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I remember somebody talking about having their nasal and ear hair burned off with a burning taper in a Turkish barber-shop. Does anyone here do this or know how it's done (like where those tapers can be obtained or at least what kind of wood it is and how it's treated and the procedure itself)? I wanna become independent of the electric trimmer.
:eek: :eek: :eek:Quote:
Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT
Call me crazy, but I find my 3/8 French point is safer and probably smells better too.
X
A cigarette might work nicely, too. Just don't inhale or you'll get hooked.
I already am hooked but the point of contact is too large to safely depilate human nostrils. A cool-burning flame would actually be LESS dangerous.
This was probaby me, I had this done following a "Turkish Bath" in a Hamam some years ago, I seem to remember it looked more as if it was made of paper rather than wood, also I believe they may have dipped it quickly in some sort of alcahol first, but this may just be my mind playing tricks after time.Quote:
Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT
I have searched on the internet a few times trying to find them as it really was a quick, painless and very effective treatment , if any of you guys have pulled nasal\ear hairs with tweezers you will know exactly what I mean . $%&:cen
It may be that this is just a Turkish culture thing which is why I have had problems finding anything useful on the internet, might be worth doing a search in Turkish ? Now where is that Turkish Phrase book .
Cheers
Dunk
It could have been alcohol to drop the burning temperature. If you'd be willing to roll up the paper the way you remember them doing it and maybe even take a picture, I'm crazy enough to give it a try as soon as my nasal hair grows back. This thread was inspired by another electric nose-hair removal lol.
Serioulsly, I didn't get a good enough look to remember just how they were composed, I remember they were white, about the same diameter as a pencil and maybe between 2" & 3" long. they were very very quickly "touched" to just inside the nostrils and ears.
Thinking about it, It does makes sense lowering the temperature by dipping in alcohol.
I would just like to say at this point that I take no responsibility for any result of your actions :D, but would advise that if you do try it , then to do this in your bathroom next to a full sink of water so as to be able to quickly dip your head & certainly nowhere near curtains\drapes etc. There is something about your Usename that is worrying me . :eek: :eek: :eek:
All the best.
Dunk
Lol. I was planning on doing it in the bathroom more to extinguish the taper than to extinguish the nasal hairs as they'd be gone once they burned up, which is the point of the exercise.
Even though I like playing with fire, I like to do it in a useful and SAFE manner. That's why I am always in charge of camp fires, bbqs, fireplaces etc etc etc. Never had one get out of hand. I'll actually play around with various taper designs in front of the sink with running water before I actually try using one for depilatory purposes lol.
I seem to remember a similar technique being used to remove excess wax from the ear canal. Apparently a piece of paper was rolled up into a cone shape and the wide end was lit on fire while the narrow end was placed in the ear. The resulting heat melted the earwax and caused it to run out into the cone. There must, however, be more involved in this than just rolling up any old kind of paper and sticking it in one's ear and torching it. Probably some sort of specially treated paper but it sounds similar to this nose hair thing. So... I suggest being careful and getting the full story before actually trying it or 1) Your friends and neighbors will start calling you "The Human Torch". And 2) You will find stories of this event posted on News of the Weird.
That technique is used after every shave in Turkey, and couple of my friends tried it. It is done with bringing a piece of cotton soaked in alcohol next to your face, and "blowing" or waving at the flame with the other hand to make it touch the face. It's cool and a bit scary.
The other method is to depilate the area using thread, the way Eastern women use it to depilate their body hair. The thread is held in the mouth, rolled, and worked with the hands.
There was a video somewhere (BB, SRP, SMF) of a guy getting straight razor shave in a barber shop in Afghanistan (or close) and the Barber used that method to remove his fine face hair.
As for the nose hair, I don't think there is alternative method. You have to SUFFER like the rest of us, muhahahaha... :p
Nenad
Ear candling is a holistic method, that helps with wax but also helps with "clarity, thought and inner peace" or something similar. If I had to lump it in with similar "treatments" I'd say aromatherapy and yogic flying (the art of yoga and jumping while cross-legged in a seated position at the same time. Also quite good for inner clarity.)
There was a time when folks thought the hair was hollow and important fluids would drain out the end of each hair, so the hairs were singed after each cut.
Ed Jeffers, who runs edjeffersbarbermuseum.com is a guy who's been involved with "everything barber" his entire life. I visited his museum in Columbus Ohio and was floored by his collection. He's demonstrated the above process of singeing (sp) hairs on the Discovery Channel so perhaps an email to him would be helpful.
Ed's got about 50 barber chairs, dating from the 1700's to the early 1900's. About 50 barber poles, hundreds if not thousands of mugs, razors, bowls, scissors, strops and brushes. On top of that, he's got a collection of older or just plain strange barbering tools from the time when barbers were also the dentist and surgeon. Blood letting, blood cupping, electronic head massagers, rotary combs, just about anything that a barber has touched, he's got.
