Facials: cucumbers not (necessarily) included

Regrettably, I must report that I did not learn a useful skill. I enjoy being adventurous, so finding something new was a bit difficult. I had my heart set on learning to ride the unicycle but that fell through. So I was left with something uncomfortable that I had never done before: Facial/Manicure night. My whole life I had always found a way to avoid it a pressing homework project, early class the next day, a late work schedule, but now the time had come not just to experience it, but to  learn it. So I braced my self for an evening of green glorp, cucumbers, and nail files. Only to be surprised.
Who knew that there were so many steps? My general impression of facials was the green glorp and cucumbers I mentioned before. It turns out there is much more to it.

Step 1: hold your head over a pot of boiling water and drape a towel over the top to keep the heat and steam in. My roommates found it highly entertaining watching me try to keep my head over the pot. Even though they deny it I am convinced I was stuck there longer than anyone else. It is hot and steamy and hard to breath, and it burns your eyeballs. The retort I heard all night was "keep your eyes closed" followed by a series of giggles.




Step 2: rub all sorts of stuff on to your face. Traditionally these are plant products. We used olive oil and sugar followed some mushed vegetables specifically banana an avocado. I thought that my roommates were picking on me again until I read that many of these concoctions have been in use for centuries. Sissi, the empress of Austria, was known for using roses, lavender, and strawberries in her facials. Apparently, the ancient Egyptians were the originators of not only the manicure, as mentioned by Alyssa, but also the facial.


Step 3: Wash off the fruits and vegetables using special soaps and then apply special lotions, all of these are scented.

Step 4: Apply a facial mask. This can be made of many different things. Apparently, you don't usually include cucumbers. But when I asked, my roommates decided it would be a good experience to have cucumbers, even though they usually aren't used with the kind of mask we were using.  You lay there and stare at the insides of cucumbers- not very interesting to look at. "keep your eyes closed."- until your face is dry and cracky. Then repeat step 3.



The main thing I noticed was that when you are covered in multi-colored glorp or mask or cucumber, there isn't much to do besides talk. We talked about school, life plans, how to better apply faith and other virtues, who in the complex was engaged, who was still available. I think the whole experience was most valuable because of what I learned-not about how to correctly apply banana to my face-rather, about the people I was doing it with. Like joint meals, facials and manicures brought us together creating a venue in which we could transmit knowledge.