#4 Threading

This is an ancient hair removal technique that is practiced in Asian and Arab countries. In Egypt it is called fatlah. From what I have been able to uncover both through online research and my own experience here is that a women undergoes EXTENSIVE hair removal the day before her wedding. This indicates that she has entered into adulthood and is prepped and ready for her night of passion with her husband. Now, the day before my wedding in Elisha I had my whole face threaded, and yes I still had my eyebrows. They removed the hair from my whole face. Some women are blessed with maybe just a little peach fuzz above their lip, unlike me, I have peach fuzz all over my face. Sure it is light but it is there. So I agreed with this whole facial threading custom. No problem. If you have an expert threader, the process is almost painless. It is no different than plucking or even waxing. I prefer threading because it is gentle and my skin is sensitive. I have now had four different people thread my face in Egypt and one in Canada. The VERY first person that had the honours to DO my face was the man who also did my hair and make-up for my wedding. So far with my experience the faster they are the less painful it is and the less reddening or any other skin irritation you will endure.

Now, I mentioned that the day before the wedding the bride to be becomes virtually hairless. And I am not kidding. EVERYWHERE. Oh yes, even down there. The women in my new family were persistent about me waxing my arms. Yup, that’s right, my arms. So here’s the thing. Yes, I do have hair on my arms, always have. I would say in all my existence that hair has never really grown. It’s just there. Now at first I was almost ready to say, sure go for it, wax my arms. But they kept on pushing and kept saying beautiful. Meaning that right now I am not beautiful because apparently I have hairy arms. If you know me, then you know that the more you push the more likely I am to tell you to fuck off. So, I did not. I continued with our wedding plans. Showed up at my wedding with my shoulder and arm bearing dress and I am almost 100 per cent positive that NO ONE saw my hairy arms.

Let’s make one thing perfectly clear from a cultural perspective: I am Canadian. I live in Canada. For more than 6 months out of the year it is cold. That means for most of the time I am wearing long sleeves AND the hair on my arms are keeping me warm. LOL! Now normally women of Arab decent have darker, coarser hair, AND not to mention that live in climates where the temperature at times can be intolerable. So, dark hair and heat equals hygiene concern. I also know that other countries and cultures partake in the same hair removal ritual, again I find it is mostly women who have darker hair and lots of it and come from climates and living conditions that call for extra care in personal upkeep. And then there are other cultures where women are blessed with little to no hair.

So I considered it. However I am not too keen at the moment adding to my already long list of personal chores. The less upkeep the better.

Back to threading. What I love about it is that it is fast and cheap. Today I had my face done. A little more red than usual. She kept going over my eye area. A tad bit sensitive. The total came to 10 EGP. That is about $1.88 CDN. So threading it is. Waxing the arms? I’ll let you know if I go there!