A week ago, the blogger behind Random Good Stuff stood in front of store that specializes in hair removal (eyebrow hair, ear hair, etc), and shot a video of a TV screen that showed how the process works. The speed and skill of the person plucking the hairs with a little piece of string (looks like dental floss) is stunning.
The blogger also said someone from the store caught him taping the demo and ran out to chide him.
From the comments section of the blog entry: "Those are not rubber bands, they are just cotton strings. What you saw is a very old Chinese technique called 絞臉 (Jiao Lien) and it is still used today."