Married in America: in 45 woman is a berry again
'22.03.2021'
Source: baikal-info.ru
Irkutsk journalist Marina Lykova, who married an American a few years ago, continues to tell curious things about life in the United States and about her marriage. Today - about the beauty industry in America.
- No, well, can you imagine !? She made her breasts! For five thousand dollars! Crazy, Marina, such money will be stolen!
- And what's wrong with that? Mercedes wanted new breasts, so she did.
- But 5000!
I do not argue. For someone, money is a decisive factor, Marina writes for the portal baikal-info.ru. But if our colleague from the Philippines had a big breast dream? What she did, taking for this loan in the bank, why not? The main thing that Mercedes was good. Moreover, it is already at that age when nobody needs you, except for itself. Children have long grown up, grandchildren no longer need grandchildren ...
At forty-five Baba berry again! I have never before understood how this woman, who has a job, a vegetable garden at the dacha, seven grandchildren on the benches, long bored and well-studied husband, who had long ago spat on the width of her hips, because she understands that its breadth still no more souls, and which is already over forty-five, can it become a berry again?
I was less than forty, and therefore did not understand. Now I’m 42, and I wonder how truly noticed about us - those over forty, in the people. We are still girls in our souls. Berries. The soul does not grow old. But what to do with the shell, which is known to be perishable?
Without thinking twice, I decided to conform to popular wisdom and urgently turn myself into a berry. Again.
My husband has not responded to my so far only thought-out imaginations in the direction of beauty and youth: “You are so beautiful”. But the daughter threw the idea: "Mom, you will go long hair!". One day, a drama came out with my hair that traumatized my three-year-old then Lina, and my daughter remembers that story to this day. Wanting to change something in my life urgently, I went to the first Irkutsk barber shop, where my blond curls before the priests mercilessly licked under Gavrosh for a minute. At Lina's home, at the sight of a mother without familiar hair, a hysteric happened: “Go back and let them stick it to you!”. Lina remembers that her offense against the mother, who, in her childhood understanding, has no right to change (and therefore, to change), to this day. Trying to correct that long-standing mistake of mine, first of all, after nearly fifteen years, I went at the behest of my daughter “to stick her hair back.”
On the subject: Married in America: Imported Bridegroom
American men have a saying that they absorbed with their mother’s milk: Happy wife - happy life (“Happy wife - happy life”). That is why it is better for them, husbands, to agree with everything and do only as much as the wives want, even to the detriment of the family budget. However, everyone wins. Husband and daughter are proud of my silky hair. I feel like a young and sexy princess, which means that I do not whine without a reason, I keep my back more straight and I don’t walk, but I fly. I'm a berry! Even in the pursuit of runaway beauty, on the fifth decade, I taught myself to sleep with a rubber pad between my teeth: from childhood the teeth began to crack and crumble from night gnashing, and if I hadn’t bought a gum at the pharmacy, I would have to walk without front teeth or with teeth, but not real. But that's not all! Hair and teeth were only the beginning. I realized that on a beautiful well-groomed body, no matter what you put on, everything will be in person, but the face also needs care.
We know clothes, we choose for ourselves the same over the years. We are aging, changing, but for some reason we always choose the same thing that we wore twenty years ago. Same colors. The same styles. Habit? Unwillingness to change? Inability to look at yourself through the eyes of another person? Studying in artwork was not a gift: I somehow for myself long ago understood for myself that clothing serves as an ornament for the body, and for the face the main ornament is eyes and eyebrows. Eyes need to fill the mind over the years, but eyebrows can be drawn at a time. Eyebrows are a kind of skeleton, the golden section of the face. Eyebrows are needed for harmony and balance, but from the side we do not see ourselves, and therefore, if it is impatient, it is better to surrender into the hands of a professional ...
... A familiar African girl suddenly took and grew long black and, most importantly, completely straight hair. And while Vicky did not show me tiny snaps attaching someone else's real, long and straight hair to her head, I did not believe that this luxury was a bit of a wig, but safer. I crushed them, pulled and immediately wanted the same. The price is reasonable - 150 dollars for a whole package of natural hair, and the color - to choose from. I chose a bright blond and did not lose: in the barbershop, I was painted over the roots of my own hair, the color of my own hair, and the new hair itself was attached and pulled over the head. But the new hair had not only advantages: firstly, it was inconvenient for me to fasten it to myself, but for each fastener in the barber shop I had to put 35 bucks plus tips. Secondly, you will not climb into a shower with such beauty either, which means that on a hot day you have to splash around with an eye to how your hair will not be damaged; the seat belt, when I was driving, was capturing my long curls and turning my head was not very good, which, in general, is not good when I am a driver of a vehicle. Even at the sight of the American green chervonets lying on the sidewalk, it is somehow not very decent with such luxurious (!) Hair to bend down to pick up a coin. And sleeping with metal snaps on the head is also not honey: the princess is remembered, but only on a pea. At work in a bakery, wearing a cap on such gorgeous hair is already somehow not comical, as in the story “Collar”, the hair began to dictate to me how to behave, what to wear, where and with whom to go or not to go.
