Health & Beauty 101

Now that we’ve been here for a month we’ve begun to check out the facilities for hair care, massages, pedicures, etc. Singaporeans put great stock in their beauty regimes and have some interesting alternative treatments – reflexology, ear candling, ayurvedic oil treatment, and acupressure message.

Since Singapore’s weather is always warm, most people walk quite a bit, and sandals are the order of the day, good foot care is paramount. Good pedicures are abundant for about S$50 (about $35), but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Foot reflexology is the practice of applying pressure to parts of the feet with the goal of encouraging a beneficial effect on other parts of the body, or to improve general health and to relieve problems in the rest of the body – cure for migraine, back problems and neck problems. Dan found a Javanese Reflexology Center (Salon is too fine a point!) just around the corner of our apartment. He had been several times and took me for a visit a short time after my arrival in Singapore. Dan was so excited and thought it was a terrific massage; I on the other hand could not believe we paid someone to hurt my feet that much!

So having given up on foot reflexology, I decided to try a fish spa. Went to a “spa” called Kenko, advertised as offering Reflexology, Fish Spa and Internet Café! I went in and asked to have a “fish spa” and of course they were having a promotion. As an aside, every store, salon, restaurant in Singapore is always having a promotion! If I booked a 30 minute massage, I would receive a free fish spa. I mean what fool wouldn’t book a massage to get a free fish spa! Sooooo, they take me to the back and I sit in one of those shoulder massage chairs – chest against the chair, face in the hole – and the masseuse begins to (and I use this term loosely) massage my back. When she started with her elbow in my back, I let her know that the pressure was a little too hard but by the end of the massage, I actually thought she had broken a rib! I was sore for three days!

After my “massage” I was apprehensive about the fish spa. First, I was ushered into a foot bath where my feet were washed, and then led to a platform over a large fish tank, basically a deck with several holes cut in it over the tank.

Sitting down on the platform, I put my feet in the water and then came the doctor fish, Garra rufa, which eat the dead skin off your feet. They were first used in Turkey to help people with psoriasis, eating the dead skin and leaving the health skin to grow. It’s a little disconcerting having the fish swarm around your feet but not painful. At each opening was a plexi-glass table with a computer so you could surf the net while the doctor fish did their work – thus the internet café part of the marquee.

I’m still looking for a massage that doesn’t hurt and I haven’t given up on ear candling and the ayurvedic oil therapy but have decided to take a more cautious approach to further treatments!