From an article in the November 9, 2002 Times Herald by Carl Rotenberg:
</font><blockquote><font size=“1” face=“Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif”>quote:</font><hr /><font size=“2” face=“Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif”> EAST NORRITON - The Indian practice of threading has arrived at Creative Designs here in the K-Mart Shopping Center.
Nandini Chakraborty of Eagleville and Shaphali Jain of Whitpain learned how to remove facial hair, unwanted eyebrow hairs and that dreaded “peach fuzz” on the upper lip of women from school friends and other Indian women.
The two women use cotton thread to pull unwanted hair directly from the hair follicle. Their handiwork has attracted a mixed clientele of both Western and Indian customers to Creative Designs.
“I have very thick eyebrows and hand hair,” said Chakraborty. “I was trying to figure out a way to get rid of it.”
While Chakraborty attended the University of Pittsburgh for a degree in psychology and business, she learned threading from a school friend.
“There is a big market for threading in southern New Jersey, New York and California,” said Chakraborty. “There is a lot of it going on in the area.”
She grew up in Jakarta, Indonesia, and graduated from the Jakarta International School in 1987.
The advantages of threading over conventional hair removal include less pain and faster service. Salon customers are familiar with the process of waxing, bleaching and tweezing for unwanted hair. The Indian culture has adopted threading.
At the age of 13, Jain learned threading from a school friend at All Saints School in Nainital, India. The schoolgirls had no access to hairstyling services at the strict boarding school, she said.
“It was something to do in the boarding school,” said Jain. “Before I knew it, I was threading the whole school.”
Jain earned an English literature degree at Delhi University in 1987. The two women recently decided to combine their need for flexible hours and their skills at threading to provide a new service at Creative Designs.
Threading both eyebrows costs $7, and a portion of the face such as the upper lip costs $5. By comparison, waxing costs $8 and facial bleaching is $10.
Salon owner Nancy Hennessey has also added facials, skin care, body waxing and massage to her full-service hair salon. The threading service was advertised in local newspapers, a brochure to clients and advertising on an all-Indian radio station.
Hennessey estimated that 98 percent of the waxing customers have switched to threading. More than 25 clients use the threading service from Tuesday to Saturday.
“We feel it is a big opportunity,” said Jain.
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