By Melina Byrne
A fashionista with a frugal budget
If you look up ‘recessionista’ in the dictionary, you may find a photo of me showing off my budget clothing and cut-price hair cut. I haven’t always been this thrifty. Last year, I was a bride-to-be with the money to burn on pampering myself. My biggest indulgences were $60 eyebrow makeovers in Sydney’s trendy eastern suburbs. After the treatments, I had no cash left and, as my wedding photos show, barely any eyebrows.
These days and mostly due to the economic downturn, I’ve downsized my beauty treatments to cheaper-than-cheap. And truthfully, I’ve never been happier. My recent splurge was a $6 eyebrow styling – a 10-minute re-shape using threading in Sydney’s western suburbs. I’ve always been curious about threading, and when I heard it was only $6, I was sold.
What is threading?
For those of you who don’t know, threading is a method of hair removal that originated in India. It involves using a thread of cotton to remove each row of hair. Supposedly this method provides a more precise shape and most people, including me, consider it less painful than waxing.
How does a $60 treatment compare to a $6 one? Surprisingly my $6 treatment looked much better, despite the $60 one being conducted by a celebrity eyebrow stylist.
Here’s how they compared:
$60 treatment
- I felt like a princess. I was offered herbal tea on arrival and given the latest magazines.
- The stylist treated me like her new best friend. We had an in-depth conversation on what I wanted, and listed my details and allergies on a client card.
- During the session, there was constant conversation between me and my new ‘friend.’
- The décor was stylish and modern, the music ambient and subtle.
- Afterwards my face was coated in a soothing lotion, which smelt divine all day.
$6 treatment
- There were no smiles from the stylist. It was all down to business. She didn’t even provide her name or offer me tap water.
- The stylist never asked me what I wanted. And when I was explaining my allergies, she cut me off and demanded that I “lie back.”
- Not a word was spoken during the re-shaping. I just closed my eyes and prayed my eyebrows were in safe hands.
- There was no background music in the salon. In fact it was so quiet, I heard a client ask for an eyebrow wax and the stylist say, ‘And for your lips too?’ Then I heard the client’s embarrassed retort: “Oh my god! Are they that hairy?” I won’t discuss the décor because I don’t like to think about how shabby it was.
- At the end there were no sweet-smelling lotions and, despite the threading being relatively pain-free, a tear had come to my eye. I missed being treated like a princess.
However at payment time, I was able to fish into my purse for $6 in change instead of reluctantly swiping my credit card. And once the swelling went down, I loved my $6 eyebrows. Now I’m a threading devotee and will be back to that salon, despite the less-than-stellar service.
The $60 treatment was incredibly pampering, but at the end of the day, I felt ripped off and disappointed at the threadbare result.
For beauty on a budget, I recommend consulting:
- Student beauty salons. For instance, at Ella Baché’s student salon in Sydney, facials start from only $28 and a brow tidy is $6. This is more than half the price of their professional salons!
- Mobile beauticians advertising on sites like Gumtree and Craigslist. On Gumtree, a woman was offering an eyebrow wax for just $3!