Being a woman and a traveler is not easy when it comes to “beauty”. By beauty I mean having smooth hair, clean nails, pleasant smell and, the most difficult of all, being shaved. I’ve been questioned a couple of times, by some girl friends, on How do I wax while traveling. The answer is: I carry with me this small machine with 20 our 30 little tweezers that I can plug in and it rips off my unwanted hair. I use it for everything except the face: eyebrows and upper lip. Too much pain, even for me. This means I depend on other means to keep it hairless.

My first attempt takes place in Bali, Indonesia. I was already traveling for 2 months so it was time to get rid of my lady mustache. There, it was easy to find clean-good-looking beauty salons, very western like. Except that the prices were unfairly high: 5€ to use 5cm of wax and rip out some hair in 3 minutes, if not less…It seemed way too much for my budget life style.

I decided to do some field research and go deeper in the village try to find local style. And I found it! Still I paid 3,5€ to do it, completely over priced. And it wasn’t even a beauty salon. More like a dvd rental store owned by a husband in which the wife asked for a little room and started her own beauty business to earn more money for the family. But it didn’t look so bad so I went for it.

Looking back, I now have to admit that it had all the ingredients to go wrong. Obviously it did: during my last week in Bali I was carrying a lady mustache made out of burned skin, which was even worse than the original few hair I previously had. Asia was telling me something at that time. I didn’t listen until the next episode came along:

Second attempt takes place in Vung tau, Vietnam. It was the beginning of my 4th month while traveling, my lady mustache was becoming a little concern to me.

I asked the hostel receptionist if there was any place near by I could wax my lady mustache. Sure - she said - there’s one just around the corner. And around the corner I went. This time a proper beauty salon, so it seemed. 

So the lady spoked a little English, which made it easier. She understood what I was asking right away. She asked me to seat on the chair. Pulled it down completely so I could lay on my back. Everything normal so far. Until I got a glimpse of her helper sharping an old school razor blade that men use in the battle field to shave their 2-weeks-old-thick-dense beards.

Holly shit! That’s obviously for someone else’s. - my thoughts. Even though it was just me and the two ladies inside the shop. 

Then, the first lady grabbed some shaving foam, like men’s shaving foam! And the second lady walked towards me with the sharped blade.

Shit! It was actually meant for me! - my second thoughts.

As I see all that men’s paraphernalia my eyes go googly, I start waving my arms and screaming no no no!  Jumped out of my chair and got out of the store immediately (with my mustache still on).

It became clearer that the world wanted me to bare a lady mustache when in south east asia. And if the world wants it I can’t do anything but to bare it with pride.