The Beauty of A Facial

A lot of people have the misconception that a facial is a relaxing spa treatment that one can sleep through.

Anyone who’s had a facial knows that pain is beauty.

When I went to the Philippines, I was to get a facial. If you’ve ever heard of people having a facial, you’d imagine it was a relaxing experience for cleansing the face. However, do you actually know the process of having a facial? To answer that question, I go to Pinoy Spa to find out.

What is the idea behind facials?

In fact, facials are needed to remove whiteheads. Whiteheads are hardened globs of oil that are stuck in the pores of one’s face.

Mariselle, a facialist at Pinoy Spa, says, “A lot of people are open-pored. When exposed to dust, it enters the pores and becomes trapped there, also resulting in whiteheads.”

What are the procedures of having a facial?

“The procedure is simple,” says Mariselle. “First comes the facial scrub for cleansing the face of dirt. Then, we need to open the pores by steaming the face. That takes about fifteen minutes.”

Mariselle takes me to one of many spaces closed off by curtains. There is a bed, and a very dim light. She asks me to lie on my back and begins to apply a sort of cream onto my face. She then wipes it off and does it again. She then wipes that off, again.

She applies another sort of cream onto my face, which I can tell because it feels heavier than the first one. She then turns a steamer to my face and it gets a bit difficult to breathe through my nose, so I do so through my mouth. About fifteen minutes later, Mariselle switches the steamer off, switches a huge lamp on and shines it at my face, and begins to wipe off the cream.

When they wipe the cream off your face, they use a smooth sponge, like what women use to put make up on. It is NOT comfortable. My face was feeling really weird and I badly wanted to touch it but I couldn’t, right? I felt like there was something blocking my whole face, but I couldn’t reach up and touch it.

“The next part,” says Mariselle, “is a really painful part. This is where we begin to remove whiteheads, using a small scraper. The whiteheads sometimes stick to the skin, so we need to dig hard to scrape it out. Plus, we have to do this all over the face, so you can imagine how long and painful it will be. Sometimes when it really doesn’t want to come off, we use this small hook to try to prick it.”

While Mariselle was busy working on my head, I was in excruciating agony. It’s like having injections on your forehead, in a straight line, in and out, in and out, and then when one line’s done, continuing on to the next line. Yup, that’s right. It’s exactly like getting botox. When she was working on my forehead, I wanted her to work on something else. I guess she noticed my nose, because she started pricking everything there. Now THAT was definitely excruciating. She begins to work in the areas surrounding my eye. A tear trickled involuntarily, because she kind of jolted my nerves.

“It’s ok to cry,” Mariselle says. “A lot of people cry during facials.”

A while later, Mariselle notices my struggling and assures that this is really just how it goes, for first-timers.

“The whiteheads really stick in the pores and the face is not accustomed to pricking,” she says.

To stop from thinking about the pain, I ask her what are the next things that will happen.

“The last thing to do is we have to close the pores,” she says. “This can be done by putting on another cream and wait, or have it vacuumed shut.”

Note that the vacuum is specifically for the closing of pores in the face.

She notes that there are a lot of very small whiteheads all over my face. She puts down her scraper. She decides to use a scrubber to see if that would work. I was relieved. At least she wasn’t pricking my face anymore. After the scrubbing proved unsuccessful, she was back to scraping. The memories that suddenly seemed so long ago came back, and this time, I couldn’t help but say I wanted out.

It was good to know that there was an option of stopping that part of the procedure.
Mariselle laughs. “A lot of people say that they never want to come back here again because it’s too painful. First-timers are what we call ‘facial virgins’.”

She applies another wave of cream on my face and leaves me here for about ten to fifteen minutes. She then wipes the cream off my face.

“You are not advised to wash your face until tomorrow morning,” says Mariselle.
After taking a few minutes to take in all that has happened, Mariselle answers a few of my last minute questions.

“People are actually required to have facials once or twice every month,” she says. “Or else, their faces will become clogged and dirty again. It’s painful for first timers, but if you come frequently, it won’t be hard to take out the whiteheads, as there won’t be a lot on your face since the last time you had a facial.”

So. Don’t forget to stop by a facial centre and try it out for yourself.

-J