For those interested, he runs the museum on his own time with his own money. You need to call to make an appointment, but there is no charge for the service. He's a great old guy with a story for every single item in his museum.
Dicovery Channel, National Geographic, Playboy, all of the major players have done photo shoots in his museum. He now has entire barber shops willed to him, from barbers that he's never even met. They want their work to be remembered, not just sold off by their grandkids.
So yeah, getting back on topic, uhm, I would say, maybe try a ladies cigarette, like a virginia slim. Of course, you'll have to swing your hips when you smoke it!
Good luck,
Thanks Matt. I'll contact him and post what he tells me here. I think I need to wake myself up and be coherent before I do that though as this is my first post of the day, over the first cup of morning coffee.
I though the word candle figured in that earwax thing I mentioned. As a matter of fact, I seem to remember seeing these ear candle thingies at a new age/metaphysical bookstore once. I have a friend who's into crystals and such and occasionally accompany him on his crystal hunts. I haven't yet gotten him to go along on a razor hunt since I only recently mentioned my RAD which he seems to think is a bit odd. This coming from a man who soaks his crystals in mineral water and sets them out in the moonlight to "recharge". Well, to each his own I s'pose. At least with my odd habit I can remain clean shaven! Let's see him do THAT with a quartz sphere. :hmmm:
I just did the ear candling last week. Incredible. Imagine a teaspoon full of ear wax coming out of your ear. I can hear better now than when I was a kid.
I also us a Neti pot religiously. Now there is a blast to clean you out.
I think this process is way different and much closer to Nenads description.
If you were to try this at home I'd use a long wooden match, light the end (not the sulfer side) and let it burn a minute, blow it out and then let it cool down some. Wave it between applications if it get too cool.
I'd use it on my ears first and get lots of practice. The last thing you want is your nasal hair on fire, you could do some serious damage to your nasal cavity.
The only reference I can find is on here :- http://www.thisistravel.co.uk/travel...printable=true near the bottom see Turkish Shave, this is what I experienced, definitely a taper and a naked flame, very quickly touched to singe the hair . Has anyone ever put there arm to near to a gas ring ? the hair singes off before you even realise you are too close, this is what happens, you don't feel anything but the hairs are gone ! Only downside is the smell , but this is gone in seconds .
Cheers
Dunk
I didn't get around to experimenting yet, but I will keep you gentlemen posted when I do.
I have used the Neti method a couple of times, it's a great way to clean your nasal passages. It's surprising how much junk came out the first time I did it...Quote:
Originally Posted by AFDavis11
Nenad
Here's a photo of a barber using a wax taper to singe a customer's hair-
http://www.moderngent.com/site/askthebarber_v.php
Thanks for the pic. Where can you pick one of those up or how would you go about making one? Right now I'm tempted to use q-tips dipped in alcohol.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT
Hmmm...are you sure this was an elective procedure? Maybe you heard about it news as a new form of torture????
This works on the same principle as singing your arm-hair without burning the skin. Your skin contains a good amount of water so it is able to absorb more energy than hair. Medieval barbers used to use hot pokers to singe the hair but for us it would be safer and easier to use a cool-burning non-toxic substance.
Here here! Lets here it for the Neti! I've been a Neti user for two or three years. Have only gotten sick once since, and that was do to extreme exposure to mold and/or worse in a hotel.Quote:
I also us a Neti pot religiously. Now there is a blast to clean you out.
Regarding making singeing tapers, based on what I've seen in barber collectible books, and some rudimentary knowledge on candle making, they were basically a very thin wax candle. In fact so thin it would be better to describe them as a candle wick with a thick wax coating.
To make them you could just dip candle wick material in molten wax as if you were making a taper, just a couple of coats. I imagine it would be desirable to make one that didn't drip and that could be achieved by finding the propper proportion of wick to wax. Ideally the wax and wick would be completely consumed, leaving no wax to drip. Another method to achieve a no-drip taper is to overdip with a wax that has a higher meting temp.
The thing is, I wouldn't use this to burn my nasal hairs! Sounds like an accident waiting to happen. :eek:
From what I've read, hair singeing was done for at least a couple of reasons:
1) At one time it was believed (by some) that vital fluids would leak from freshly cut hair. Singeing was supposed to prevent this.
2) Singeing was used to treat split ends. Why there would be split ends on freshly cut hair I don't know.
Supposedly, singeing perfumed oiled and pomaded hair (common with men at the time) contributed a distinct, possibly pleasant, odor to old time barbershops.
While researching this, I came across a story about a barber who tried singeing his customers hair right after applying some hair tonic with a high alcohol content. The customers head turned into a fireball. The barber put the fire out by beating the customer over the head with shop towels. Now there's service for you.
Attachment 157387I tried different methods to remove ear hair including an alcohol soaked cotton ball on a length of spring steel like the barbers use and didn't like it. I found the best method was a fire starter with a flexible shaft was ideal using a low flame.
