What the hell is ear candling, anyway?

Ever walk past beauty salons and glimpse at the signs in their window displays to get an idea of what they charge for routine stuff? You know, mani-pedis, blowouts, eyebrow threading, ear candling…

What, you do know what ear candling is, don’t you? No? Well, neither do I. At least I didn’t until I searched a few websites devoted to the subject. After all, I wasn’t actually going to go and ask… because, well, because I was afraid the answer would be something vile and worse, that I’d be talked into doing something vile for an equally vile price by an overzealous sales rep.

And well, I was right to be suspicious. Turns out ear candling is the practice of removing ear wax and other impurities, by lighting one end of a hollow candle and holding the other end of it up to the ear canal, according to Wikipedia.

Now, while I don’t underestimate the importance of earwax removal, I personally think this sort of thing is best left to someone like, oh, an ear doctor, rather than an employee at some salon or spa. Actually, I think I’m going to skip this particular “beauty trend” altogether, along with other fun fads like colonics, diet drugs and labiaplasty.