Jackson Free Press

Plucking, shaving, waxing, lasering, burning, chemical-ing, tweezing. Getting rid of excess hair is an ongoing beauty issue for nearly everyone, from the hairiest of men to the most well-coiffed of women. Many of the procedures are time-consuming and painful, but we do them anyway.

Threading is an ancient hair removal method in India and other eastern countries, but it's gaining popularity in the western world. Locally, Incense Salon and Boutique (2475 Lakeland Drive, Flowood, 601-933-0074) was the first to offer threading. When sisters Kirti Naran and Rina Patel opened Incense a decade ago, they knew they wanted threading to be the salon's specialty. A woman from India trained the two, and they got 
certified in New York to thread.

The process can be difficult to imagine, but it's simple and quick to watch. The stylist twists simple thread, holding one end in his or her mouth. They pull the thread, moving the twist along. The thread captures hairs in small, straight lines and pulls them out. It's like tweezing multiples hairs at once. Many people find that threading is as painful as plucking, but the process is over more quickly. Threading also tends to produce more crisp, clean results, since the hair comes out in lines.

Naran says threading is better than other methods for several reasons. "A lot of people tend to break out with the wax or have an allergic reaction with the wax. (This is) just thread, so there's no chemical reactions, not a lot of pulling on your skin. It's not going to drag your eyebrows down (to where you) need to lift afterwards. There just aren't not that many after-effects, except having beautiful brows," Naran says. "Plus, we do everything on the face, so a lot of people don't want to wax their lip or wax their entire face. That's traumatizing. So it's just a really good alternative."