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On Friday Fern, Anne and I had booked to do a Khmer cooking class but unfortunately I was sick so I couldn't do it, so I am definitely going to have to reschedule and do it before I leave. I spent most of the day in bed and still wasn't feeling great on Saturday but we decided to go and have our hair and make-up done Cambodian style!
In Cambodia this is not done at a beauty salon but at a photo shop, and generally speaking it is not something most tourists do. When we rocked up at a photo shop we got some funny looks from the staff when we told them what we wanted done, but nevertheless they took us up some stairs to a room where a Cambodian woman was having her hair curled. We were greeted by two very camp guys who proceeded to seat us and start painting on the make-up. This was the most worrying part of the night because we were forewarned about the amount of make-up used and were expecting to end up looking like drag queens or hookers!
Cambodia is an interesting place to buy cosmetics and other beauty products because they all contain whitening product, in complete contrast to all the tinted moisturisers and tanning body lotions found at home. In Western culture brown skin is identified with money as it means you have time and money to not work and go on holiday, whereas in Asia it is the other way around. White skin suggests you are rich as you do not have to work out in the field whilst brown skin means you are poor and need to work out in the sun everyday. Even in the Western supermarkets here it is very hard to find moisturiser or foundation without whitening product, and well-known brands such as L'Oreal and Nivea supply products for this market.
After the make-up the guys started work on our hair. Anne had her hair fashioned into a braided up-style, Fern had hers curled, and mine was straightened within an inch of its life and put into the highest ponytail I have ever had. Once we had all had this done, we needed to have it recorded in some way, and it was so cheap to have a photo shoot that we decided to go for it. We wanted to wear traditional Aspara dancing clothes, but they were really expensive to hire so we opted not to. The photo shoot was really fun, although very different to one you would have at home. Very posed and almost fake pictures are the way to go in Cambodia - there is no naturalness about them.
After the shoot we went out for dinner in Siem Reap, all three of us paranoid that we were going to get mistaken for hookers. We had some interesting and unrepeatable comments from some young Khmer men, and definitely some odd looks from the waitress in the restaurant we ate at.
We went to pick up the pictures today and they turned out really nice - they are a amazing momento to have of the night and a lovely reminder of two of my best friends here.
- comments
Beatrice Somers You look SOOO glamorous!!