face.

An older blonde in a black outfit came down the stairs with a smile and asked if I was Christa. I said yes, and soon we were on our way upstairs. I was locked in a small bathroom and ordered to strip. Okay, so I locked myself in a bathroom and put on a fluffy white robe. She gave me a quick foot bath and then took me into the facial room. I got to lay on a table and listen to new agey music until she came back and got started. The one thing I know is that a hot towel is a true luxury in January. After the initial cleansing of my face she adeptly wrapped a towel around my face, leaving my mouth and nose clear, then turned a steamer on me. It was actually wonderful. She went over my paper work, and made sure I was was using a real cleanser that would clean the natural excess oil from my face. I told her that’s what the bottle said.

There was a part where she put a towel over my eyes and turned a bright light on my face. She looked at it through a huge magnifying glass and gave me a run down of the problems I had. First, I was told that I did not have as many blackheads as I had feared. Yes, there were some, but more of a problem was my dry skin. You see, I am no longer young. I am going into my late twenties, and thus need to use a moisturizer. If I don’t, I will turn into a shriveled old hag. Somewhere down the line. Or at least that’s the impression I got. This lead to me purchasing a 20 dollar bottle of Aveda Moisturizer once this was all done.

A lot of the rest of this experience was her rubbing nice smelling creams or cleansers on my face and then using a hot towel to wipe them off. While some of the creams worked, I was treated to mini massages. Over the session, she covered my arms, my legs, and my feet. It was very relaxing and in truth ended far too soon.

She told me to take my time, and not get up too fast before she left me to dress. I happily laid there for a minute or two, but headed out not too long after. I was handed a glass of water and taken down stairs for a makeup lesson.

We started with a demonstration of concealers to cover the almost dark circles I had under my eyes. After that there we covered what I had purchased a few nights before. We took turns working on different halves of my face. Bare Minerals is a really nice makeup brand. It really doesn’t take a lot to cover your face, but it does a wonderful job of doing so. After the foundation went down, my skin tone was evened out, but a little flat. Next comes something called warmth. It’s a red powder that you need to use very sparingly as it will make your face look beet red if you’re not careful. It does take away the flatness of color that the foundation leaves you with. The eyes were actually the hardest part for me. It requires a lot of fine motor control. Also, if you fuck up, it’ll be on a large scale compared to the fine detail needed for something like eye liner. Also, everyone will see it if you fuck up.

While I sat there, I became a bit of a show for the rest of the employees who had nothing better to do. They watched and tried to pick up some tips themselves. They chatted with me and about me. It was…odd. I imagine that this is how girls naturally act. I was actually observing girls in their natural environment, and more importantly, I was participating. Cultural anthropology for the win.

The woman who had been helping me asked if I was going to be seeing my boyfriend today because I looked amazing. I said no, as he lives an hour away from me. I settled my tab, bought the smallest, cheapest bottle of moisturizer and headed out. Instead of getting to see the Chad, I went to Wal-mart, fully done up with smokey eyes and wearing a flannel shirt. Because that’s how I roll, I guess.

The overall experience was pretty awesome. It was relaxing, and I learned a lot. I’ve been using the moisturizer and I have noticed my skin improving. Overall, facials = amazing. You should get one.