If it seems that men are clueless, count your BFT hosts among them. Setting one’s face on fire – on purpose, no less – makes little sense as a beauty treatment to us, but it’s becoming more and more popular in Asia, particularly in China and Japan. Even Cosmopolitan magazine was surprised, and that’s saying something. Their 2013 article, “Fire Facials: Smokin’ Hot – and Borderline Insane?” questioned the practice.
The procedure involves soaking a thin towel in alcohol and other “elixir” chemicals, laying it across skin on the face and then setting it aflame. It is claimed to improve the appearance of wrinkles, sagging skin and fine lines. Hopefully, the fire is extinguished before any blisters form. Now, we’ll admit that the use of heat in promoting improved appearance is nothing new, but we are familiar with highly controlled precisely targeted energy in the form of laser light, radiofrequency or ultrasound heating. Purposefully lighting a bonfire anywhere on the body seems a little over the top.