Beuty Talk

Sadia Moyeen , Beutician, La Belle

Q.1 Hi Sadia
I am a boy of fifteen, and having lot of problems with my face. It is filled with hundreds of blackheads. I mean deep blacks heads about 2mm from inside and they don't come out with ponds face strips or peel offs. I also have a lot of pimple marks. As I am a student I don't have time to prepare natural mixes at home but I can have facial or something like that. So please help me get rid of them. The black pores are increasing in number. Is there a good way of getting rid of them?

Ans1. Massage your face with a scrub on a weekly basis using a circular motion. Be gentle or else you will end up with rough, sensitive red skin. Go for a professional facial once a month and request them to take extra care in removal of black-heads from all over the face.

Q. 2 Hi Sadia
I am a 15 years old girl. I have got really long and wavy hair. It used to be curly when I was younger, and my hair was shorter. I never really had short hair. As I never had a short hair cut though it became a trend, I still prefer long hair. But, my hair looks too out of fashion with its huge length and the same old you type of cut. My hair is wavy, quite thick and fizzy, my conditioner reduces the fizziness though. I have a round face. I'd like to keep my hair long, I don't want to make it short but I want to have a trendy look, to be precise a new haircut. What haircut do you suggest for me? How will it cost? Thank you.

Ans 2. Would you like to straighten your hair? Long straight hair is quite the rage these days. It will be easy to control and will not be frizzy at all.
If not, then you could cut your hair in steps. This will enhance the natural wave in your hair and make it easy to manage.

Q. 3 Hi Sadia,
I'm 20 years old and I'm losing all my hair. I can’t part my hair except through the middle because it looks like a horrible mess and the parting is becoming bigger and bigger and one can see my scalp at the top of my forehead. I read about the mixture of onion juice and other things in your column and its difficult for me to do that regularly because I don't live at home. I'm thinking of shaving my head and letting my hair grow back properly (I'm not crazy, just desperate and I don't want to be bald permanently before I'm 30) but someone told me that doesn't help. What do you suggest? My hair used to be thick and more or less straight but now its just a thin, dead-looking, wavy, frizzy mess but I prefer even that to having no hair. Please tell me what I can do. Thanks.
Neena

Ans3.
Dear Neena,
Change your hair style completely. Whatever the length of your hair, shorten if by at least 2 inches. It will take the weight of your hair off from the temple. If possible shorten the top as well.
Before going to bed back brush your hair and put a clip so as to close your parting. Do side parting during the day for a few months. Oil your hair every week and condition it after every time Shampoo.
Once a month put a mixture of 1 egg & 3 tbs of Olive oil on your scalp for half an hour and shampoo off. (You don't need to live at home to get an egg) This will strengthen your roots.

Q. 4 Hi
I am a 19-year-old with a height of 5 feet 1 inch. I weigh 45 kilos. I am facing problem with the size of my breast. They are rather smaller and they look really odd. I love to wear sarees but I cannot do that because of this disproportionate figure. Most of all I always have inferiority complex about this. Can you please help me about this problem by suggesting me a remedy (other than cosmetic surgery)? Is there any medicine or herbal ways of doing it? I also have tiny hairs in my chin. How can I remove them?

Ans 4. Well, I'm afraid I have bad news and good news for you. The bad news is that you're struck with the size of your breasts. (Since cosmetic surgery is off limits in Bangladesh) and the good news is that you can buy a range of fabulously designed bras, with natural padding to enhance the size of your bust. The latest one in fact comes with a jelly filling, which not only looks natural but feels good too. Then there is the 'wonder bra' as well, which trust me does 'wonders'. These are freely available in the Far Eastern countries such as in Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong. All goods stores will have them.

Q.5 Nian
Dear Sadia
I am a 16-year-old girl and I am a bit concerned about my feet. My complexion is fair but my feet are turning black and wrinkled. How can I get wrinkles out of my foot? Can you give me any home remedy for this? Hoping to get your reply very soon. Thanks.

Ans5. Soak your feet in warm water for 10 mins then wash with soap water and scrub your heels with a foot scrub. Massage olive oil on the feet while it is still wet. Repeat as often as your feel the need.

Parlour wise

Rebonding at Naina's

People are going gaga over straight hair, especially Bangladeshi women, young and old alike. Although the trend of keeping long and straight hair has become a big hit among the local women, remember that not all salons that claim to straighten your hair permanently can do it correctly and carefully. Everlasting damage to your hair is inevitable if your hair falls in the wrong hands. Naina Khan of Naina's Exclusive Beauty Parlour has recently completed a 3 month long course from CG Hair Design & Beauty Academy, Colombo, Sri Lanka under the instruction of the eminent beautician Cheryl Gunaratne. She also worked for Head Master, a salon that is run by Cheryl Gunaratne for 3 months. Khan also received special training on permanent hair straightening from Thailand.

