Dei! I am the owner of my moonji (face) and I am fine with it da.

While waiting for my Ayurvedic oil head massage at the centre, the doctor walked past me. She acknowledged my presence and smiled at me. I greeted her as well and continued waiting for my massage therapist.

She looked at me and scanned my face for a minute.
I was checking facebook but I knew she was scanning my face and I was prepared for all the questions she was about to ask.

She queried, “Are you taking any medicine for your pimples?”

“No doctor, I am not.”

*****

I used to label my pimple breakout as a struggle few years ago. Just like many teenagers, I did have an issue with facial pimples since the age of 14. I have indeed consulted every doctor, every dermatologist right from the small private clinic at Toa Payoh to the atas atas dermatologist in Orchard Road to the recent check-up at National skin centre. And it has been check-ups after check-ups, consumption of oral medication to injection and what-not. 

I still remember the days ( I was 18 then) when I used to not go out and cancel outings because I had very bad skin. Dry skin, skin peeling, red spots on the face- I had gone through every pain. The worst part was to go for functions and to hear Indian aunties advising you to drink water.

“Oh you must drink water eh? no lah aunty, all this while, I drinking liquor only. thank god you told me what to do.”  

The two things I learnt- the amount of money I wasted on all these products and services, some of which were totally useless and just daylight robbery business. Probably it might have worked for other people but not for me. By my mid-20s, naturally it became better just like how wine gets better with time. 

Additionally, the diagnosis at National Skin Centre worked quite well. For a good 2-3 years, I was being treated there and it did improve slightly. Even though the medication worked, I hated the injections for keloids (like a bigger scar on the shoulder area). It was directly injected on the keloid itself that made it unbearable sometimes. And I always didn’t like the idea of taking pills. After all, it is all drugs. I rather go the natural, organic and slow way.

The second thing is self-acceptance. This is not something to be embarrassed about. Yes, it took me several years to accept myself. This is a never-ending condition. And I am perfectly fine with it. Whenever there was a new pimple breakout, I used to worry so much and treat it as though it was never going to change like my salary.

The question I ask myself-

"Is this life-threatening?" No.

"Is this harming others?" No.

So why would I feel so upset and worried about how others are judging me?

So these days, I tell myself- “ok fine, a new pimple. it will go off”

Of course, simple things like “ mixture of turmeric powder and chana dhal powder with honey” works big time for me. So I use it regularly. It is also refreshing. Of course, it doesn’t completely wipe off the possibility of new pimple breakout. But it gives me something to rely on and it is not drugs!

*****

The doctor at the Ayurvedic centre, “I will give you this tablet. you take twice a day.”

Me, “ah… doctor, I don’t want. I am using turmeric and chana dhal mixture.”

“No No you try this medicine”

See, if you want to konmari your medicine shelf, discard your pills somewhere, not on me. Just like how people have good days and bad days, my face too goes through that kind of phase. 

"Dei! I am the owner of my moonji (face) and I am fine with it da"

And this wasn’t the first time I was forced to buy a product to solve the #firstworld problems on my face. 

A few years ago, I used to go to this beauty salon. I don’t want to name it (If you’re smart enough, you can find the name of the salon in the previous para) I usually go there for a simple eye-brow threading. However, they force, they manipulate, they convince you to buy all kinds of facial services they have.

“Hey girl, your face ah very bad. so much of pimples…. you must do fruit facial…if not you can try gold facial” and then they lecture you on how badly disfigured your face was and that their facial service would magically get rid of your pimple and your neighbour’s one simultaneously. They would keep talking about all their different types of facial- gold, platinum, pomegranate, tulip, wild ox sperm (ok, that was exaggeration)

They would try to make your self-esteem go down the longkang. Even if the world’s famous life coach Tony Robbins were to go there, he would come out crying and sobbing, feeling devastated. It is not so much of selling because that is their job. But the way they sell their products and reduce you to almost nothing is what makes me go mad. Even after politely rejecting their suggestions, they still would try to sell their products when in the first place, all I wanted them to do is to trim your eye-brows.

I have stopped going to that beauty salon or any other ones. And I don’t want to sound like a typical foreign-return girl, but the beautiful thing and culture in Australia is that no one forces you. No salesperson aggressively sell their products or services.

Last year, when I was studying in Brisbane, I chose to go my uni salon one day. It actually took me a week to mentally prepare myself to go to the salon for a haircut because of all the previous bitter salon experiences. Considering Australia’s exotic animals were in abundance, I was afraid of the kind of kangaroo intestine facial that I might be forced to buy. Thank God, no! 

When I visited the uni salon, I met this lovely Japanese lady. I told her that I wanted to trim my hair just at the split ends. She did exactly what I wanted. We had an interesting and heart-warming chat about Japan, its people, its discipline-first education system and  its efficient train system. She used to work in Malaysia as well and then I shared some of my experiences as a student from Singapore.

*****

At the Ayurvedic centre,

I didn’t want to sound rude because I was really thankful for the oil head massage that helped me to eradicate my head pain that I was suffering from, for a long time.

Hoping that I could reject her pill suggestion with my brilliant idea, I looked at her and said, “Doctor, I didn’t bring enough cash.”

“It is ok, you take first. you pay me next week.”