Andhra Pradesh

Beauty care everywhere

All the beauty queens of olden days seemed to have led deliciously profligate lives: lingering hot baths in aromatic oils, exotic face packs and a never-ending supply of personal masseurs.

Then came a time, when much to the beauty brigade's dismay, someone invented technology and transport and, before you knew it, everybody was rushing to one's office, with hairbrushes on one hand, espressos on the other and laptops swinging madly by the side.

But things have begun to change again. Luxury, lazy self-indulgence and exotic therapy are back in fashion. And all it took was a decade of mind-numbing, hair-ruining, skin-destroying stress and pollution.

Just tell granny that you spend more than 20 minutes in a parlour and shell out nothing less than 100 bucks, she will give you the strange bewildered look or laugh herself to hiccups. And imagine what if she hears that today spending five hours and Rs.5,000 on 'treatments' at least once a month is considered "just maintenance", for some!

Parlours or clinics have become trendsetters in beauty therapies and beauty-enhancing techniques, which have become so common these days. They are mushrooming in every nook and corner of the city, even in apartment complexes, thanks to bored housewives.

Gradually, there is a change in the way people perceive beauty parlours. From places that gave people an image makeover, they have graduated into comfort corners where you shut off from the rest of the world and soak in the pleasure as your aching muscles are slowly kneaded back to life. Take a body massage. As a trained attendant works her fingers around your pressure points with warm oil, starting from the scalp, you feel all the stress draining away. The little butterfly strokes help stimulate nerve endings and pep you up. Finally, it's time to sweat it out in the steam room or take a languorous hot water bath. At the end of your 90 minutes, you're all ready to take on the world, head-on.

Not just beauty parlours. People are also flocking to ayurvedic centres for their emotional well-being. If aroma oils are the USP of beauty parlours, these centres fall back on time-tested herbal oils. With the work environment getting increasingly competitive and stressful, ayurvedic aroma therapies have gained immense popularity. Dripping with purity, though the oils are priced high, it doesn't seem to deter those who vouch for their effect. #There are oils for fat removal too. The entire process of massaging, scrubbing, steaming and a cold water shower takes about three hours.

Going by the number of beauty clinics and the growing desire to look good, Vizag has definitely woken up to the grooming business in a big way. Evidently, the business of beauty is taken pretty seriously here nowadays.

So, the next time you feel like airily stating `Beauty is only skin deep', think long and hard. You might just end up with egg all over your face. Quite literally.

Nivedita Ganguly

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