DG Pet Peeve (#4,000,935): Let me just say that just because you work in a shop that sells beauty supplies (and I'm referring to the Jothen store) doesn't mean you should develop an immediate snobby-ass, I'm better-than-you attitude. The sales people there don't know their product lines and pretend that they do. It's sad and pathetic and annoying (sapoying) at the same time. Honestly, I have never understood why someone can't take pride enough in their work to become educated about what they are selling. And if you don't know - ASK. Snobbery alone don't sell the product.
We discovered an enormous beauty supply place behind the Hilton Pharmacy in Salmiya (go to the blue-painted mahuwil and turn left). The name of the shop is "American Line." They should change it to "Chinese Line". I found nothing American in there. But hey - it is huge and it is cheap. There is a small shop on street level, but if you go into the adjacent building (blue), take the elevator to the basement, there is an enormous shop down there with everything imaginable - AND a bunch of smelly, cigarette smoking men. WHY do they employ ugly men in beauty and lingerie shops in Kuwait? I have never understood that about Kuwait. WTF are they thinking? Ok, I could see some young, perky pretty-boys, but not hairy old men who just grunt at you when you ask them a question. Ick. That's just piss-poor salesmenship. I don't even want to accept change back from them without rubber gloves and hand sanitizer. I just know they are saving all the mental-images for later.
I did discover that one of the shops on Salem Mubarak Street has all kinds of American brands like Tigi's Bed Head line, Biosilk, KMS, and a few other well known US brands. That's purty cool. I'm going back. The one item that Butterfly wanted to by, unfortunately, didn't have a price on it and dude got the deer-in-the-headlight look; took us 3 attempts before he finally said, "My owner (not the shop's, right) comes at 4:30. I will ask." Dude...
Okay, so now you are wondering about the title of this here ditty: Well, we went to buy 30 volume and developer from one smelly beauty queen. He looked at us and said in Arabic, "This will burn your skin." We were both totally perplexed. It is for highlighting your hair. I thought I was having Arabic language problems again (sometimes my translation skills become garbled). What up? He went on to do show-and-tell, pointing out that it will burn your body. .... Huh?? Me no get it. We FINALLY figured out that Kuwaiti women use the bleach on their skin to lighten it and then use a stabilizer/neutralizer to stop the process.
Oh
my
God!
I called up The Romanian; Guru of All Things Beauty-Related in Kuwait. She confirmed. Yes, friends of ours (Sheikha Minor for example) have done this. Why the HELL would you want to risk cancer like that in lightening your skin? I am still in shock. Butterfly was in shock. Both of us couldn't believe it. I've been here for 14 years and I thought I had heard it all. Well, obviously everything in Kuwait is a learning experience and you learn something new every day.
Tanning in the US is a multi-billion dollar industry, and here I am in the Hottest Place on the Planet and they are using 30 volume to bleach themselves. What is WRONG with the world? You go, Michael Jackson, and take that skanky-ass mall-whore over-processed hair with you.
Dayam
The things women do for 'beauty' is beyond me. I don't know of any beauty supply shop that sells the semi permanent stuff...but Toni & Guy does have a semi perm gloss they put on your hair and it is amazing...makes it all soft and shiny, great colorists there, I love that place, don't ever want to go to another salon ever!
ReplyDeleteSeriously I don't understand why they hire men in lingerie shops, is he going to give me his two cents or something? But didn't they stop hiring men?
ReplyDeleteSo do they do that at home or at a salon with a "specialist", is it like a chemical peel??? I have never heard of that before EVER!
It surprises me that in a country that doesn't allow women to work past a certain time at night still allows men to sell lingerie in seedy shops. Lurkers and perverts.
ReplyDeleteSnow - T&Gee are good and they do have good products. Unfortunately, there are no beauty places that sell good stuff. Dayam. Sigh.
No wonder it was so damn hard to find toner. Also, these young ladies aren't necessarily the most informed on these things...I know one, personally, who went tanning before her wedding in the belief that it would make her (already darker than tan Bedouin skin) "tan" colored...as in, it would magically *lighten* her skin and make her "tan" instead of bordering on black...when she turned out darker, she was superpissed and I had to explain to her just how tanning works...she was over 30. :b Perhaps if they weren't so busy blacking out pictures in Cosmo, they could get a little more education about such things...my friend had her skin lightened, and the results were uber-dramatic...I'm now really, really hoping her dermatologist used hydroquinone instead of 40vol. :(
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Hi DG,
ReplyDeleteI love Biosilk's silk therapy. Can you please point me towards the shop that sells it on Salem Mubarak St.? Thank you!
Hey DG,
ReplyDeleteI think I may be out of place here considering it's mostly talk of hair/skin lightening et al but I just wanted to clarify a few things:
Michael Jackson had a skin disorder called vitiligo which is why he was as white as he was. It's a skin pigmentation disorder where you lose pigmentation cells and the skin appears white or pale in patches. All MJ did was used make-up to even out the skin color, he didn't bleach his skin.
Secondly, the Middle East and the subcontinent has always been obsessed with the fairer skin. They seem to have the perception that the whiter you are, the more beautiful you are. It's because of stereotypes that were created in the dark ages that haven't been cleared up. It's about cultural evolution....or shold I say lack of it in some respects.
