Vietnam: People setting face on fire for glowing skin

From rubbing your face with a pink rock and foreskin facial, as far as beauty treatments are concerned, people have been pushing boundaries to get a glowing, more youthful skin. In that order, the latest bizarre trend doing the rounds is ‘fire therapy’ where people set their face on fire – and literally so.

While, there is no assurance, if exposing ones face to an open flame would get any closer to a youthful skin, fire therapy is becoming increasingly popular in Vietnam.

Women and men in the country’s landmark Ho Chi Minh City, are going through a procedure in which practitioners cover their faces with towels soaked in alcohol and then they are set alight and kept on the skin from anywhere between 30 seconds to a minute’s time. There after, the flame is then put out by placing a dry towel over it.

Apparently, the treatment also helps with a variety of health problems such as headaches, sleeplessness, obesity, muscular pain, and a variety of digestive system issues.

As per Vietnam News, “Vice head of HCM City’s Traditional Medicine Institute Trương Thị Ngọc Lan told the newspaper that until now, the Health Ministry has allowed only the Hà Nội-based National Hospital of Acupuncture to implement a pilot programme on fire therapy”. The same report, however states that “Some salons in HCM City were offering similar treatments for about VNĐ200,000-250,000.”

That would be about Rs 600-750.

Also read: Drinking orange juice could reduce risk of dementia, says study