Most of us take care of our personal hygiene pretty well, but then there are some parts that are for the most part, self-cleaning. One of these is our eyes where we don’t really have to do much to keep them clean.
Well, there’s a quaint little shop in Penang that would beg to differ, reports Guang Ming Daily.
Preserving an intriguing Chinese custom passed down through the ages, the shop offers an unusual service, “eye cleaning”. The shop itself has been around for more than 80 years and is run by Huang Baomei, a woman in her 30s who also happens to be Malaysia’s only “eye-washing” master.
Source: Facebook
Interestingly, the shop started off as a barber eight decades ago and included services using traditional Chinese methods of washing one’s eyes, ears, and nose. The craft of “washing eyes” was handed down from the founder Huang Congzhao for four generations (skipping the third), and now lives on through Huang Baomei as she continues to runs the shop.
Source: YouTube
After finishing her SPM in 2006, she went to her grandfather’s shop to help out, eventually picking up the trade and carrying on the tradition ever since her graduation.
The process starts with Huang massaging one’s eyes while they’re closed. After that, she carefully folds back the eyelids and applies some medicinal mixture (an ancestral recipe using herbs and ingredients from China) with a cotton swab, lightly rubbing it back and forth behind the eyelids, carefully picking out the impurities. After that, a warm towel is placed on the eyes and massaged to promote blood circulation.
Source: YouTube
Source: YouTube
After the cleaning, she will place the impurities in a glass of water so you can see how much dirt was in your eyes floating in the clear water.
Source: Facebook
While it may look extremely painful, visitors say that there’s no pain or discomfort. On the contrary, some have actually described it as comfortable.
It seems that over time, there’s a lot of accumulated dust, hair, and even cosmetics are trapped in the eyelids. The process clears all of that out so that the eyes feel bright and refreshed. It’s also reported that the conditions of presbyopia and myopia (that is, far-sightedness and short-sightedness) can be reduced! In fact, visitors say their vision feels clearer after the cleaning.
The process takes no more than 15 minutes and costs only RM20.
Source: YouTube
If you feel like you wanna give it a shot, the details are below.
Address: Located on Armenian Street, Penang, to the left of a purple mural.
Tel: 016-423 1980/ 016-470 2062
To take a look at the process in action, you can watch a featurette on this special shop on YouTube.
So what do you guys feel about this? Grossed out or intrigued?
Also read: This Lady Almost Lost Her Eyesight From Sleeping With Mascara On For 25 Years
