Mondays to Saturdays gruelling office hours and maddening sales targets to reach. The weekend after a flabergasting week seems like a fabulous retreat. An oasis in the desert.
"Beta wake up, its Sunday morning, come sit on the terrace balcony with me and soak up the morning sun" said my granma "I have prepared the castor oil and egg mixture, I'll massage it into your scalp. Its very good for hair conditioning you know" "Daadiii! I don't like castor oil and eggs in my head. Its my hair and not a french salad bowl for Christs sake! "I don't like the smell either, and moreover I have an appointment at the parlour today for a deep root hair conditioning spa. That should take care of my mane" and I kissed her on the cheek and bear hugged her while she made a face that clearly said - God give these children some brains!
But I dint wait too long to decipher and decode her facial expressions and cuddled my pillows back to catch a few moments of precious sleep. I had to reach Bandra by 11:00 am. It was only 8:45 which meant I could stretch my sleep time by about another half an hour atleast.
As I was about to enter my beauty sleep my cellphone vibrated uncontrollably with several *beep* *beep* tones. With one eye open I saw the popped up whats app window. It read "wake up its 9 and I'll kill you if you are late!" "Meet me at the junction and pick me up from there" It might rain heavily and mind you I hate getting wet so dont be late" ....Yeah! That is a typical KJ message. My sweet, yet stern and endowed with supreme values friend - KJ. Salutations is just not her thing. She uses technology for 2 purposes. One. Important communications like I just received. And Two. Very very important communications like GOSSIP.
But I loved my indulgent Sundays with her. Parlor trips. Shopping at malls. Lunches. Movies or pulling her leg while doing all of the above. I am usually the mischievous devil and she's forever busy taming me down (success rate being horribly low :p)
I quickly showered and reached the spot I was to pick KJ from and drove straight to Bandra - just in time for the appointment. Okay about a ten minutes late. But that's because these Bandra lanes don't have enough parking spaces! Otherwise I'm bang on time. Every time. *wink wink*
"Yes mam. We have your appointment booked with us, wait here while our staff takes you inside for your individual treatments" said Mary. KJ had booked herself and me for a herbal foot massage and pedicure, a fruit facial and a deep conditioning hair spa. A total pamper retreat after a crazy week at work. A bumper to our pockets but then relaxing and destressing doesn't come for cheap they say!
We came home totally rejuvenated and crispy fresh! My dadi dearest was happy to see us back home and offered us to sit and talk to her along with steaming hot chai and bun maska khari (a typical parsi tea time speciality.) "so lovely ladies tell your old grandma about the latest in the cityville" "how was your parlour trip" I being the bubbly mischief brat thought of taking dadi on a virtual tour of the parlour experience. (Just to show off and prove parlours are so much better than castor oil egg mixture stuff!!)
So I began telling her... "We reached the parlour just in time and the attendant with a cute pink tee and jeans and a smart apron came walking towards us and first guided us to the pedicure section of the parlour. She filled the tub with warm water and added Epsom salts to it with eucalyptus oil and dipped my feet in them. She scrubed and cleaned them with a pumic stone and applied a vegetable peel mask all over. She then massaged them with olive oil and moisturised them with rose water."
Dadi was about to say something but then I gushed in with more... "The fruit facial was fantastic" I said.."she mixed strawberries with rosewater milk and cream and massaged it onto my face. I was glowing like a bulb after she washed it off. I could see my grandmother smiling and visibly impressed. While I was almost feeling the sadistic pleasure of proving it to her that parlours are just so kool!
I continued "and you see my hair daadi? Protein pack! She applied a thick natural protein packed creamy mayonnaise in my hair and massaged it gently and steamed my hair for optimal absorption and then she washed it and blew dry!" Dont they look simply fabulous! And KJ had to add.. and dadi all this pampering for just four thousand five hundred bucks!
I could actually see my grandmother begin to giggle and chuckle. And I was wondering what was amusing her so much. (Yes I am an entertaining entity when I get talking, but this wasn't the usual amusement. ) There was a hidden hint somewhere in her expressions that said ... "Hahaha Moron!"
