Some clients will do anything to look good. And some salons are willing to stop at nothing to give it to them. Here are seven of the weirdest we’ve spotted this year…
1. Disappearing brows
Suddenly, and without warning, models and celebrities have begun appearing brow-less. And with influential pop culture icons like Kim Kardashian and Lady Gaga sporting bleached brows recently, some beauty experts have deemed 2015 the year of the pale eyebrow. Which is fine if you have fine or blonde brows to begin with, but, why in the name of all that is holy in the world of beauty would any rational-minded woman want to erase her face framers? This one has us stumped.
2. Fiery skincare
There are a number of ways to brighten the complexion, and if you don’t particularly fear death or third degree burns, lighting your face on fire is one of them. Popularised in China, the fire facial is a relaxation and skin illuminating treatment in which the client’s face is draped with a cloth soaked a in skincare tonic that is briefly lit on fire and promptly distinguished by the therapist. Any takers?
3. Coloured armpits
Stop right there. Really?! Since a few brazen ladies decided to grow out their underarm hair and dye it a brilliant shade of violet, the coloured underarm hair craze has gone viral. We’re not really sure what the point of it is, but, each woman to themselves, we guess.
4. Reverse tanning
Reverse tanning involves reversing your skin colour to a lighter shade in a bid to appear more even-toned. Also known as ‘white tanning’, the beauty trend has become huge in South Korea where women are paying up big to undergo red-light therapy sessions targeted at lightening the skin until it resembles porcelain.
5. Bagel heads
A frightening and utterly inexplicable injectable beauty trend, the ‘bagel head treatment’ involves having saline injected into the forehead area to create a bubble, which is then indented in the centre with pressure from a thumb to create the appearance of a bagel, in your forehead. Thankfully the results only last 16 hours, after which time the saline is reportedly dispersed and dissolved by the body. It’s become a craze in Japan, but was originally invented in Canada. What the?!
6. Vatooing
First there was Vajazzling, now there’s vatooing. Hailed the latest and greatest pubic region beauty trend, vatooing involves airbrush tattooing your client’s vulva area. The results are temporary and they’re not entirely easy to maintain, either.
7. A slimy facial
We thought we had heard of everything until the snail facial came along. A beauty treatment that literally involves letting live snails crawl across your client’s face (insert cringe here), the mucous produced by the snails as they explore your client’s skin is supposed to have serious beautifying benefits. We think we’ll just stick to the traditional stuff.
8. The bumcial
Considering our modern culture’s obsession with the ‘booty’ as it’s so often referred to in the media, the emergence of a facial focussed entirely on clients’ rear ends really shouldn’t come as a surprise to any therapist. And if you’re willing to offer it in your salon, there’s much money to be made, with some clients coughing up as much as $650 an hour for the privilege of having their derriere treated.
Have your say: Does your salon offer any unconventional beauty treatments? Would you consider any of the above?