Khan says that under rebonding (a chemical treatment to permanently straighten curly and wavy hair) hair remains straight and smooth for one to one and a half years depending on proper maintenance. Unlike common hair straightening, rebonding doesn't require regular blow drying of hair. Although rebonding doesn't result in any sort of detrimental effect but it's always better if one takes extra care of her hair through routine conditioning and oil massage after a rebonding session. Naina Khan uses products that have been brought directly from Singapore for permanently straightening the hair of her clients. She has already served about nine women and no complaint regarding unsatisfactory service has ever been put forward by any of them.

Rebonding involves a long time-consuming process. The hair has to be treated by numerous chemicals and ironed cautiously because any misuse of chemicals might result in heavy injury to hair. At Naina's Exclusive Beauty Parlour, the owner herself not only supervises the whole straightening procedure but also works with her own hands to make sure that the work is completed perfectly.

Rebonding usually takes about 4 to 4 ½ hours and the price depends on the length of a client's hair. At Naina's, you can make your hair straight forever within tk.3000 to tk.6000.

Straight hair is definitely in. Never resort, however, to a beauty saloon that has questionable quality to make your hair straight, because remember that any little wrong step might result in enduring harm to your hair.

Address: Uttara Tower (3rd Floor), 1 Jasimuddin Avenue, Sector # 3, Uttara, Dhaka.

By Wara Karim

BY THE WAY

Hang loose in comfy outfits

Wearing clothes that comforts your body rather than confine it can add grace to your line and make you feel a lot more bright and confident. Skin-tight tops or fitting kameez are hot for a date but can be very suffocating after a while. This summer flatter yourself with any item that makes you feel lax.

 

UNDER A DIFFERENT SKY

The Quarter-life-crisis

Believe it or not I am going through a mid-20s crisis, the mid mid-life crisis or as they call it the quarter-life crisis. You haven't heard about this? Well it does exist. I am a living walking proof of it. Yesterday I blew a few candles and celebrated (mortified) being on this earth for 26 years, just like that. It wasn't like the good old (young to be correct) days when the birthdays meant merriment. I hardly ate the cake. In this age I don't get pimples from eating chocolate, but I sure do donate to the growing bicycle tire around my stomach. So I tasted the cake, had a few celeries, and carried around a dry smile making merry out of getting old.

I remember last year as soon as I turned 25, my metabolism disappeared causing me to gain weight to a point which almost made me look pregnant. I had to deal with the annoying question "Ki kono khobor ache? (Wink, wink)" asking if there is any news, basically investigating if I am expecting, I don't know why Bengalis choose such an idiotic phrase for such inquiries. Anyway, this year right when I turned 26, I found not one, not two but four bright grey hair strands marking my paranoid head. They are in each corner, North, East, South and West, giving the NEWS to the world that this me is no longer a spring chicken. Oh how I miss even being called the derogatory term "chick" anything, really anything to make me feel younger.

The thing about it is, here I thought only Bengalis look at women in their late 20s as somehow crossing certain limits, but now it seems even here in America, late 20s is no longer considered to be that young. Thanks to the over-achieving 20-somes who just changed the whole definition of being young and irresponsible.

To go back to the whole quarter-life-crisis idea, here is what one research defined the symptoms to be, regrets about the past, yearning for work that is spiritually fulfilling not just lucrative, misgivings about relationships… and many more which I do not consciously want to think about at the moment.

Just to make it worse, when I look around I see Bengalis and non-Bengalis in their mid 20s showing all the symptoms of the quarter-life crisis. Many are married and divorced, many have searched for the meaning of life through religion, literature and sex and ended up as single atheist parents, and many have earned their first million, bought a mansion and hit manic-depression, not knowing what to do next.

To add to it, I really can't talk to anyone about this issue. I tried talking to my ever-so-Bengali mother asking if she ever hit the quarter-life-crisis, in return she gave me a look of sheer annoyance and disgust. I guess she just doesn't understand, after all what was she doing when she was my age? Raising me and my brother, handling a career, being a wife and pushing pots and pans to please the in-laws. Truly why and how can she even appreciate the dilemmas and miseries of my complex life?

Being the bitter 20-some that I am, I blame my parents for where I am now. They have given me all the choices, the option of education and luxury, the teachings of Tagore and

Kafka, the option between living here or in Bangladesh, why have they opened my eyes so widely that I can't seem to close them in peace, I fumed now wondering why would they do such a thing, they are the root of my crisis.

When I woke up this morning, however, being older and wiser, I no longer felt the intensity of the quarter-life catastrophe. Really it was just another day with a few more grey hair strands, just another day to be able to complain, just another day to start over if I want to, or continue in the same path, and just another day to have all the options that my parents have provided me with, and really what could have been a better gift for a grouchy, over-indulgent, sadist 26 year old Bengali-American female.

By Iffat Nawaz
*You can contact the writer by emailing nituta@hotmail.com