In general, when I found out that I could get the same thing, but for a long time, even for a sum, for a whole zero upwardly different from the hair on the clothespins, I knew that "I deserve this."
Already another package with hair was opened and “extended” to the roots of my relatives. Plus color. Plus haircut attached hair to give them the shape of this. Plus special shampoo-conditioners. Plus tip again. Visits to the hairdresser, before I closed up Goldilocks with a scythe to the priests, I got along with 30 bucks a month; the current payment has passed for a thousand! But then I became a beauty in my own eyes and for the first time in my life I tried now to catch my reflection in the glass of a shop window. For the first time in my life, I took a selfie and even ventured to pose in front of a camera for a winter photo shoot, although I had previously been afraid of a photo lens like fire. The monthly “upgrade” of my new (now five months as new) hair is about 350 dollars. “We used to have money, but now we have hair,” my husband tried to joke. Although a joke ?! If you estimate, it would be enough already for quite a decent little car.
On the subject: Married in America: ordinary actions of ordinary Americans
Professional on the eyebrows (and eyelashes) was a girl of about twenty. He says that he has been engaged in the upgrade of our, female, fizy for the whole three years and loves his work. And why not love? Here, in my American village, every second (!) Lady berry has eyelashes like butterfly wings. There are silk wings, there are "mink" or, more often, synthetic, but if you look closely, it is a good sense in the eyelashes. And so all the extended eyelashes - like the wings of a huge black butterfly - are equally attractive. It is fun on average 120 dollars, but even tightly attached eyelashes tend to fall out, because they are attached to the eyelashes natural, native. So, every three to four weeks you will have to return to the girl Jenny to replenish the rows of thinning hairs. And this is 50 bucks for the visit. Yes, plus tips - mandatory 10 — 15 and more percent of the amount of the service performed.
Looking ahead, I will say that the eyelashes turned out to be great, but my eyebrows let us down: when I saw myself in the mirror I gasped. Black eyebrows almost touched the eyelids and almost converged on the nose. According to physiognomics, potential thugs were portrayed as two hundred years ago. And that is if I smile, not frown. It is worth bringing your eyebrows together and squinting your eyes - a sight not for the faint of heart. Not wanting to offend the young artist, I paid off and leaned back, hoping that I washed my eyebrows at home, but sitting in the car and again looking at myself in the mirror, I realized that waiting for death was like. The deaths of those who accidentally see me. Like the head of the Gorgon Medusa. I returned, and poor girl Jenny scrubbed my freshly epilated eyebrows with some kind of chemical rubbish, and instead of conceived beauty by the day I set, I sparkled with dark brown burn crusts around my eyes and eyebrows.
My very first extended eyelashes in America (and indeed in life) I went to do in the most fashionable and expensive salon of the city. She used to use her eyelashes to rent a tiny little room, and she took it quite godly - 75 bucks for the “butterfly wings”. I, who have been living in the USA for more than seven years, love, like all Americans, that it was inexpensive, because for me now, like for most Americans, the most correct price is for nothing. In vain - that's the thing! 75 dollars - almost for nothing, and I'm already lying on the couch and dozing to the gentle tune of the sound of the surf.
- Do you need lashes for good or for a little while?
- Absolutely. I always want to be beautiful now. It's time to embellish yourself. I want their big, big ones to cover their cheeks, - I confess.
I lay for a long time. Four o'clock. When the work was completed, it turned out that I, like Vij, cannot open my eyes. Only I do not ever rise, and eyelashes do not split up. And my craftswoman had to tear them apart with a knife. Otherwise, how? Lash turned up quite a bit. Not as much as I imagined, and since it is eight times less, which I immediately informed the skilled worker. “No, why do you need a lot? Let it look natural ... "- the cosmetologist has defended her work. “24 hours do not wet. No butter or cream! ”The priestess of American beauty warned me, taking from my hands a gold coin of American money for tea.
At night, when I went to bed, I was surprised to find that I could not close my eyes. That is, in general. The pieces of glue visible to me with the naked eye do not allow the eyelids to close.
This intolerable feeling of a constant mote in the eye began to drive me crazy - I was rubbing my eyes all the time, trying to get rid of unpleasant sensations. On the third day, a simple solution came to mind: eyelashes must be torn out! What I did. One by one, two each ... the benefit of them was a bit. But the pain ... The pain was as if I were tearing out the cilia along with the eyelid. But when the latter was torn out, I breathed a sigh of relief and decided to stay away from the beauty that requires such sacrifices. Or money.
Beauty and money are inseparable concepts everywhere, not only in the USA. "If you want to be beautiful - be rich." I myself have come up with this saying, but who can argue? Beautiful women like everyone, but what is behind this beauty? What kind of effort? Attachments? One lacy and beautiful (!) Pants stand today like a helicopter. And still need to eat. And not the chicken heads from the pack, but the freshest meat, vegetables and fruits not from China. We must manage to allow ourselves to get enough sleep and regularly take care of the skin ... The spouse, having at last penetrated my idea of urgently rejuvenation, presented me with a certificate for cosmetology services for whole 80 dollars. All I wanted was to clean my face. Just as qualitatively as the golden-handed masters do in a cosmetology clinic on Fourier, where I, living in Irkutsk, ran almost weekly.
