Eyebrows

So, tonight I was trying to wax my eyebrows before bed. (You didn't know that I do that? I do. Not as often as I should, apparently.) I used to use the wax you heat up in the microwave. Then I found the stuff that you just hold over an open flame for 4 seconds then apply. I put a kleenex on the vanity to catch any drips of melted wax.

I was using a different lighter tonight, and it must have a hotter flame or something. Because I set my kleenex on fire - twice! Sheesh. I'm so tired that it took me a moment to process it. Huh. I stopped holding down the button on the lighter thingie. But there's still a flame. Pretty! Then I blew it out.

Anyway, this reminds me of the worst time I ever mucked up my eyebrows. It was two days before my sister-in-law's wedding and I was running late, as usual. I was trying to wax my eyebrows in a hurry then jump in the shower then finish packing then hurry to the airport to get to the wedding.

I didn't wait long enough for the wax to cool (this was back in the microwave days). It was still pretty hot when I slapped it onto my skin, but it's always hot and I didn't pay too much attention. I ripped off the wax, it hurt, and I cleaned up the area with tweezers. Then I took a really hot shower. Later I noticed that a scab was forming over my right eye. A big, ugly scab. I'd ripped off some skin with the hot wax. And burned the sensitive skin underneath. And compounded the whole situation by pouring really hot water over it for 10 minutes in the shower.

There was no hiding this ugly scab. When I got to Virginia, my sister-in-law and I went to have our nails done. The technicians asked me what I'd done to my face, then spent a fair amount of time snickering and making fun of me in Korean. I couldn't understand their words, but the meaning was pretty clear.

And the next day, the wedding day, the poor woman who was doing make-up for all of us in the wedding party didn't know what to do with me. "I can't cover that up," she said. She tried valiantly. And I just looked like I had a terrible growth above my right eye.

Yet I still wax my own eyebrows. I never learn.