Sense of entitlement

Several years ago I did a laser hair removal on my bikini area. I’d go to a special salon every six weeks, spend there an hour each time and suffer pain. Lots of pain. The result was well worth it so I´m definitely not complaining.

With the bikini result in mind I finally decided to get my armpits laser epilated too. I made an appointment at a beauty salon in Rotterdam. I had to wait several weeks, but finally the day had come. Excited I rang the doorbell.

The area of skin covered by hair is smaller so I’d anticipated the procedure to take about half an hour. I took a deep breath and decided I was ready for the suffering – the skin in the armpits is very soft and sensitive. I was also ready for a cup of tea and a friendly chit-chat with the salon lady. Well...

Not that the lady was unfriendly or didn’t want to chat. It’s just... There was simply no time for all this. It took me ten minutes to fill in the intake form and to pin a date for the next appointment. The rest – undressing, examining the skin, cooling up, the actual epilation and dressing up took exactly seven minutes. Blip-blip-blip-blip. Once again. Ready. Pain? What are you talking about? Wow! Technology has definitely made a great leap during the past seven years.

I was happy to save my time, but somewhere deep inside I could feel a very light disappointment. As if I didn’t get something I was entitled to and I am not talking about the tea. It’s the pain I was ‘missing’. Weird!