Beauty Talk

Sadia Moyeen Beautician, La Belle

Dear Sadia Moyeen,
I have tried colouring my hair myself at home. Unfortunately, the colour never seems to be dark enough. Although it is mentioned in the directions to keep the colour on hair for only 30 minutes, I have kept it on for almost 3 hours, without the desired effect. For your information, I did try the Mahogany Red and Reddish Brown which are much darker shades. I would appreciate if you could please advise me what is the cause for this light shade? Why does the colour does not have the darker effect on my hair? Is there any other item to be included to the colour? Please advise.
Mita

Dear Mita
Perhaps your hair is naturally very dark and needs a more prominent colour than the ones you selected. Disproportionate mixing of the product could also be a reason for inadequate colour. Besides, if it's absolutely imperative that you follow the instructions on the products to the letter, keeping the colour on for 3 hours was quite irresponsible on your part to say the least. You could have ended up damaging your hair.
It's best not to experiment with chemical products at home and allow a professional to do it for you the first time at least.

Hi Sadia,
I want to remove my facial hair by waxing it and by no other way like threading, etc. So I want to ask you the following questions: -
a) Can you mention any specific store for finding facial wax?
b) You have said earlier that waxing does lower the rate of hair growth. Then, will waxing my face regularly lower my facial hair growth? If so, after how long will it work?
Thanks for your help.

Dear reader,
Cold wax is usually freely available in stores abroad and I have to admit I haven't found any in Dhaka yet. You can check at Almas General Store in Gulshan-1 as they have a huge selection of beauty products. If you are looking at waxing your face as a long term solution to get rid of unwanted hair, I think I should warn you the hair growth may lessen over a few years but it will tell on your skin which may sag prematurely. Why not try hair-removing creams? They're painless and efficient.

Dear Sadia,
I am a 13 year-old girl. I have got two problems. The first one is, I am very short (4 feet and 11.5 inch). I really wish to get tall but don't know how, can you help me? Please don't tell me to do things that have anything to do with outdoor activities. Like swimming, cycling or jogging. My family restricts me from engaging in such activities for a number of reasons. My second problem is that the shape of my face is square, and my cheeks are puffy. I need a good hairstyle that can make me look attractive at school. Can you please help me? I have tried keeping my hair open but that is not allowed in school. I do not want to do the common ponytail again.
Frustrated

Dear Frustrated,
Don't lose heart. You have enough time and will continue to grow until you're at least 17 or 18. Meanwhile, eat healthy food, drink milk etc.
Just for your information, though, height is genetically determined and chances are that if both your parents are short-statured, then you will be so as well, and no amount of indoor or outdoor exercise will change that.

Dear Sadia,
My hair falls a lot everyday. Can you please tell me the home remedy for falling hair again, which you mentioned in the last issue, and how long should I keep those on my hair? Thanks.

1 tablespoon of yoghurt, 4/5 tablespoons of eggs, 2 tbs. of oil (any oil) 2 tbs. of onion juice (optional as it smells). This is a great home remedy for falling hair.
Use weekly for half an hour, then shampoo off.

Lifestyle Travel

Parjatan packages

The year is about to end and may we know what are your plans? Please we hope you have travel plans, if not then read this and start planning, the holiday mood is on. Get your travel bag out of the closet, dust it and pack it, and set off to experience the sights and sounds of Bangladesh.

Many prerequisites have to be dealt with, to enjoy the holiday that you have been waiting for so long. Tickets to confirm, hotel rooms to reserve, did you get enough time to prepare for it? Life being so busy there is hardly enough time to manage things like these. Why not assign someone to take the hassle for you. Hand it over to the Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation.

Parjatan arranges tours around the year in all the hot spots of the country. Enjoy the bracing breeze from the sea in the longest beach of the world, just when the 31st celebration is on. From December 30th to January 2nd, 2004, Parjatan will arrange a tour to Cox's Bazaar and St. Martin's.

The tour includes Dhaka-Cox's Bazaar-Teknaf (round trip) journey by AC bus, food facility (breakfast, lunch, tea and snacks in the afternoon and dinner), living arrangements, sightseeing tours with guides, and a visit to St. Martin's on a special ship. Total cost for the tour will be Tk.6, 000 per person. There will be two more package trips to the beach in the first month of the year 2004. One from January 2nd to 5th and the other one is from January 22nd to 25th.

Visit the largest mangrove forest of the world, from 20th to 24th December. Five days of wild jungle tour with similar food facilities, living arrangements and sightseeing tours. The journey includes Dhaka-Khulna-Dhaka (round trip) bus journey on AC bus; the later part of the journey will be from Khulna to Sundarban on ship. There will be rescue boats and forest guards with the trip. For Sundarban, the package cost is Tk5, 800. Foreigners will have to pay a little more than that. Two more Sundarban trips will be arranged from January 7th to 11th and from January 27th to 31st.

Throughout February and March 2004, Parjatan will arrange similar trips to Cox's Bazaar and the Sundarban. The trip to Sundarban from March 8th to 12th coincides with the full moon. During full moon the tour is even more enjoyable. Parjatan also arrange trips to Kuakata and Sylhet. Every month a daylong river cruise is arranged, which costs Tk.900 for adults and for kids' bellow 12, the cost would be Tk.750.

