Primping and Prepping...

Today I went to get my legs waxed. This might not seem terribly exciting but it got me thinking about a couple of things.

First off, I thought about the torture that women subject themselves to (I mean who really wants to have hot wax applied to your skin and ripped off with a piece of cloth?). However, as a woman who does subject herself to such torture, I must admit that I have a love/hate relationship with the whole ritual. Perhaps I have been brainwashed by society into thinking that one standard of beauty applies, and that standard is hairless legs, but regardless, there is nothing quite like walking out of the salon and feeling like your legs look like a million bucks (even when in reality they are covered in a million little red dots). I also really like the idea that someone else (who can actually see the back of my legs) is making sure that every last piece of unwanted hair has been removed. I do not like the pain that comes with the removal of hair in what must seem to many like a barbaric thing to do to yourself, but in truth the pain subsides and after a while all you can focus on are those shorts you haven't worn in a while because you "couldn't" (that is, of course, if you are allowed to wear shorts at all).

Secondly, I thought about the beauty parlor itself. Beauty parlors in Saudi are quite interesting. First off, they have no windows (or all of the windows have been covered) which makes you almost feel like you are walking into a cave. The reason the block out their windows is so that the women inside could "uncover" (meaning remove an abaya, hijab or niqab) if they so choose without having to worry about the prying eyes of men. To me it just adds to this odd feminine mystique that is all things Saudi. Women are not supposed to do anything to attract the attention of men, they are not meant to look attractive so that men will not have impure thoughts about them. Thus the covering of windows at a beauty parlor. I mean, heaven forbid that men think of a woman making herself look nice, even less getting her legs waxed, that would have him thinking about her legs!!! Oh dear.  So then, why have a beauty parlor at all? Ah, well that is so that women can get all nice and pretty for each other and for their husbands.

Finally, I though about the women who work in the beauty parlor. Beauty parlors are probably the only retail place you will find women working (with the exception of very few lingerie stores). This is of course, because the women will be in "indecent" situations while in the beauty parlor and as such only other women should be allowed to see. The women that I've met who work there are not from Saudi, they come from places like the Philippines or India. In both cases they are women who are on fixed contracts for two years and have left family (and even children) back home to make money here in the Kingdom. I can't even imagine what that must be like. These are women that are not allowed to take a day off (unless they are very, very ill) and basically shuttled from one cave (their segregated houses) to another cave (the windowless beauty parlor). They are soft spoken and clearly very afraid to speak their minds. It does not take much to imagine how homesick they must be and how hard it must be for them to be working in a country that considers them the lowest of the low (one for being women and two because of where they are from and what they do). People who work in the service industry are poorly treated in this place and it shows on their faces.

When I think about how much harder these women have it, it makes me ashamed to complain. But I guess in the end we are all dealing with many of the same problems. We are all learning to live and work in a country and within a culture that is completely foreign to us and where no one really wants to take the time to explain. So it' up to us to navigate (sometimes with no map or compass) the vastness that is living in Saudi, while desperately reminding ourselves that it will all be worth it in the end.