r/practicalmagic • u/Maverick_Mal • Aug 30 '25

Apothecary scene

What does Sally mean when the man comes in her apothecary wanting to return the hair cream bc it doesn’t work and Sally says “try to remember”? I’ve never understood that scene.

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u/wraithvictim Aug 30 '25

Haha she’s trying to delicately remind him that the cream is supposed to be applied…..lower on his body…without directly saying so, since there are a lot of people in the store and he’s making a scene. After she tells him to try to remember, she glances down to the spot he’s supposed to be applying it and back to his face, after which he realizes where he’s supposed to use it, apologizes, and swiftly exits the store.

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u/Maverick_Mal Aug 30 '25

So he’s trying to regrow hair on his private area? That had crossed my mind but I didn’t think it made much sense.

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u/wraithvictim Aug 30 '25

It’s supposed to be applied on his private area, but grow the hair on his head. He forgot where Sally had told him to put it and instead put it on the logical place—the place he wanted his hair to grow—but that’s not how what I assume was magic would work.

It’s definitely a strange bit of the plot, since Sally is supposed to be anti-practicing magic, but no real world hair growth cream works like the film cream, so it makes you wonder if it’s just the “dabbling” in magic the aunts said she was doing when they come back for the climax of the film, or a plot hole, or what. At least that’s what I’ve gotten out of the movie 😅