So yeah, although it is appalling that women subject themselevs to such unpleasantness and risks, I'm not surprised!
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ReplyDeleteOk, how do I put this diplomatically without hurting anyone’s feelings? I’m just going to do it Desert Girl style: I can’t stand Michael Jackson. I don’t want to see, read, hear, smell anything Michael-Jacksony. I don’t feel sympathetic and I think the whole MJ death ordeal went on waaaaaaaay to long. AND, I want to bust Linda Lou in the chops every time she says something about him on the morning show. If I had a nickel...
ReplyDelete(Is it just me – am I alone in this – or are others out there who feel the same?)
I also think I know Barry Uno and like him, so dude, I’m not going to cut you to pieces about how I don’t give a shit what MJ had or how bad his problems were or boooo hoooo he became a middle-aged white woman, but he couldn’t help it. None of us lived in his house (and if you DID, Barry, I'm looking at you in a totally different light). None of us really know. Maybe the whole skin disorder was a PR move. Who knows? I can’t say – never been in his make-up room or anywhere else near him. I believe in “you never know what goes on in someone else’s bedroom.” Not my bidness.
I wasn’t making a comment on MJ make-up or his skin problem. Again, je ne giveashit pas. I don’t care. But the look that he was going for – zombie/chalk white painted on with God-knows-what – is easily identifiable as a style.
Some pay to tan; some pay to whiten. History on both sides, but who the F would want to do it with ANYTHING that is going to do so much harm?
So like, the history of whiteness over here….
Isn't it the Turks who started the whole face veil/white skin fad - way back when it was fashionable to cover your face in order to avoid darkening of the skin and therefore looking like peasant farmer stock (which I'm not knocking because I have a few peasant farmers in my background).
Love your skin and feel comfortable in it.
Naturally pasty white girl out.
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ReplyDeleteHey I didn't say I give a shit about what MJ had. I just said he had a diease and he didn't bleach his skin. There's loads of proof that he didn’t but let’s not get into that - this is not the purpose of your posting I am sure. To be honest, just like loads of people, I loved MJ’s music but hated what he’d done to himself over the years and as much as I want to get into a rhetorical diatribe about him and everything else that went wrong with him...I won't!
ReplyDeleteBelieve me DG, I have hung around loads of celebrities back in the day (I won’t namedrop) and I know for a fact that the media can weave circles of preposterous shit around them just to sell papers and magazines. Perhaps I could regale you with these stories one day in the near future! ;-)
At the end of the day your last line is most fitting – Love your skin and feel comfortable in it!
That's extreme.
ReplyDeleteMama say mama sa mamakusa... Whoo hoo!
ReplyDeleteDG, you described the day to the "T". I couldn't have said it better myself. Eeew! Yuck! I still smell the stench of stank, stuck-up asses in Jothen's.
To the anon wanting Bio Silk Therapy... I like that stuff too. They didn't carry it in any of those stores, although they did have some shampoos, conditioners and gel from Bio Silk. They had something from Rusk that's similar to Silk Therapy, but that was the product that the dumb dude in the store didn't have a price tag on and told us to come back later. Boo! Hiss! Get it online, honey.
The people here have a HUGE identity crises It's practically the oficial national sport. I could tell you stories... Babies rejected because they are cosidered 'dark'. Nicknaming babies 'Soda' 'Black slave' Yes these are the mothers of these babies making the nicknames.One of these babies is now grown and burned her legs using straight Clorox before her wedding. I am so shocked by this it shocks me all over again to type this out, these things I witnessed 25 years ago and 4 months ago. It's all the same. BTW there is a law that only women sell women underthingies but it's like all the laws here, only implemented when we can give the right person the shaft.
ReplyDeleteHey DG,
ReplyDeleteWould u please tell me where on Salem Mubarak Street you found the Tigi Bed Head Products? I CANT BELIEVE U FOUND IT!!!
I have been looking around for them for a while now (4 years) and i'm tired of having to order it from all over the place! It'll be nice to walk into a store and pick up my stuff.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you,
T
T - I found SOME of their products, but really really limited in quantity. It is in the same building that has all the beauty products (right before you get to Marks & Spencer). There are a lot of antiques shops downstairs. There used to be an "American Beauty" store there, but now it is something that begins with Na... (can't remember). Anyhoo, if you walk in the front door from the Salem Mubarak side, it is the 2nd shop on the left. Dumbass salesboy didn't understand when I asked him for a card for the store.
ReplyDeleteBTW peeps - sorry for all the comments and deleting. I'm using Google Chrome on my home computer and it is F-ing up my life.
DG - Ur awesome! Will go check it out and hopefully they have what i'm looking for (which most likely is never the case out here!)
ReplyDeleteThanx for the info again :)
T
& all the salons offer skin bleaching treatments - all very bizarre!!
ReplyDeleteLove your posts DG, hope they will continue if & when you leave Kuwait :-)
Hey DG,
ReplyDeleteI was wondering where can I find Bed Head products in Kuwait?
Thank you
Jo
Hey DG,
ReplyDeleteWhere can I find Bed Head products in Kuwait?
Thank you
Jo
Hi Jo. I haven't seen it in salons, but you can find a few of their products here and there at American Beauty in Salmiya and maybe some of the beauty supply places. Sorry I can't be more help.
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