Barber Used Thread On My face

[Shave A Buck]

I went to a new barber today as opossed to a turkish guy who I'd been using. He could'nt take me and I had to get it done today. This guy was a Palestinian barber who used Man shaving cream. It came in a green oversized tube almost like Mem but different with a Derby Saloon blade.

The shave was not as good as the Turk's, neither was the post shave care. At the end he took a piece of black thread from a large commercial spool and either used it to remove black heads or fuzz, I could'nt tell what he was doing but it did hurt. He went all around my face with it.

The Turk wins.. hands down. Maybe it's just the individual, maybe it's a culture thing that Turks specialize in shaving and shave products.

 

[Iakona]

Probably removing hair/fuzz. I don't know how new it is, but my wife discovered eyebrow threading/threaders for the first time several months ago. They use two threads intertwined, and pull back and forth - moving the intersection of the threads around. The threads wind against eachother and pinch/rip out hairs that get caught in between.

That was a lame description, see this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNNPc7rgg4s&feature=related

 

[rainerigs]

Hi Joe,

I first had this experience with the thread in Iraq a couple of years ago when I was still on active duty in the Marines. We had three Iraqi interpreters assigned to my team and one of them was a barber by trade. He saw me shaving with my straight one day and offered to provide me the service using one of his razors the next time I needed one. His razor was generic and quite old being given to him by his father so I figured what the heck....so I let him give it a try. He provided an excellent shave to my face and since I shave my head also (folically challenged...lol) I let him shave it too. Both my head and face were BBS and then he broke out the thread. He looped it around his finger in at the midway point to make a triangle, kept one end in his mouth and the other two in his hands. By moving his head back and forth and moving the thread's intersection over any stray hairs it would pluck them right out. A bit painful, but it worked well around the ears, eyebrows etc. where any stray hairs may be lurking. We kept this ritual up for an entire year tour and I got used to it and actually began to like it. A very effective method of removing stray or hard to reach hairs. I think this is a practice found only in middle eastern/southwest asian countries which falls right in line with your Turkish and Pakistani barber experiences. Just trying to shed a little light on where this unusual practice originates.

Gregg

 

[DHshark]

Is it a special kind of thread? Sounds interesting and I'm sure if its done often, one could get use to it.

 

[Walker]

I've never had it done but i have heard of people getting there eybrows threaded

 

[dpmtherrien]

That sure sounds different. I've never heard of such a thing, and I don't think I'd want to give it a try.

 

[Jim]

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te5k846OlG8[/YOUTUBE]

 

[joshmpdx]

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te5k846OlG8[/YOUTUBE]

Wow!

Thanks for linking Jim!

 

[Shave A Buck]

I think your expierence from the Marines explains it all Bill. When you think about it ..it is a cheap way remove the hairs and without any electricity which may not always be present believe it or not. One Lebanese guy told me his daughter went there to see relatives within the last few years and could not function with only three hours of lights and electric. Even still today!

I don't know if I could get used to it, however my face is clean and fuzz free in areas that would not be practicable to shave. The expierence was good, however the Turk wins.

 

[dalecooper51]

Last time I was in NYC with the girlfriend, she insisted that we have our eyebrow's threaded. She had it done while working in the Philippines. There is a place just down from Port Authority that does it. IIRC it was about $6.

 

[bjh618]

I had this done by a barber in the Philippines. Its a bit painful - you can feel the hair being ripped/cut - but after a while it does feel kind of pleasant.

 

[proxymoron]

I've seen street barbers in Hanoi do the same thing with two coins. Not all that different from tweezers, really.

 

[elkaholic]

I went off-base for my first haircut after I arrived in Turkey, to a Turkish barber. He was baout 1/2 way through when the shop lost power, and he had to finish with a pair of hand clippers. He then used a straight to shave the sides of my head.

To finish it off, he had this thing that looked like a metal rod with a cotton ball at the end. He dipped the cotton ball into something, lit it on fire, and started beating me about the face and ears with it! I was like, "***!!" this guy was smacking me in the nose and ears with this ball of fire, and SWMBO was laughing her butt off!

Apparently, they do this to get rid of nose and ear hair, and she knew it was going to happen, but did not warn me in advance.

 

[Jaymo]

Wow!

Thanks for linking Jim!

Yeah, I like Asian women, too.
I never would have thought of using thread to remove hairs. Old dog learning new tricks.

 

[Sir Ronald]

Wow!

Thanks for linking Jim!

well it's always less scary when you see a hot young lady doing it

 

[Johnny Dale]

It just stuns me sometimes the things I learn here. I never heard of threading until this evening. Very interesting!

 

[Johnny Dale]

+1 on having a hot young lady doing the threading.

 

[Augustiner]

This video shows a middle east shave complete with threading during the "polishing" stage to remove remaining bits of hair. On another note, my fiance also gets her eyebrows threaded. That's how I first heard about it. As has been said, it is most popular in the middle east and southeast asia.

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxwbT6e7uws[/YOUTUBE]

 

[drifwood]

I took what I learned from the lovely Asian girl and tried to apply it to my face. I have to pluck the area between my eyebrows to avoid the unibrow look. It took me a while to grab any hairs at all, but once I got the hang of it, I was able to clean that area up pretty well. I'll definitely try it again.

As someone else said, "... the things you learn on here!"

Cheers, Ian

 

[luvmysuper]

It is a very common practice in the U.S., in prisons.
This being a Gentlemans forum, most of you guys probably don't know that.