The way things have changed...

[hippy-chick]

Just thinking about the way things change/evolve.

I can remember going for a facial a few years (yes, OK, quite a few years ago actually), and as part of the facial you were MADE to have your eyebrows plucked!

I can't remember the last time that happened, but it was obviously the way that beauty therapists were taught way back then.

When you went for waxing the same wooden spatula was used in the pot for the entire treatment.

Was wondering what else has changed over the years?

 

[Martin Duffy]

When you went for waxing the same wooden spatula was used in the pot for the entire treatment.

I remember the wooden spatula staying in the pot for the whole day at some of the first salons I worked in! I also trained with re-useable hot wax & paraffin wax - even then straining hairs out of wax seemed disgusting!

Thankfully those days, and the days of nipping of for a tea & bag of crisps whilst the mask is on, have gone!

 

[champagne]

Ive joined the industry ,,,,, that was a change lol

I think nowadays women see beauty as a must and not a luxury .. Thats the biggest change I feel..

As for treatments ... I could never afford any back then so this thread makes interesting reading x

 

[bombini]

Thankfully those days, and the days of nipping of for a tea & bag of crisps whilst the mask is on, have gone!

Nipping out for tea and crisps may have gone but I still seem to get therapists that nip out for a *** break when I have a facial !!!

I have only had one facial when the therapist insisted on shaping my brows and she had been around for at least 20 years.

The awful uniforms (long white dresses) make me cringe to, they were still around when I did my first year in college only 9 years ago, actually that is quite a while ago lol. My first college uniform had shoulder pads in them, not the coolest thing for a 16 year old !!

When I did my facial training the tutor insisted that after EVERY step damp cotton wool was used to remove the product

 

[geeg]

I can remember therapists cleaning and straining the wax and reusing it .. thought nothing of it ... no one seemed any the worse off for it either.

Does make you wonder if allot of the things we are told we have to do now are in fact really necessary doesn't it?

 

[Zo Zo]

I love going to 'old fashioned' therapists who tidy my brows while the mask is on!

 

[FlawlessBeauty]

Ha ha, i worked in a salon 2 1/2 yrs ago where they wanted you to leave the room when the mask was on and to use one spatula for the entire treatment.

You used one spatula when i was at college, 2 wax strips for a half leg or fail and practically see through white dresses, very attractive

 

[gillian w]

At college we had to have white dresses, white cardis,white shoes ,white tights, hair off faces, bad look if you were a bit on the pale side.

No disposable sterile electrolysis needles, you used the same ones on everyone until they bent and sterilised them by wacking the current up high and running your tweezers up and down the shaft.They did go in the uv cabinet afterwards though.

Oh and in our code of ethics it said you should not do male clients unless you had the door open and another therapist was present and you shouldn't wear fancy dress, ie greek toga.

We were told and taught to do hand exercises to strengthen our hands and arms for massage.
We were also taught to do figure diagnosis and pratically be nutritionists.I guess there were no diet clubs then really and so we would put people on eating and exercise programmes.
Oh gosh so many things have changed.

 

[Martin Duffy]

We were also taught to do figure diagnosis and pratically be nutritionists.I guess there were no diet clubs then really and so we would put people on eating and exercise programmes.

I'd forgotten about that - must have blotted it out of memory as I never enjoyed standing about in underwear whilst we decided what body shape we were & whether our spinal alignment was right, not to mention those bloody plastic fat callipers!! We even had to learn how to teach aerobics & give nutritional advice, all things I've never done since qualifying!

 

[nixnewcastle]

buffing nails and parrafin wax seem to be a thing of the past now

 

[nixnewcastle]

oh and massaging with talc lol

 

[High Hopes]

this thread is really interesting because I went to college in 2005 and was taught most of these things! In particular the figure diagnosis (horrendous !!) tweezering whilst the mask is on, 2 strips for leg wax, I also had to wear a long white dress, white shoes, hair in bun.

I also remember being taught the hand and arm exercises, we had to stand up for 15 minutes doing it before each massage lesson. On the first day I passed out! "Luckily" the lady next to me had previously been a nurse and raised my legs to get the blood back into my head, revealing my attractive slip and bright pink thong to all my new class mates. Good times!

x

 

[hippy-chick]

Wow! This has turned out to be a fab thread.

I remember my first tunic I wore in the kitchen as I was a chef at the time! OMG!!!

Then I invested in a nurse type tunic and thought I was the bees-knees.

Keep them coming.

 

[FlawlessBeauty]

I'm pretty sure those fat callipers were just a torture device created by the lecturers so they could piss themselves laughing at us the next day.

Shivering, pain and humiliation in one "treatment". Yet, with everything else they always told us to consider the clients comfort.

I think colleges should focus a little more on the basics to get you really good at them and the other things should be specialist classes, like body shape and nutrition analysis.

We did those really in depth, but were only shown one wax strip and were told to repeat that for each area. We were never shown lip, arm, full leg, etc and were only shown bikini 2 weeks before qualifying because we had a sub, who was amazed that we hadn't been shown. Did i mention this was a 2 year, full time course!

 

[essentia]

I always remember being on cotton wool pad duty - cutting the cotton wool rolls into perfect squares for facials. Yes figure diagnosis and we had to do a project - I remember doing it about bulimia. What about the galvanic body pads and having to put cold, salt water on them to do body toning. Nobody liked the hot wax when it broke as it did not have any plasticisers in - not like today of course. We also had art classes to appreciate colour, line and form - I do not think that is done today which is a shame. I trained with Clarins and Payot products and the smell still takes me back 25 years. Ah the good ol' days

 

[gillian w]

Cotton wool .. that reminds me of the cotton wool toning masks.Which were put all over the face and neck with eyes and mouth cut out.It would be dappened and then sprinkled with toner.
It used loads of cotton wool and lots of toner,surely this is not still done.

 

[applepie]

My favourite memories never fail to make me laugh when I think about afternoons spent trying to locate certain facial muscles with a facial toning machine.

We would get it in the wrong place and get the giggles when it pulled the wrong muscle and produced a hilarious twisted scowl or sneer on the poor clients face - much to the annoyance of our very prim and proper tutor!

 

[gemmat]

I remember we had to keep a food diary of everything we ate for a MONTH! inlcuding tomato sauce, salad cream etc!! We then had to break down each food item into how much fat, calories, carbs etc it had. Bloody nightmare!

Also, how to read someones blood pressure ie what systolie and diastolie meant. Crazy! that was 7 years ago mind!