Jiaolian，also called Jiaomian, Kaimian, or Kailian, is an ancient facial treatment method, which is to depilate fine hair from face by threads. Ancient women regard Jiaolian as a symbol of marriage.

It is customary rite for Chinese women. Generally, female elders do Jiaolian as an adult ceremonial rite for brides-to-be. The procedure is done before the bride gets on the Sedan Chair or after her arrival at the groom’s home. The woman who carries out the Jiaolian procedure is well paid. Additionally, in some areas, before the procedure, friends usually sing to deliver their best wishes to the bride, or the host family cooks dumplings to friends for best wishes. Jiaolian is a procedure which is carried out once in the woman’s married life. Should she remarry, this procedure will not be carried out again.

Procedure

The procedure is as follows: spread the powder on face, especially on the edge of hair, and hold two lines of red treads clinging onto the face, then pull up and down to twine away the fine hair. Meanwhile, Jiaolian has some side effect that may lead fine in-growth hair..

Folklore

There is a tale about the origin of Jiaolian: Emperor Yang of Sui often robbed women. So a family came up with an idea to depilate fine hair from their daughter’s face, and then disguised her as Chenghuang Niangniang (City Goddess) in order to avoid inspection of officials and soldiers. Consequently, neighbors followed this measure, which later became a custom. In Huizhou County

Jjialian is an ancient marriage custom among maids. As tradition, the groom must twine the treads on the bride’s face three times to depilate her fine hair. It sounds pretty awful. But, actually, this action is just to bring best wishes for the young couple. Meanwhile, it represents the bride’s willing to commit herself firmly to the lover.

In Shaoxing County

As a traditional rite before marriage, Jiaolian was regarded by ancient maids as a measure to brighten and beautify faces to attract lovers. With the popularity of modern cosmetics, Jiaolian is soon becoming a dying art.

Today, in Shaoxing County, skyscrapers have replaced the old Taimen (an ancient house). Those Jiaolian female masters used to walk through streets are now fading from minds of the people. Jiaolian is now an art the young can appreciate through performances.

Zhang Hong may be young, but he is proficient at the skills of Jiaolian. Two years ago, Zhang’s beauty salon welcomed a beautician from Yunnan Province, and he delivered a satisfactory Jiaolian service to a customer. This reminded Zhang that elder women often preferred Jiaolian to light up their faces. However, till now, there aren’t many who know the skills of Jiaolian. So, Zhang learned Jiaolian skill from the Yunnan beautician and introduced it to other keen students

Ancient Facial Treatment Enjoys its Market

“The best method when doing Jiaolian is with a cotton thread,” Zhang introduced. She took a foot of thread, bit one end firmly and used her hands to twine away the fine hair rapidly.

It begins from the forehead before travelling to the cheek; it may be a little bit painful here where the skin here is thinner. The whole procedure lasts about 20minutes, after which the customer’s face will start looking brighter and neater.

Since it’s time-consuming and unprofitable, Jiaolian is not able to take off in mainstream market. But still some young girls visit Zhang’s salon occasionally to beautify themselves by Jiaolian skill. “It’s the best choice for the bushy or rough-pore skin. After several Jiaolian treatments, the skin will be finer and a lot less hairy. So, this ancient facial treatment is still enjoying its time under the sun,” said Zhang.

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Southern Area of Fujian Province Jianlian in Minnan (south Fujian) dialect is called Wanlian or Guimian as well. In traditional local wedding ceremonies, Jiaolian is still reserved to bless people good fortune and pure spirit.

In ancient times, common people were restricted by poor material life without extra money on facial treatment. But, every girl, especially the one who is about to get married, wants to be fabulously dressed. So, the poor found out their own makeup approach, using a line of thread and a box of powder.

Guimian Song

During the Jiaolian procedure, beauticians seize the opportunity to pray good fortune for the bride as well as to teach her the rules of living with grooms’ family members. As time goes by, the sayings of these beauticians have been collected and edited into a Guimian song

Though Jiaolian approach is seen as a facial treatment, girls have to go through great pains. Therefore, girls tend to choose the modern facial treatment which is more enjoyable. In order to keep the traditional custom alive, brides tend to still accept the nominal Jiaolian, who invite an elder woman to perform the procedure and to sing a Guimian song for new couple.