Beauty Talk

Sadia Moyeen, Beautician, La Belle

Q. Hi Sadia,
I use Nair for waxing on my underarm hair. I want to remove hairs from hands and legs permanently, but I don't want to use Nair any more. Could you please let me know the names of the BEST products for waxing and where I can get them? I have wavy and unmanagable hair. I cannot keep my hair open for long time as it becomes wild, and very hard to manage. How can I make them behave? I have heard that ironing helps to straighten the hair and it can be done at home too. I would like to do it at home and please tell me the process how to do it? Thank You

Ans. Permanent removal of body hair is an expensive and time consuming process which will take many months and even then there is no guarantee that the hair will not grow back.
It is more practical to use electrolysis on specific areas like the upper lips, or under arm and eyebrows.
Warm wax is the most efficient product available at all salons and if done correctly should not head to re-growth before 3 weeks.
You seem to be a perfect candidate for permanent straightening of the hair. This process will make your hair manageable and easy to style by yourself. But if you decide to go for it remember to use a reputable salon and good products.

Q. Hi Sadia
I am fifteen and being an O Levels' candidate, I always have to remain preoccupied with school, studies and tuition. It has been pretty hard for me to take, even a little care of my skin these days. In the aftermath of this situation, my skin has grown darker, in fact, getting terribly darker especially the countenance area. I also ended up catching some pimples over my face. Usually I am fair, my skin tone is to some extent, slightly pinkish. I helplessly tried a few herbal products but in vain. Could you please suggest me some products that can help bring the tint back (or can they really? ) And a few tips please on 'How to Pamper Your Skin through a Busy Schedule!' Thank you. Desdemona

Ans. Dear Desdemona
Stress usually tells, not only on one's looks but also on one's health, but don't worry, here's your selection. To take away the tan, try fair polish done in different parlours, this will also help the pimples as it removes excess oil from the skin.
Drink plenty of water everyday exercise a little and eat healthy. Get enough sleep at night. Follow a cleansing and moisturising schedule for your skin every night and you'll be slowing in no time at all.

Q. Dear Sadia,
I'm 12. I'm having some problems. They are:
1) I have blackheads on my nose. Can you suggest any home remedies? (2)Can I use Johnson ph5.5 exfoliating face wash? (3)I'm having hair loss. Can you suggest me any home remedies? (4)I'm having oil on my nose. How to get rid of it? (5)I'm having pimples. How to get rid of it?
I'll be very grateful if you help me. Mahjabeen

Dear Mahjabeen
a) Apply a hot towel to your nose to open pores, then apply ponds black head strip on your nose and leave on until its dry and peel off to remove the black heads.
2) Yes Johnsons pls-5 wash is a good product.
3) Oil your hair weekly apply pack -- egg, yoghurt (1 tbs), Oman juice 1 tsp, methi (½ tsp). Keep on for 20 minutes and wash off.
4) After cleansing use toner for all oily areas on the face.
5) Pimples are an internal part of growing up, you can't stop them completely but you can try preventing them by keeping your skin clean and oil free.

Style Files
Maheen Khan Fashion designer, Mayasir

Q. I am 43 year old, I have been teaching at a well-known English medium school for the past 17 years. I expected to be dressed appropriately so that too much attention is not drawn to my clothing. I am really tired and bored with my look. What could I do to revive my interest in my outfits? Please suggest a few points.

A. In a teaching profession one must always project confidence. But with the changing times you don't have to always look somber and serious. If you wear salwar suits, you could try a few new styles. Pick light fabrics that breathe well in cotton. Please don't get those block printed fabrics, they are just too common. Instead look around there are lots of fabric stores. You get fine cottons. Some are embroidered, chikaned or printed. Let me suggest a printed fabric in pastel. Style it with Chinese collar with an a-line opening. Use handmade buttons with fabric fastening use cord piping in a contrast color, which will match the salwer. Use a white chikan fabric for your bottoms, but try a slightly unconventional edging. Don't use a lace instead cord pipe the bottoms. Use tucking pleats an inch apart moving up for about 8 inches. You will find it creating a lovely embellishment. Use a chikan fabric of a larger scale design to create a contrast and a wide lace on the ends of your doppatta. Keep it all white. This way you could use it in many different ways.

Q. I am traveling long distance. My work demands that I travel frequently. One week I am in Sri Lanka, the next in Australia or to the UK and then I am back here. Traveling through the continents, sometimes it is warm and in the next it is cold. It is often that I am confused on what should be packed. Please tell me a system so that I can travel light but at the same time beat the weather. I am in my mid thirties, with a toned body and can carry western clothes well. Could you please help?