Every woman who manages her family is automatically an excellent finances manager. My grandmother who has brought up her sons and daughters on her own and taken care of her house, husband and inlaws is indeed an extremely practical and a smart one.
So she says. . "You paid (blew off is what she really meant) a 4.5 thousand for all of THAT ! " "I must say that the service industry is booming indeed."
"We grandparents offer you the same treatments and even more for free and you girls cant stand em eh. Of course we wear pink cotton sarees and not cute aprons!" She smartly mocked at me. And this time my mom who was over hearing our conversation giggled aloud! "And my darling intelligent granddaughter do you know that the power packed protein mayonnaise pack is actually castor oil and eggs whipped together."
These two wisecracks were enough to get me and her both crack up and begin laughing on my silly stupidity. I hugged my rockstar grandma promising to book my next "Sunday beauty retreat" with her! - " ahhh haaa.. not until you pay me 5 k young lady"
-- I remember this incident so fondly now. We often take our age old methods, techniques and recipes for granted. We spend hundreds of bucks at salons to get beautiful skin and shiny hair. But, we forget that our kitchen has all the home beauty remedies for every kind of skin problems and skin types.
There's a very apt proverb in hindi that my grandma uses often. "Ghar ki murgi daal barabar" which in short means even if you have the best available at your own disposal you don't value it. But if the same thing is wrapped in a more presentable manner or is offered by someone else it automatically grabs our attention!
Exactly the philosophy on which the beauty spa industry is booming and blooming today. Haldi chandan becomes turmeric exfoliating face pack for extremely oily skin. Strawberries become skin whitening booster with alfa acids .. After all...its just the service that your paying for. Products are in your kitchen!
;) Jaago Grahak Jaago!
Here are some of the remedies my grandma suggests which I now do to get salon beauty treatment effects at home and the best thing about this is that it saves me a lot of money ! ;)
For a salon like glowing skin, make a paste of gram flour, a pinch of turmeric, and 1 tbs. of rose water. Make a semi thick pack of this mixture and apply on your face and keep it for 10 minutes. After it gets dried, gently rub it off from face. This way you remove dead skin as well as small unwanted facial hair. Wash the extra mixture with water.
If you are suffering from dandruff problems, mix one teaspoon of fresh lemon juice in two to three tbs. of warm coconut oil. Apply this on your scalp and massage lightly. Keep this in your head for 40 to 60 minutes and rinse with a good shampoo and conditioner.
To remove sun tan from skin, mix grated cucumber and curd in equal proportions. You can also add 1 teaspoon of lemon if you want. Apply this mixture on the face, neck and other sun burn affected areas and wash off in 15 minutes. If you don’t have cucumber, try using fresh tomato pulp which will give you same results.
For those who are suffering from dry skin problems, mix equal amounts of glycerin and rose water with few drops of lemon. Apply this with the sterilized cotton bud all over the face and wash off after few minutes. This works as a natural toner for your dry skin.
We all wish for smooth and silky hair but by over exposure to the sun, hair tends to get dry and dull. To take care of hair, use warm coconut oil to massage your scalp and take a hot towel and wrap it on your head for 20 minutes. Make sure that the towel is not too hot as it will damage the hair. The steam of towel will allow the oil to seep deep into roots of hair. Shampoo and condition your hair after this and you will immediately feel the difference in hair texture. Follow this routine once a week to get smooth and shiny hair.
To get rid of uneven skin tone, take a raw potato slice and rub it on wet face. Make sure you rub in a circular motion for 5 minutes. This will increase the blood on the skin and even out the skin color of face.
With our hectic life, numbers of skin and hair problems have increased. Instead of wasting money on expensive cosmetic products and salon treatments, its best to try some effective home remedies to get simple solutions to any kind of beauty problems! Says my grandma.
Shazy D signing off.
Happpppyy Skin Care! :D
No comments:
Post a Comment