Beauty Knows No Pain

"Beauty knows no pain!" This is what Lynn's mother told her as she defended her usual choice for pretty, pointy but feet killer stilletos in one of our casual lunches. Am cannot even convince her to shift sides even with her ominous quotable quote "walang magmamahal sa paa mo kundi ikaw lang".

The range of things women subject themselves into to beautify themselves is endless and legendary. I would argue that this is actually bordering on being masochistic from consistent culturing (Gerbner's Theory) through our long history of social preconditioning, e.g., corsets, stilletos, facial scrubs and lately, hair rebonding.

For years, I convinced myself that I am a no-fuss girl and I would think twice bursting my budget on those expensive hair treatments. If you shop around, the price of one rebond session (a good one) is a more than the price of a small 14" television set, imagine? But for years also, I have to contend with my unruly curls that sometimes nauunang pumasok sa pinto kesa sa akin. There was an adage that you have to brush 100 times every night so it will grow long, straight and silky. I tried that since I was eight but by 25 strokes, I decided to go to sleep or watch TV. So, I grew up with curls (although I disillusioned myself that it is just a worst case of wavy hair ---tipong masyadong mahangin lang sa labas...). I get late in the morning trying to tame them and if I gave up in frustration, I wear them up in a pony, which made me really aloof looking (if not older than I am). I also used to wear them short but the frequent trips to the saloon to have it trimmed when the curls start showing was also a drain on the budget so I let it grew to a liveable shoulder length.

Last Sunday, I decided to try this new science of hair rebonding. I went to the saloon as soon as the mall opens at 10 o'clock in the morning. Thea, the hair 'estimator', asked me to remove my pony and ran her hands through my curls weighing the strands in her palm and scribbled in her form. I couldn't decipher much but the price and the "semi-kinky" description led me to an astonished, "What?". She tried to reassure me with, "Conservative estimate lang po ito, Ma'am. For the chemical treatments..." But ask any girl with wild curls, 'semi-kinky' description is far from reassuring. The five-digit estimate also made me slightly dizzy and reminded me that I only ate two slices of bread that morning so I could be in the saloon when the mall opens. I should have relented to my mother's fragrant garlic rice and crispy, fried danggit with tomato salad. Kainis!

To cut the story short, I took the proverbial leap of faith. I signed the agreement form on the price and treatment with squinting eyes (bigat din sa loob e but beauty knows no pain :p ) as I allowed Thea to whisk me inside for shampooing. After they blow dried my hair, Char and Michelle (Imagine, we're already first name basis --- you get that for staying in the saloon for almost 10 hours) started applying the chemicals. They left for about an hour with my hair tightly sealed in a Glad wrap. After the second hair washing, they blow tried my hair again prior to the straightening process (Read: painful pagpapalantsa ng buhok strand by strand). With my curls and the volume of my hair, it took them a little more than four hours. I tried to chat up Michelle whose thumbs have been scalded by hot flat iron so she goes easy on my scalp. But still, I had a migrane from too much scalp tension afterwards. Yes, beauty knows no pain (whoever thought that adage must be really something!). But when they finished, my hair was so flat and glossy that you can see your reflection on it. Feeling dyosa ka talaga!

For those contemplating of doing it, some guideposts:

"Was it painful?" - Yep (try having three people pull your hair at the same time...)

"Was it costly?" - Naman?!? (you can buy a good cellphone from the price)

"Was it taxing on your health?" - Yes! (you'll eat fastfood junk the whole day since you can't leave the saloon unless you want to roam around the mall with thongs on your hair)

"Was it worth it?" - Yeah... Just look at the line of curly haired girls lining up to have their hair done. Think of all the pesos you can save from tons of conditioners, setting lotions and hair ponies just to tame your wild curls.

We only live once so try living a little bit dangerously and pretty!