Part 8 - Egypt

Sorry, I think think this is going to get a bit long 😆 :

In March 2016 we booked a last minute bargain price holiday to Luxor, Egypt. After lunch on the first day we were sitting by the hotel pool when an Egyptian lady (Sabah) came past, trying to get customers for the Hairdresser/Beauty Salon, as they do in hotels everywhere. My wife expressed an interest in a manicure and pedicure and she then asked me if I would like the same. I was totally surprised and not sure if she was serious, plus my automatic male response was to say “No”, but somehow the two of them got me to agree (I guess I didn't really take a lot of persuading!) and the appointments were booked for 6pm that same day. When we arrived, Sabah wasn't there but a small shy girl, Maria, seemed to know what was going on and made us sit side by side on a sofa whilst she arranged stools in front of both of us and put our feet in warm footbaths and the fingers of both hands in warm water bowls.
Eventually Sabah arrived and took over my wife whilst Maria concentrated on me. My finger nails were carefully filed, shaped and buffed and the cuticles cleaned out. Sabah had already asked if I wanted coloured nail varnish but I reluctantly said a firm No to that because sitting round the pool for a week I felt it would be too obvious. However, once Maria had finished the shaping, without saying anything she started applying clear gloss nail polish, which I let her do.
Then she started on my feet, scraping and pumicing the harder skin areas and clipping and buffing the nails. She then applied clear nail varnish, at which point Sabah asked if I wanted flowers on my nails. Again I automatically said No, even though I wasn't too sure what she actually meant. Not taking No for an answer she told Maria to paint a flower on both of my big toe nails anyway! Knowing that I would be spending most of the next week around the swimming pool, I experienced a mixture of apprehension and pleasure as Maria skilfully painted two stylized flowers in white nail varnish and then finished them with a dot of sparkly silver in the centre of each.
My wife basically had the same treatment although with coloured varnish, not clear. It was a very heady feeling, sitting beside my wife as we both had the same professional beauty treatments.
Next morning, by the pool, I tried to keep my feet out of view at first, but eventually gave that up and just kept watching for funny looks from passers-by. To my total amazement there were none at all that I saw during the whole week from anybody.

Next day Sabah came round again, and, without too much resistance this time, I was signed up for a face massage, which I always enjoy, so that decision was no hassle. My wife also signed up for an eyebrow shaping ( threading ) and colouring. Sabah wanted me to have the same, but I really wasn't sure I could cope with shaped eyebrows in public. However, for as long as I can remember, to me thin defined curved eyebrows have been one of the pinnacles of a feminine appearance, and although I have sometimes trimmed the worst excesses of my male brows, I have never dared to do a 'proper' job. Sabah assured me that she would just trim and tidy them, nothing too extreme, and with wifes's encouragement, I gave in, feeling both excited and scared at the same time.

That afternoon, whilst I was reading/snoozing my wife was chatting to three others we'd met on the flight, and with whom we were getting along really well. Somehow, in their conversation Hhhhh said that her teenage niece was transgender and in the process of transitioning to a boy. The couple then said that a friend of theirs who was living with them temporarily, was a crossdresser. My wife then told them that I also had feminine tendencies, to complete the set!! Subsequently, nothing was said by anyone at the hotel about any of my appearance changes towards the feminine, although Cccc did say it was a pity I hadn't got my clothes with me or we could all have gone out for a meal somewhere! Wearing a wig in the early summer heat of Luxor? I don't think so!

Then came the eyebrow threading. Sabah again assured me that they would just clean them up and make them look neat, and since I have often wondered what 'threading' was like, I settled back to enjoy the experience. The treatment was actually carried out by another girl, Ayesha, who didn't say much, just got on with it. The feeling of the hairs being plucked whilst not exactly enjoyable, was interesting, and I'd certainly do it again. When she finished and I opened my eyes I was amazed. She had gone much further than they had suggested and I now had a pair of fairly thin, nicely shaped eyebrows which curved down to a point at the outer ends, almost exactly what I wanted and was scared of getting!

Next came the eyebrow colouring. Again I was very unsure about this, because although I love the idea of defined and coloured brows, that to me screams femininity. “No, it won't be extreme, and it will quickly soften down”, they said...”OK” I said apprehensively.... I had my eyes shut for most of the procedure so I could just feel her using short delicate strokes of a brush to apply a liquid and work it into the hairs. When eventually I opened my eyes and looked in the mirror I didn't know whether to laugh or cry – my eyebrows looked exactly like Groucho Marx - thick and heavy and coal black!! After 15 minutes she washed it off but it still looked BLACK and left me feeling panicky, no way could I appear in public like that...! We raced back to our room trying to avoid anyone and I went straight to the bathroom and spent quite some while with soap, wipes and moisturiser, trying to reduce the blackness. I found that the biggest problem was that the dye had, of course, stained the skin behind the actual brow hairs and that was the reason for the colour intensity. I did eventually get it back to a reasonable skin colour and the effect was more acceptable. I still thought the shape was fantastic and my wife said she really liked the overall effect, which reassured me considerably. We went down to dinner and nobody collapsed with laughter, which was good...

We arrived for our morning eyelash colouring appointment he next day, to discover an American girl in the middle of having her hair done by yet another member of staff, this time a man. The girls decided to do my lashes first, so I was sitting alongside a female complete stranger, having my lashes coloured whilst she had her hair done... it felt totally surreal and, to give the American girl her due, she seemed to take absolutely no notice of a man sitting next to her having his eyelashes done. The colourant for the lashes was probably the same as for the brows but Sabah put a piece of paper towel underneath the bottom lashes, to keep the mixture off my skin this time. When it was finished and washed off, I felt slightly disappointed because to me, looking straight on, I could see very little difference from before, but my wife assured me that they did look very good, particularly from the side, and in fact much the same comments applied to hers as well.

Next day was Sunday and the Salon was closed so no beauty treatments today, but a related amusing incident. We had arranged a private trip to a couple of West Bank tomb sites that we hadn't visited before, and Hhhh came with us. We were in one of the Nobles tombs and on a wall painting was a clear representation of the shaven headed priests. My wife joked and said, “That nearly looks like Pppp”. Quick as a flash, Hhhh replied “Pppp, bald but with fabulous eyebrows!” . That was the first and only comment that anyone made, in my presence, about my appearance.

On Monday, Sabah and Maria came to our room at about 5pm to give us both a full body scrub. This was an interesting procedure: We both stood in the bath, my wife naked and me wearing swimming trunks. Sabah worked on her and Maria on me. They used a concoction of herbs, egg and yoghurt which they applied by hand all over us, rubbing and working it in until it had dried on the skin. We then waited a few minutes and showered it all off. The result was fabulously soft skin.

My wife had booked us a table in the 5-Star hotel restaurant in the Old Winter Palace Hotel for our last night in Luxor, on the Tuesday. To go with it, she also booked herself a hairdo and make up session. I joked about having my makeup done as well and Sabah immediately said, “We can do yours too, very subtle and natural”. Again I wasn't sure what that would mean but went along with the idea because I love having my makeup done....

Till the next episode...