Outside the Catholic Church in Shilin District, Taipei City, vendors sit under their umbrellas one by one. Here they sell no products, but the service of face threading. The woman passing by knows her way well, taking her seat under the umbrella. Chen Kai-Lien, the face threading beautician, swiftly pats baby powder on the woman's face and picks up a piece of magenta cotton thread, bites one end in her mouth and holds the other end in her hand, fully focused on threading away the tiny hairs on the woman's face.
“She is an old customer, visits me every month for face threading.” After she finishes face threading, Chen Kai-Lien carefully exfoliates the customer's face before spraying loofah water for a cooling effect and applying a layer of sunscreen, which completes a full cycle of the service. Chen Kai-Lien has been working at the Face Threading Street for almost two decades. Wearing no makeup, she looks just a little over 60 when in fact she's almost 80 years old. The art of face threading accumulated over the years turns Chen Kai-Lien herself into the best advertisement.
The street next to the Catholic Church in Shilin District, Taipei City, used to be the glorious Face Threading Street, there are currently still seasoned beauticians standing firm, threading customers' faces, and painting a unique view of the streets in the city. Face threading beautician Chen Kai-Lien has been providing her service here for over 2 decades, many old customers still come all the way here to get their faces cleaned up.
Retired Hospital Staff,
Threading Her Second Life in Shilin Taipei
Chen Kai-Lien is Pangcah. She grew up in Hualien City and moved to Taipei when she got married at 18. Being in the military, her husband was often away. Chen stayed home to care for her three children until they reached middle school, then she took up an administrative job at a hospital. Chen wasn't exactly enticed by the office life, but for the sake of a steady income, she didn't retire until she was 58.
After retirement, Chen felt that she has too much energy to not work and learned face threading from her younger sister who is a beautician. She grasped the basic skills of face threading after about three months and began providing services to friends and family free of charge to perfect her skills. Six months later, everybody commented that she had a knack for it. She also came to find that face threading allows her to meet and chat to all kinds of peoples, very good for making new friends. So, Chen began her second life with this skill.
In the beginning, she couldn't get used to the life outside Shilin Catholic Church, setting up a stall with her younger sister. Chen has never worked outdoors before. Everything is unpredictable, cold in winter and hot in summer, and often accompanied by tickets from the police. 1,200 NTD per ticket, sometimes that's more than what she made that day. It was a very tough job. She then tried providing stationed service at a sauna house on Jianguo North Road, but sauna houses operate at later hours which means she didn't get off work until after midnight. Chen lives up in Beitou, and a bus is required for transport, considering how inconvenient the commute was, she returned to the Shilin Catholic Church again three months later.
“You just have to get used to the wind and rain.” Chen begins working at 8 every morning and wraps up around 4 in the afternoon. When she was younger, in better shape and had more customers, she sometimes worked until 7 or 8 when it's already dark, and even had to decline customers just to catch the last bus home. After Chen got used to working outdoors, she could serve over 15 customers per day.
National Cosmetology
Giving You Smooth and Beautiful Skin
“She goes face threading with white powder covering her face, friends pass by she pretends not to see, people call her she pretends not to hear.”
This is a traditional Taiwanese song titled Face Threading, describing a woman who wants to look pretty so she goes for face threading. Just as her face is covered with the white powder, a friend passes by. Too embarrassed to respond, she pretends not to hear the other person calling her name. This shows how face threading was very popular back then.
Shilin Face Threading Street reached its prime around 30 years ago. Not only were there many face threading stalls, there were many small-scale beauty salons nearby as well. There were so many people waiting to get their face threaded that if a stool is vacant, you need to be quick and snatch it up. It was usually the beautician choosing which customer to serve, not the other way around. On this street, you can have not only your face threaded, but also the hair on your arm, leg, and armpit. Everything can be taken care of with a piece of thin cotton thread.
Chen explains that it takes about half an hour for a full service. The white baby powder is pat on the face to absorb oil; biting on one end of the thin cotton thread, the other end is held by both hands to form an X, and by pulling on the X, excess facial hair, acne, and cuticle are all removed from the face. After vellus hair is removed from the face, your skin will glow with smoothness, and you can wear your makeup even better. Compared to shaving, face threading will not leave pores clotted nor make your hair coarser.
Based on the different shapes of each face, the face threading beautician must be able to adapt the angle of the cotton thread pulled according to the respective protrusions and depressions of each face, especially around the eyes and the wings of the nose where threading is the most difficult. Some beauticians tend to rush and hurt customers, but Chen's customers always compliment her on being careful and meticulous, making sure that the customer has neatly trimmed eyebrows as well as a threaded face.
“Don't think it's just the women who need face threading, many middle-aged men come here regularly for face threading as well.”
Chen's quality service has provided her with a group of die-hard customers, they come to see her regularly each month, some old customers even travel from as far as Hsinchu.
Once, Chen visited her son in Shanghai during the Lunar New Year. She took off for a whole month and when she came back to Taiwan and back in business, many old clients complained exasperatedly, “we were so anxious, thought you had quit!” Chen was between laughter and tears, but per customer requests, she began learning how to use a smartphone and accept reservations over LINE, just so that she could notify customers if she suddenly had to take time off again.
Many customers suggested that Chen open her own beauty salon, but she declined. She has never had a regular day off for the past 2decades, and she decides to open late or close early based on the changes to her itinerary every day. Chen thinks that if she rents a store, not only will she lose her flexible working hours, but she will be forced to charge higher due to the pressure of the rent, and that will not work in favor of her customers.
Well-loved
by Both Local and Foreign Customers
Even though Chen seems to know her way perfectly well around the job, face threading is not easy at all. Since they have to use elbows and shoulders to control their force, most beauticians suffer from occupational diseases such as scapula and hipbone pain. The same goes for Chen. Furthermore, even though her fee has remained 200 NTD for the past two decades, she still runs into customers who go out of their way to find faults with her just to bargain on the price.
But none of these setbacks interfered with Chen's determination to do face threading. Even though as time went by, face threading is no longer the popular national cosmetology, she still finds her job interesting. She often meets foreign tourists who come for the “white powder on face” experience holding a guidebook. They come from many different countries, Japan, Vietnam, and India, whichever country they come from, despite not knowing their language, Chen tries to use body language and everything she can to provide her service so that all customers leave with a bright and glossy face.
However, Chen and 10 plus face threading beauticians are facing the dilemma of having no place to practice their businesses. Shilin Catholic Church will be refurbished in 2020, and people are trying all possibilities to see if negotiations can be made to relocate the Face Threading Street collectively elsewhere. Starting next year, we may never see these beauticians push their 2-tier cabinet drawer on a trolley and open for business under the umbrella again.
“I might still find a place to practice face threading, it's a great sense of achievement seeing my customer's face shine with smoothness!” Chen sighs, originally, face threading to her was just a skill to make a living, but down this short street, she has spent many years and survived all weathers with her colleagues, many of the old customers she has served for over a decade have become more than just paying customers to her, they are already like friends. To Chen, staying in Taipei gave her a greater sense of belonging than back home.
Having left home for 60 years, the cotton thread she holds in her hand bouncing back and forth on the customer's face is not just a tool for an indigenous person to survive in the city, but what allowed her to settle down and care for other people. 
After she applies baby powder on the customer's face, Chen will thread the customer's face, eyebrow and leg hair as requested, no fuzz and acne can escape the cotton thread in her hands.
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