The 5 Most Bizarre Beauty Treatments in the World?
Please note, not many of these are provided (if any) by the beauty salons in our database - you may well thank us for that though!
Much in the way that you go to foreign countries and experience exotic cuisines and dishes that seem strange to our anglicised pallets, the beauty salon world is one of a wide range of exciting and inventive treatments throughout many countries. And while we happily pick and choose and take the treatments we like – Indian Head Massages, Swedish Massages, Hollywood Waxing are just three of the many – there’s a few that for some strange reason we decide to leave in the country of their creation..
1/ Fish Pedicure
Like some kind of human anemone, you can go get your feet cleaned and nibbled by some aquatic beasts for a small fee in many Asian countries. It’s all very simple – your feet a cleaned and buffed before they are dipped into a tub of water full of dozens of tiny Garra Rufa carp. These fish love dead skin and will devour all the dry and dead skin from your feet whilst you enjoy the tingling (but not painful) and effective results.
2/ Chocolate Facial Therapy
Surely it’s a matter of time. Surely. A delicious treatment in more ways than one, chocolate facial therapy is currently available from the Aquapura Douro Valley Resort in Portugal – providing a creamy melted Chocolate face mask with oxygen infused into it. The oxygen apparently (so we’re informed anyway) helps the skin absorb the chocolate’s vitamins and anti-oxidants to provide anti-ageing and other beneficial effects. Somehow we think we would be less bothered about the science, more about the taste.
3/ The Snake Massage
Being honest, comparing this treatment to the chocolate facial therapy is like comparing a massage to decapitation – it’s a bit of a no-brainer really (geddit?). Having said that, it might tickle some people’s fancy so who are we to judge? The snake massage is currently only provided by one place in the world (perhaps not surprisingly) – at Ada Barak’s Carnivorous Plant farm the owner’s snake massage parlour allows you to lie back, relax and...well...have snakes poured over you. Apparently the persistent wriggling and writhing is very relaxing and calming, but we’re not really seeing how.
4/ The Arctic Ice Room
OK, here’s another one that doesn’t really sound that inviting, but is meant to be a hugely luxurious and expensive treatment. Ah well, I suppose we shouldn’t judge until we’ve tried it...
The Qua Spa in Las Vegas offers you a rather “cool” treatment where you head to a chilled room after your spa treatment, at the not-so-inviting temperature of 12.5ºC. But just as the Romans used to have a dip in cold water after a very hot spa, so can you to good effect – the cool tightens your skin and reduces the appearance of pores. As the man-made snow (98% water, 2% harmless chemical) drifts down into the room you’ll be left feeling great and with any luck looking great too, once you’ve dived back into normal room temperature and stopped turning blue!
5/ Gold Facial Treatment
Last, but most certainly not least, is the Gold Facial treatment – a favourite with Japanese beauty salon-goers. Using thin sheets of 24 carat gold across the skin, the theory is that the gold penetrates the skin and revitalises and rejuvenates, removing toxins and wastes while it’s at it. As if that wasn’t enough, the gold facial also enhances skin elasticity and brings a somewhat unsurprising glow to the face. Hopefully you won’t end up looking like Shirley Eaton in Goldfinger...