If you think you can manage the tour by yourself, the Parjatan has hotels and motels in all the beautiful places that you would want to see. Parjatan has hotels in Cox's Bazaar, Teknaf, Mongla, and in Dhaka. Other than these hotels Parjatan mostly has motel facilities. You will find their motels in Chittagong, Rangamati, Bandarban, Khagrachari, Sylhet, Bogra, Rajshahi, Benapole, Tungipara, Rangpur, Kuakata and also in Cox's Bazaar.

In all the hotels twin bed AC room with balcony will cost Tk2, 200 and without balcony will cost Tk1, 000. In the motels non-AC twin bed room will cost Tk600 and AC twin bed will be around Tk1, 100. Rooms with TV will cost a little more.

For package tour booking, you will have to go to the Tours and Travel Unit and to reserve rooms, contact Reservation of Bangladesh Parjatan, situated at Bijoy Shawroni.

By Shahnaz Parveen
Courtesy: Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation.

More stories on travle in page 4

 

UNDER A DIFFERENT SKY

ER

So the other night we rushed to the least favourite place of mine, with a family member who felt sick enough not to be kept at home and under constant medical care. Emergency Room, or 'ER' was the destination towards which we headed. Unfortunately this is not my first trip to the ER, and so almost all my body cells and pores screamed out a big NO, and my mind had to force a necessary YES to make our way towards the nearest hospital's ER.

The first rule of Emergency rooms in the American hospitals is that you walk in and wait for the hospital staff to call you to find out what brought you to the Emergency Room. They get your necessary information, your blood pressure, temperature etc, with their moody, annoyed hands. They send you back to the waiting area with the rest of the too-sick-to-be-athome crowd. You are called again to a different desk, where they note down how you are planning to pay for their service, your social security number and address, etc. Basically a way of tracking you down, so they get paid for their job done or undone, while you live or die. You go back and you wait, once again, you try your patience, for an hour, two sometimes up to five. Unless you are bleeding heavily or you have a chest pain, you just have to wait with the rest of the ill crowd.

The word Emergency usually means an Urgent situation, a crisis, a disaster or a tragedy. It is something that needs immediate attention. Sadly, between naming the Emergency Room and serving its name something failed because there is no urgency in waiting for hours. Did the hospital authority ever think about the fact that, sitting in the same room with other patients one can spread disease if not mental despair? Ironically enough, the post of the ER receptionist is considered to be amongst the ten most underpaid jobs in America. So if you do that math, the money from this ER business is going to the bigger fishes, while the underpaid and understandably sour staff is serving poorly to the ER patients, waiting and being waited on without caring much about the people who need the most care.

So we too, wait for our turn, we also face a few grumpy, sleepy, and angry faces. We eagerly anticipate the utterance of the magic word, our last names, so that we can get up and do a victory walk on the way to the emergency room, looking at the rest of the unfortunate patients, with a look that says, "Boo-hoo I made it before you." You think the waiting is over after you make it inside? I did too, my first time, but it's only the beginning. They have to note the hours you spend in the emergency room to make the fat bill. A fat bill from our pockets, going back to the institution made with our own tax money, the chunk that is mandatory to donate from every paycheck.

This time our sick relative went through many different tests in a span of 6 hours. A doctor came by in the end, explained the problem, and prescribed some too-expensive-to-swallow prescribed medicines. We went home exhausted, ready to erase the last hours and on our way to recovery. Except, a week passed, and our sick family member still remains just as ill, so we made our way back again to the dreaded ER. We received the expected bad attitude from the hospital staff for coming back and not giving it a few more days to get better. This time, the wait was a little longer, and at the end of the night our family member was kept back at the hospital, admitted as a too-sick-to-go-home patient, and they realised that the medicine they prescribed for one week was erroneous. So we wait for our family member to get diagnosed, to find out exactly what is the matter, but a day passes, then two, then three. Our poor sick one is living on Jell-O and boiled beans, in hospital scrubs with all kinds of needles stuck into him. After three days we bring him back home, the doctor doesn't release any information but again prescribes a few outrageously expensive medications. This time he gets better only for a few days, again his dizziness starts making rounds. This time he doesn't mention the word ER. He starts trying things on his own, and guess what? He figures out the problem, nothing but a mix of two wrong medications together. How the highly educated Emergency room doctors overlooked such a minor yet important detail I do not know. Being Bengali, we bothered not to make a fuss calling them up and yelling, as our gentle side usually takes over our outspoken one.

Just a note, the Television that our sick patient watched while in bed was charged $36 per day, the extra pillow he requested was $15 per day, room and board was $500 per night. There was no George Clooney or even a lookalike to greet the patients like they show on the TV-show 'ER', and the rush and fuss presented in that show is only possible in the movies, not in real life. So if you are unfortunate to visit an American Emergency room, please be prepared to sit and rot for at least a few hours, if not days.

By Iffat Newaz