Facial threading popular once again

This article was written by Abby Lee and published by The Taiwan Journal on June 13, 2003.

A common scene in many night markets these days in Taiwan is a row of old women sitting on stools with their kits of implements -- bottles of white powder, combs, hair clips and rolls of cotton thread -- mastering threads on their fingers and giving customers a thorough facial cleaning. Holding one end of the thread in their teeth, they used their thumbs and index fingers to hold the other, twisting and looping the thread around the roots of unwanted facial hair, pulling in the opposite direction to remove it. In the quest to find more natural beauty processes, this hoary old technique, kai-mien, literary "opening the face", is making a comeback. Now, young ladies are also embracing this traditional form of facial massage since threading does not peel off a layer of skin and is by far the least invasive method of facial hair removal.