Academies, consultation and courses, packages, lucky dips, discounts—parlours are going to great lengths to attract you. But not everyone's into braving it all just for looking good. Like Neelima Mehra, 40, a Gurgaon-based interior designer, who increasingly dreads her visits to the beauty parlour. "Walking into a parlour was supposed to make you feel good," she says. "Now the minute I enter I have to brace myself. It's like handling several aggressive salesmen all at once. There are several well-rehearsed disapproving looks, shuddering scrutiny and lots of 'madam, you should switch from a regular facial to a gold facial or a galvanic facial or you desperately need a full body scrub and an anti-cellulite massage', or whatever is 'new'. And of course, then they wonder aloud what is keeping me from my dream body? Why am I not joining their fitness centre? It's a violating experience."