The last time I had a facial done, I was 15. That’s almost 25 years ago. My pimple and acne problems were really bad and a friend suggested that I go for this facial treatment course – six sessions in all – at Sungei Wang Plaza, Bukit Bintang. I remember it costing me a few hundred ringgit! I was to find out the painful way, why this was so; why they didn’t encourage installments. After the first treatment, I too said, “No more!” It was painful as hell! I remember the beauty therapist – if you could call her that and God knows if she was certified – using several suspicious-looking instruments – a sharp one which she used to poke again and again into my face, and another one that ended in a loop, to press whatever it was that oozed out and force whatever it was that didn’t.

Then she’d poke again, and press again, and wipe my poor, mutilated, blood-stained face with a thin gauze or some cotton. Dab, dab, dab, wipe, wipe, dab, dab, dab, poke,poke,poke, press, press, PREEEESSSS, dab,dab,dab… was more-or-less the drill of the day. I always thought there was a need for some kind of anaesthetic which would have felt as a cooling sensation on my face, but there was no such thing; only some gooey lotion rubbed into my face before the prick and press procedure.

“Oh, so many blackheads… so many blackheads!” the girl would exclaim excitedly, every two or three minutes during my hour-long session of utter suffering that was interspersed with a lot of wincing, ouches, silent tears and “slowly please… slowly ahhh… a bit more gentle miss, please…” while being propped up on something similar to a dentist’s chair which had a very tired, seasoned-looking headrest. (I was sure this was from all the twisting and turning of the numerous patients anguished by the intense torture inflicted upon them). Yes, it was in the early days – a time when aesthetic beauty was making its foray into the mainstream of a multibillion dollar industry that was about to take off in Malaysia. I guess, I was one of the first few guinea pigs to be tested way before placentas and collagen came into fashion.