Editorial
(March 2003)
Past Editorials
I THINK EVERYONE in the electrolysis business is fond of saying
how far our industry has come, in terms of acceptance. At one time, the phrase,
“You’ve come a long way, Baby!” – an advertising slogan adopted by a tobacco
company to promote its slim cigarettes for women – was the favorite catchphrase
in electrology association newsletters. For electrologists it signaled the fact
that our profession was finally becoming recognized and women no longer had to
listen to doctors who told them to “go home and shave.” In actuality we still
had a ways to go, but at least we were on the right track.
In 1973, when I started my first practice in my home (which in those days was
definitely a plus, as far as prospective clients were concerned), very few women
were prepared to admit they had “superfluous” hair. And there were even fewer
women willing to admit they went to an electrologist to have it removed.
In 1976 when I moved into my new office in downtown Port Credit, my competitor –
the only serious one I had in my immediate area – operated out of a tiny place
located behind a photographer’s store. Access to the place was down a dingy
narrow passage between two buildings, and there was no sign on the door when you
got there.
The woman who operated that electrolysis business had been at the same address
for 26 years. A little later on, when she decided to retire, she offered to sell
me the Kree “single-needle shortwave machine” and spare needles she had worked
with throughout her quarter century of practice.
Just recently, thinking about the concerns we all have about the Middle-East
crisis, I recalled how surprised I had been to read in the 1987 best-seller, Not
Without My Daughter (a true story, later made into a movie starring Sally
Field), about the author’s experience with hair removal in Iran – the country
where this American woman and her daughter were virtually prisoners.
At the suggestion of her (then) Iranian husband, who was trying to keep her
happy in his native land, the author visited a nearby beauty shop (an idea she
thought absurd in a country where no one was allowed to see a woman’s hair and
face).
On arriving at the beauty shop, she was asked if she would like to have her
eyebrows trimmed and a bit of facial hair removed, and she agreed. About that
experience she later wrote (and I still have the book, so I’ll quote her
exactly): “Instead of using tweezers, the beautician produced a long strand of
thin cotton thread. Holding it taut, she drew it back and forth across my face,
pulling the hair out.
“I wanted to scream from the pain, but I endured, wondering to myself why women
allow themselves to be tortured in the name of beauty. When it was over, my face
was raw. My skin was burned.
“That evening I noticed a rash developing on my face. It quickly spread to my
neck and chest.” Her Husband grumbled, “It must have been a dirty string.”
The surprise for me, of course, was that I could be reading about such an
experience in an autobiography. Even then – only 16 years ago – women rarely
talked about such things, let alone wrote about them in a book.
I have not yet read the biography of Mexican art icon, Frida Kahlo – whose
self-portrait, complete with wispy mustache and heavy unibrow, graces the front
cover of IHR this month – yet from what I know of this artist it is fairly
certain that, given the opportunity, she would not have hesitated to make a
similar personal experience public – either through one of her oil paintings or
through the news media who used to record her every move.
Frida Kahlo’s short life (born in 1907 and died just 47 years later) of “radical
art, romantic politics, bizarre lovers, and physical suffering,” is currently
very much in vogue, following publication of the biography Frida, and the
release of the movie by that name – a best picture contender at this month’s
Oscar celebrations (see Hair Route story on page 19).
And when you put all this together, and you think about the accelerated exposure
that hair removal professionals have had in the last five years or so, there
seems to be no question that “We’ve come a long way Baby!”
– Jill Copperthwaite
editor@hairroute.com
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