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Two People That Contracted HIV, Got "Vampire Facials" At The Same Spa
In recent years, a new beauty trend has taken off among celebrities, influencers, and lifestyle websites like Goop called a 'vampire facial' -- in which a patient's blood is smeared across their face to benefit from some mystical age rejuvenation properties. It sounds insane, but would Goop support something like this if it was bullshit? Yes, a thousand times, yes.
Doro Guzenda/ShutterstockYou'd think that "Stab yourself in the face over and over" would be the advice that finally cost Goop some fans, but no such luck.
As you can probably figure, science doesn't have a place in this process or the technique. But it should at least be involved in the clean-up, right?
In 2019, the New Mexico Department of Health announced that two people who received vampire facials at the VIP Spa in Albuquerque tested positive for the same strain of HIV. Unless they were involved in the same unprotected three-way, that means the spa was more than likely the origin site of their infection.
According to the DOH, the issues with this spa -- which has since closed -- were first raised after it failed a health inspection and was found to be putting clients at risk of contracting bloodborne infections including HIV, Hep B, and Hep C.. The two cases of HIV were discovered after a sweep of the spa's client list by the DOH; during which time they tested the blood of 100+ people that received a treatment. Free counseling was offered to anyone afflicted -- even though the only thing that could really prevent this from happening in the future is deleting Instagram off of everyone's phones.
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A Woman Lost Her Toenails After Getting a Fish Pedicure
On the face of it, dunking your toes into a vat full of fish with the express intention of having them eat your skin is a bad idea. We've seen that horror movie, and there's no way it doesn't end with losing a leg. However, in reality ... uh, yeah, actually, that's a fair assessment.
According to a 2018 case report published in JAMA Dermatology, a twenty-something woman lost all her toenails after a 'fish pedicure' -- albeit not in the way you'd suspect.
A few months after having her Finding Tarantino treatment, her toenails stopped growing -- and shortly after, starting falling out. Her doctor lay the blame at the feet of the pedicure. It isn't known precisely how the fish did this because this is the first reported case of fish causing toenailfallout-itis (which in proper science words, is known as 'onychomadesis'). It's possible the pedicure was so traumatizing to the nails that they responded by falling out. Which to be fair, what else were they supposed to do? Shut off their phones and spend all day shitposting on Twitter? That's the brain's strategy for coping with trauma, not toenails.