A. Some one like you need to analyse your travel plans well. The trick is to learn to layer your clothes. For example if you are starting in Sri Lanka and then travelling to Australia where it is most likely the middle of winter. Start with a sleeveless t- shirt and denim, when you get on the flight wear a cashmere jumper, light but warm. Sneakers are great especially the kind with cut out ankles, which could easily be switched, one weather to the other with the right kind of socks. Carry your over coat on board. Similarly pack your suitcase with some light some regular separates and some warm clothing. This will be versatile and practical

BY THE WAY

For beautiful eyebrows

Eyebrows add strength and definition to one's face. A well-groomed eyebrow enhances beauty. To have beautiful eyebrows always pluck them before bedtime so any redness will disappear overnight. You can do it at home with tweezers. The shape of the eyebrows should be done in parity with the facial feature. Comb hair one way and then the other to remove loose hairs. You should pluck hair between the brows. Never remove the hair from above your eyebrows. Pluck each hair individually close to the root. Work in the direction of the growth. Always avoid over plucking. When using a pencil apply small, feathered strokes and choose a shade similar to your natural hair colour. Starting at the inner corner work outwards. Blend the colour with a brush. To tame stray hair just use hair gel and comb through.

 

UNDER A DIFFERENT SKY

The call of long-ago

Our minds are full of odd numbers, certain important dates which seemed so crucial to remember but with time and situation lost their importance. Like the birthday of someone one special, the first days of certain beginnings or ends, the amount of money owed to the bank or how much others owe you…numbers carefully remembered, encrypted and later with a forced or peaceful resolution forgotten, left unerased. So when the once special dates or numbers come around with vague faces and memories, we fiddle through our minds to recall why those digits still remain to be noticed, who and what owns it so strongly that we can never stop thinking of those numbers with a special feeling; the special feeling not involving the person or occasion but just those days, dates and amounts.

I believe it's the glitches of our hearts, the unconditional love of our pasts which make us remember these unnecessary digits, I trust that our logical brains try extra hard to discard unneeded scraps but the illusion of the past wins every time keeping those figures almost intact.

I believe the same part of our hearts which conserve the unnecessary digits also fight and preserve the taste and flavor of Bangladesh for Bengalis living abroad. It accumulates the aroma and aura which are long gone but their shadow imprints are still hanging behind… Bangladesh and its illusions…hallucinatory images that keep it beautiful enough to crave but not enough to run back to.

When I ask others living under this red, white and blue sky what they miss the most about Bangladesh, most of the time they tell me about their longings for certain people who are no longer found in that same form or they talk about experiences which are not possibly creatable again. For example when I look through my own heart to remember what I miss most of what I left behind, I instantly get reminded of my fascination with Dhaka afternoons, I can just close my eyes and see myself, with a full stomach and half tired eyes, sitting in some corner of our home, reading Ashapurna Devi or Leela Majumdar, curled up and comfortable, enjoying every word, every ray of the sun, and some hidden freedom of being the only one up during our home's afternoon naps. I will never be able to find those afternoons, I no longer enjoy Leela Majumdar's "chotoder golpo," our house is no longer in the same shape, the members have decreased among the years, afternoon naps are replaced by Zee TV's day time movies, and if by any chance I was lucky enough to go back to the same surroundings I would be the first to fall asleep taking my rightfully deserved afternoon nap, no books or rays of sun will interest me, even if I was offered a whole jar of achar with it…

A close friend often talks about their village in a corner of Netrokona, which he has left behind, he talks about the smell of the soil and force of the wind, with teary eyes he often ends with a song "Sagor kul er Naiya re opar belai majhi kothai jau…" singing to that anonymous boatman of Bengal cruising along Brahmaputra in the oddest of hours towards an unknown destination…this is what Bangladesh means to him, that is what calls him back (when it does), but in reality will the smell of soil take over the smell of pollution and politics…will he ever see his Sagor Kuler Naiya, his self-built hero of Bengal, a delirium created from fragments of his childhood and fragments from random seemingly related images and ideas…

I often wonder if it is Bangladesh or our childhood/early adulthood that we miss the most. Is it the contentment of our youth, the age when we day dreamed and believed it… Is that what we miss or the beauty of monsoon and heavily crowded streets?

The cruel brain cells of mine want me to believe it was all an illusion, our love for Bangladesh is tangled and confused with the memories of our childhood, we long for Bangladesh the same way any other human being long for their bygones. If we the Ex-patriots never left Bangladesh we would still miss those days we had left behind, the better days, the past, the clean slates of being young in a less complex world.

I have a lot of discarding, erasing and untangling to do between many twisted images unique to Bangladesh and some just unique to childhood-happened-to-be-spent-in-Bangladesh, when I am done I shall write down how much I really do long Bangladesh minus the love of "long-ago"s, and store it in one of my brain cell to be remembered for ever.

 

By Iffat Nawaz