Sandblasting and Extractions

For the last several months I’ve had the opportunity to go to an esthetician to get my eyebrows shaped.  As crazy as it sounds, I love this time.  I live for this half hour when I lay down on a heated table, close my eyes and have someone else fret over me. 

I call it my mini-massage.

My esthetician is a perfectionist.  She frets over a single hair.  A common conversation she has with herself over my head goes something like this, “Hmm.  Well I’m almost happy with your eyebrows… but I want to take one more hair off of this eyebrow.  But if I do that I’m afraid it will make the other eyebrow unbalanced.”

I sit there and smile.  Truth be told, I’d be perfectly happy walking out of her office each month with not a single hair left above my eyes.  Just being able to lie on her table while she manipulates my eyebrows is treat enough. 

A few months ago Sandra began telling me about a procedure called microdermabrasion.  I know all about microderm and have been itching to try it out, someday. However, when finances are tough, as they always are, it’s difficult to justify my $20 eyebrow shaping once a month, let alone this much more expensive and oh so unnecessary procedure.

But Sandra, my wonderfully detail oriented esthetician, decided that I must get this done. She made a comment about me having cute hair and eyebrows and then she said something about me needing to have a face that matched.

Now, I’m a girl who can take well-placed criticism.  And I took that one in full stride.  She decided to offer me a mega deal on her services, charging me about 1/3 the price she usually charges clients.  And since I’m all about a deal, I was in!

On Thursday I showed up to her office ready to say bye-bye to my dead skin.  After my microdermabrasion treatment, she began to ‘extract’ any obvious ‘blemishes’.  Doesn’t that sound so nice?

Read: popped my pimples with a really nasty metal tool.

Being the skeptic that I am, I wasn’t so sure that I’d actually notice a difference in my face.  But come Friday morning, I noticed that my face was shinier, less clogged, and overall fresher. 

My husband noticed a difference too.  And asked me a simple question, “What exactly is microdermabrasion?”

I tried to answer as best I could, “Well it’s like, um… a straw that has a blow and a suck in the same tube.  It blows little fine sand-like crystals onto the surface of your face and removes the dead skin, and then sucks the sand and dead skin back into the tube.”

To which my husband responded, “So… you just got your face sandblasted?”

I paused, thought about it and said, “Yup.  That’s basically what happened.”

Sandblasting and extractions...  Who knew such girly procedures could sound so manly!

Originally posted on Silicon Valley Moms Blog

Nanette Donohue can also be found on her personal blog, SmilingMom.com.