Monkeys On The Wall

This year has been an interesting year for me with regard to something I’d never tried before 2011 – Brazilian Waxing. It started with my visit to Apronbay in Bangsar. This was followed by a visit to Honeypot Wax Boutique in 1 Utama. These were experiences with 1st class service and results.

However, I couldn’t end the year without a visit to Strip Ministry of Waxing which has been around since 2007. After its 1st outlet in Bangsar, a few more outlets opened at The Curve, Lot 10 and Sunway Pyramid. I decided to go to the one in Bangsar since it’s their oldest outlet plus it’s a convenient location.

I’d made my appointment for Christmas morning but hadn’t realised that the Groupon voucher wasn’t actually valid for public holidays until the morning of the appointment. Obviously, they’d forgotten that exclusion as well because I did tell them I was visiting them with a Groupon voucher in hand when I called to make my appointment. To their credit though, the receptionist accepted my voucher since I was already there.

She handed me a form to complete, the one with the usual questions like my allergies and whether I was pregnant. Once that was done, she introduced me to my waxician who led me to one of the waxing rooms. I was provided with a sealed disposable wipe sachet (see pic below, right).

With a rolled up towel in my hand to hang on to, I lay on the bed staring at the wall of monkeys. It was like having hallucinations. Much as I like monkeys, I preferred the destination themed wall at Apronbay and the comforting pink walls at Honeypot. Those lulled me more into a sense of serenity than dozens of monkey heads.

There are 2 types of waxes – lavender soft wax & chocolate and strawberry hard wax. When I asked my waxician what the difference is, she said that the soft wax is for the RM88 service and is for customers who can withstand more pain with shorter hairs while the hard waxes are used for the RM114.50 service. Luckily, my voucher was for RM114.50 so I was entitled to the hard waxes.

After examining the length and texture of my hair, the waxician prepared the strawberry and chocolate waxes. She could use either and she began with the chocolate. However, even before she started applying the wax, she had already begun her spiel on how my hair was suitable for zapping away with IPL and it so happened they had a special Christmas IPL package which was 7 sessions at RM3800 (normal price RM900). Well, I am not THAT desperate to have permanent hair removal but she didn’t give up. She must have repeated this offer at least 5 times during the entire half-hour session. I gave up counting anyway as it was getting tiresome.

I am not that naive to think that there won’t be any hard-selling to customers who come in with a voucher as that is the very reason why retailers offer their services at a much lower than normal price on websites such as Groupon. However, could the hard-selling not wait till after the session? All that hard-sell so early on during the session made me want to flee commando from the room.

Perhaps sensing that I wasn’t that enthusiastic about the IPL package, she then offered the 4 sessions waxing package at RM440 which worked out to RM88 per session but by that time, I was too spaced out by the monkeys on the wall and her chatter to be seriously tempted.

She also offered their after-care products which would take care of skin sensitivity and prevent ingrown hairs. After the session at the reception area, she pushed two of these products in front of me. The cheapest of the products is already RM98.

Actually, the session itself was rather painless although their wax did seem to take a longer time to harden than the waxes at Apronbay and Honeypot. At Strip, the waxician alternated between chocolate and strawberry wax. She showed me how fine my hairs were on the wax.

It is more difficult to remove short and fine hairs and in my case, there were plenty because the hairs had become quite fine with repeated Brazilian waxing. She had to use the tweezers on hairs that couldn’t be removed with the waxes. I told her it was okay if she couldn’t get them all out. I’d rather have some stubble than endure the pain of tweezing. I won’t blame any waxician if not all the hairs can be removed.

I was really looking forward to my Strip experience having read so much about it. I’ve been back to Apronbay as a paying  customer after my 1st complimentary session because I liked the professionalism of the waxician there and I like Honeypot’s meticulous waxician (the cleanest wax I’ve ever had devoid of any stubble was at Honeypot) and I’d be happy to go back there. With Strip, I am not so sure I’d be paying a return visit.