... I am reclining on a couch, which for some reason has not been filled with a white medical sheet, but soft plush colored blankets. The room is dark and smells like something delicious. It seems white lilies. The music is quiet. Almost in pitch darkness, my well-trained eye distinguishes art objects in pompous gold frames on the walls ... For ten minutes my face was wrapped hot. Dabbed with a paper towel. Anointed with something delicious smelling. Massaged vyalenko. Again something anointed. A single eel was removed from the nose with a paper napkin. And this is despite the fact that I clearly gave the cosmetologist to understand that I need cleaning. Cleaning. (At the exit from the salon, the wallet had to be opened again and the ten priestess of beauty, who worked out my acne over my acne, also dropped ten dollars. Do not pay a tip in the amount of 10 — 15% in any case is considered the height of rudeness and greed.)
In order to become young and slim and quick again, I went to a local medical center, to a special department dedicated to losing weight on my patients.
From the doorway, I was enrolled in classes, where once a month they would teach me what and how, and most importantly, how much to eat. And I was immediately tested (weight-height-age) on the subject of whether I was fit for an operation on my stomach. These costly operations here are made to the owners of health insurance, which I am (I have these insurance, as it should be for the middle class in the USA, as many as three), absolutely nothing. But I was not fatty enough: an operation costing 18 000 bucks wouldn't do it for free. And in general, it will not work, because there is not like in Russia, where if you pay (you need it or not, nobody cares), it means that you are right.
- And what should I do now, go home and eat the missing fat mass? - I was upset.
“Well, no, of course, you don’t have to do this,” the worker of the “slimming” department of fatty America is sad to me.
- So what should I do? For your operation, I will not do. And where is the justice? Vaughn, all those fat girls that I knew turned into slimmen in just a couple of months. In Russia, where I come from, no one will argue with the customer. If I cry, it means I need it and, therefore, I am right. Not that here.
I turn round resolutely to the exit. Suddenly I hear:
- We can help you. But only if without insurance coverage ...
This is already interesting.
- How many?
- Sixteen thousand. In cash.
- Sixteen? While others get it for nothing at all for something like eighteen? No, not good. Too expensive. And where is the guarantee that the operation will go well? - I immediately get up on the trail trades just because I love to bargain. Accustomed to getting my own in verbal and always so funny squabbles in the bazaars of Cyprus, Egypt, Barbados or Lebanon, I show that it seems to me that I don’t need to do it at all in order to properly drop the price.
- Are you a client of this institution and she went through this procedure? - I appeal to the thin-nurse with a small narrow face, entering the trade rage. I do not feed bread - give a bargain.
- And there is! Here is my photo. Here I am four years ago. More precisely, three and a half. I then 350 pounds weighed (about 160 kilograms!).
- Wow! You did not cheat!
- Of course not! But the operation of one, Marina (she remembers my name, without even looking at a piece of paper or at a computer!) Is not enough. I'm not getting out of the gym all these years. The operation is good, but the stomach has a tendency to stretch, so you can, and properly and sharply losing weight, type everything again. And even more to dial than it was originally. If you do not follow the diet, do not exercise. But that is not all…
And I hit the sport.
To begin with, taking a vacation in one of the works (always tired and barely dragging legs from chronic lack of sleep is difficult to follow the figure, regularly sending something edible in your mouth just to chew, because chewing for a tired person is kind of like Awakening, I chew - so I do not sleep), daily visited the gym. The second chin flew off me after a week of twisting bicycle pedals, dance steps on a zumba, “beating” with a weight to loud English-language music. Having decided to become a berry, I began to get enough sleep and look at the world with completely open eyes. Stopped chewing in order to just not fall asleep.
On the subject: A look at America from the inside: 6 things that are silent
Having become a berry, I decided that I should look sexy, white-toothed and taut. What else hides extra pounds, makes your teeth whiter, and the face removes wrinkles, if not tan? Almost every month, I caught a spray tan: for 35 bucks I was hosed with a spray at the end of the hostess of a fashionable beauty salon. I chose the darkest color for me - the way blacks are used to. Then I was heavily dried with jets of air. From the moment of painting the skin before taking the first shower should take at least eight hours. Under the jets of cool water, I wash off the dark brown stinky-sweetish paint of the tribe-yumba tribe almost completely, but there remains a golden Caribbean tan. On the third day, the tan becomes the most vivid and attractive ...
Yes, for the very first time I saw an African woman in the salon, I was very surprised to learn that black beauties regularly paint their skin, like me, with the darkest spray - the darkest of possible shades. "What for? They are already darker than night! ”, I exclaim under a stream of brown liquid from a sprayer. “And they do it for shine. Their skin, unlike ours, white, glitters. It is from them, as I understand, beautiful is considered. Well, as if the piano was not just black, but also sparkling, simply because it was well-groomed, ”my spray-artist reveals to me the secret of the beauty of black women.
And for me to complete the image of “Berry Again” the lenses of a piercingly turquoise color with a black border would not interfere - so that the eyes like aliens. But that's another story ...
