Posting this here more to create awareness so other people don’t go through what I did.
I have been meaning to write about the awful experience I had with Depilex this year which led me to file an FIR against the owner of that particular branch. Unfortunately, in my home city in Pakistan, we don’t have a lot of options for quality salons. Depilex, Sante, Beauty Iconz and Mehwish beauty parlour are among the more popular choices. In the past, my family has tried both Depilex and Sante. To be honest, it was a hit or miss depending on which of their MUAs you ended up getting on the day of. But overall, Depilex was the better/safer option.
I got my nikah makeup from Depilex this year. I wanted a natural look – no smokey eye, no traditional cakey, 4 shades lighter than your skin tone kind of heavy/ghostly makeup. The girls who did my hair and makeup did a great job. They followed instructions. I got prompt service. No one rushed me. Air conditioning was turned on without me asking. I was offered a drink (and a straw). I was asked to wait in the bridal room while I waited for my ride so the makeup doesn’t melt. In short, the whole experience was great. No complaints there. My mom, sister, sister in law and cousins, who were getting party makeup, got ready in the room next to me, and we all managed to leave on time.
As you know, I had an intimate nikah ceremony with rukhsati planned for next summer. My dad was strictly against a couples photoshoot prior to nikah. So we had an outdoor shoot scheduled for the day after, followed by dinner with both families. As it was a 1-2 hour photoshoot, I decided to just go for party makeup instead of bridal. When I got there and changed into my outfit, I guess seeing my dress the girls got a little suspicious and started asking me if it’s my walima today. The other thing is, the shoot was on a Monday, so their place was hardly busy. All their workers were just gathered around in the common area and busy chit chatting. Their receptionist who is exceptionally rude was the first to ask me details about what was going on. I had no clue why they were interrogating me. I, being me, thought they are being nice and making small conversation. I told them everything as it is, and for the time being, they left me alone. I was the only one in the party makeup room; my family was getting ready at home. I didn’t have a cell phone either (accidentally left it in my sister’s purse).
I had to ask the MUA to turn AC on. Also had to nudge her to get started already. She was taking her sweet time (did I mention how busy the salon was?) The plan was for my dad to pick me up in an hour or so. He was going to call at reception. The entire time that the MUA was doing my makeup, different girls kept coming inside and asking me the same thing over and over… Is it your walima today? Why didn’t your inlaws do rukhsati? Why didn’t you do the photoshoot yesterday when you had the more expensive/better makeup on? Who does an outdoor photoshoot in a small city like ours? I still didn’t suspect anything. How could I have known what was coming?
So anyway, when I got ready, put on all my jewels, and asked for help with setting my dupatta, they became even more suspicious. At home, my dad had asked my husband to pick me up as parents were running slightly behind schedule and they didn’t want our shoot to be delayed. No one at the salon informed me that my husband had arrived by this time and was waiting outside (men are not allowed in). Instead, they told him she isn’t ready yet. Inside, their branch manager (Rahat?) came up to me and asked me to confirm the location of photoshoot. I asked her why she is asking. But she was surprisingly rude and insisted I tell her. She is quite older so out of respect, I didn’t say anything and answered her politely. She went back to her room, made some calls, and barged in looking more angry and stern. In fact, that’s putting it lightly. She looked like she was ready to murder someone. She was fuming and her body language was very rude. She told me that she called the golf club and they confirmed it was Laiha’s walima today (it didn’t occur to me that in pakistan bookings are made in the guy’s name, so it’s not likely for the golf club to know my name). She then finally explained the reasoning behind the interrogation. She said some customers get party makeup on their wedding day and then when the guests see the crappy makeup, it is the salon’s reputation that gets tarnished. She stopped asking me questions at this point and started making judgmental comments like if you couldn’t have afforded our bridal package, all you had to do was ask and out of pity, we would have done your makeup for free. She also gave me the ultimatum that either you pay us the full difference between walima makeup and party makeup (25K vs. 5K) or we wash off your makeup right now and you can go to some other place and get your makeup from there. But we’re certainly not letting you walk out of here with this makeup unless you pay up. She said, we want this to be a lesson for everyone that this isn’t right. She was pointing her fingers at me with visible hatred and shouting at me. Everyone who was in the salon at the time had formed a circle around us and was watching the show. This was the branch manager. By this time, the branch owner (9 months pregnant) had come as well and added that she spoke to head office in Lahore and they agree that this kind of cheap behaviour needs to be stopped. Someone interrupted them saying “choren baaji uska makeup itna acha bhi nahi lag raha; she got what she paid for.” But they didn’t back out.
I asked if I could use their phone to call home. She said, why? you didn’t bring enough money? I tried explaining that if it was my walima, why wouldn’t my family be here getting ready right now? This whole time, my husband and BIL were waiting outside in the car, thinking I am not ready yet. Photographers were waiting for us at the place we had booked. The shoot was supposed to start half an hour ago. Between all the accusations and screaming, I wasn’t able to get a word out so naturally by this point I couldn’t hold my tears in anymore. The salon manager/owner said, take some time to think and let us know if you want us to wash it off or pay the difference. They left the room then and told the others to get to work. The girl who had done my makeup started consoling me. Even though we had had this conversation previously, she asked again to confirm if it was indeed a photoshoot or a walima ceremony. Not sure if she believed me or not, but she was kind enough to lend me her phone and I was able to tell my mom about the situation. The MUA tried to fix my eye makeup but tears were rolling down nonstop. I haven’t been this humiliated … ever.
This would have probably continued, but I guess mom must have called my husband, as I heard some girl say that the guys waiting outside are calling at reception again. I grabbed my bag and walked out the door. It was a relief seeing hubby’s face. The manager followed me and pulled me from my shoulder to make me stop. I was in no condition to talk. Thankfully, hubby took over from here and told me to wait in the car. We were 40 min late for the shoot. My husband had been waiting 45 min in the car. It took him and BIL another 10-15 min to try and cheer me up. Halfway through the shoot, we lost sunlight and couldn’t properly utilize the expensive photographers we had hired. The whole family found out about what had happened and every time someone brought it up that night, I got teary eyed all over again. It just wasn’t the relaxed, happy evening I had imagined it would be.
Dad was outraged and filed an FIR, but as is the case in Pakistan, it got nowhere. Depilex probably paid off the police to keep quiet. Who knows!