Beauty Talk

Sadia Moyeen Beautician, La Belle

Key to Beautiful Skin
The best thing you can ever do to keep your skin beautiful and youthful is to wear sun-screen. Too much sun is harmful for your skin, so it is imperative to protect your skin from damaging exposure. No matter what season it is, summer or winter, avoid the sun whenever possible. It you are heading out during the day, wear sun screen. This will protect the skin for brown spots, pigmentation and early wrinkles.

What causes Sunburn skin damage?
There are two kinds of ultra-violet rays, UVA and UVB. UVA is most damaging as it can penetrate your skin more deeply causing damage at a molecular level. This results in wrinkles and sagging skin and can also cause skin cancer.
UVB causes your skin to burn and darken; though these rays are partially screened out by the ozone layer, it is best to opt for a sunscreen that offers protection from both UVA and UVB.

Selecting a Sun-screen:
Whenever possible avoid the mid-day sun, 12 noon to 3.00 PM; if that is not possible, there are ways to protect yourself from exposure. Make sun-screens a permanent part of your daily regimen and wear them whenever you leave the house. These are available under a bevy of cosmetic labels, and offered in forms of lotions, creams, gels, sprays & oils. A good sun-screen absorbs or blocks ultraviolet rays. You should protect against both UVA & UVB.
When choosing a sun-screen you'll notice an SPF (Sun protection Factor) number. The SFP indicates the amount of exposure your skin can handle before turning red. Dermatologists recommend an SPF of at least 30. To figure out how long you can stay out in the sun without burning, simply multiply the SPF with 10, ie 30x10=300, which means you can expect 300 minutes of protection before starting to burn.
For optimal protection, apply sun-screen to all exposed parts of the body and let it absorb for 10-15 minutes. Sun-screens tend to be oily so find a suitable one for your skin type.

Style Files

Maheen Khan Fashion designer, Mayasir

Q. I am 23 yrs old. After graduating from college, I have recently returned to Bangladesh. I am taking a short sabbatical from my studies and plan to let my hair down for a while. On arriving here I find that the girls my age are hip and extremely fashion conscious. They pick up on current fashion trends and are extremely adventures with their styles. My western clothes are classic but not fun, and I want to get a better grip on fusion lines that work well in Bangladesh. Could you help?

A. Trends in the region not just in Bangladesh are diverse and derived from multi cultural influence. This season, inspiration has developed from popular culture such as comic strips and political statement for the young pet lines. The reflections on the contemporary pieces has taken on Oriental clean lines, Mediterranean draping to the African textures and motifs. Here are a few tips which may help you with your styling.

Silhouette:
Feminine soft and easy lounge wear. The most important vocabulary, skirts, shift dresses, kaftans blouses, kimono tops, peasant blouses with shirring and lacing. The look that dominates this season emphasizes the wearability of skirts and the wide option it provides the user.

Skirt:
Long gathered and tiered, long biased slightly flared, long straight sheered, laced, layered, and wrap around.

Pair it with blouses:
Long fitted on top and flared at the bottom, puffed sleeves fluted lengths, kimono tops play it up with sleeve widths styles, kaftans shirts, experiment with necklines it's a great way to change a look. Wear, camisole tops, spaghetti strapped sleeveless, halters or cholis under your blouses and show and tell when the occasion arises.

Theme theory:
Oriental chinoiserie, Egyptian lounge, Japanese kimono, South Asian pop. Prêt yes and not heavy couture, moving away from the heavy embellishment which is fit for royalty, and simple rather than over done.

Colour code:

What is the biggest color story this year?
Pink pink pink. In all its hues, chromes, tints and tones. Bubble gum pink being the most dominant.
Other hues in chewable tones of lilac, peach. Pistachio, watermelon, plum are must have fresh color tones to wear.
I hope this will help you with a direction to create some ensembles for yourself. But I would like to suggest that you mustn't try to follow everything that is trendy. You should always try to judge the styles that look right for your body form. Trying new styles is great fun. I am sure you will enjoy experimenting.

Agony Medic

DR. Lutful Aziz FCPS, PhD, Consultant "analgesia", Pain relief centre

What is a Ruptured Intervertebral Disc?
A ruptured or herniated disc is one that bulges into the spinal canal, pressing on the nerve roots. This causes the nerve roots to become irritated. A disc can rupture after bending over and lifting or it may occur for no apparent reason. A ruptured disc may cause back pain and muscle spasms, but a more common symptom is sciatic pain. This is severe pain spreading down one leg and often into the foot. Sometimes it is the only symptom of a ruptured disc. A procedure such as a myelogram, computerized axial tomography (CAT) scan, or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is needed to confirm the diagnosis and determine if surgery is necessary.

Can arthritis cause back pain?
Yes. There are several main types of arthritis. One is osteoarthritis, also known as degenerative disease. In people with osteoarthritis, the cartilage (soft, elastic material) that cushions the spinal joints and other joints in the body wears out. Lower back pain can become more intense when osteoarthritis affects the hips or the knees. Osteoarthritis also can directly affect the spine, causing muscles, tendons, or ligaments to become strained, which can lead to back and/or neck pain.
Another type of arthritis causing back pain is Ankylosing Spondylitis. This form of arthritis causes the joints in the spine to become stiff and swollen. In time, stiff joints can fuse (grow together). The most common symptoms are pain and stiffness in the buttocks and lower back (particularly in the morning) that continue for more than three months.
Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) is rheumatic disorder causes muscle pain, aching and stiffness in the neck and shoulders, lower back, thighs and hips. It can last a few months or many years. Most people experience severe stiffness in the morning.
Fortunately, Rheumatoid Arthritis can affect the neck but almost never the joints in the lower back.

Why Bother?

Alongside academics, there should be an equal focus on fields such as music, dance, drama, communication and social skills, sports and a lot more for your kids.
Enhancing creativity brings about an emotional anchoring. Every child has the latent ability; the exposure to arts helps in nurturing the interest. The left part of the brain is associated with precision and mathematical subjects while the right half is responsible for creativity and emotional wellbeing.
It is important to have a balanced development of the brain. There's nothing like the visual and performing arts for providing an emotional outlet for creative expression. Exposing children to the creative fields at an early age gives them a head start.
Arts enhance the child's ability to concentrate, build coordination skills and improve teamwork. Music is known to be therapeutic; it brings an excellent discipline to life and helps in developing language skills.

 

UNDER A DIFFERENT SKY

Norms

It was Saturday night; I was in the middle of a thumping throbbing club in the heart of Manhattan. A club open to all but catered for individuals who are more flexible with their sexual orientation and preferences, I was there since I too often want to claim that I have seen it all…
I sat around with half the group I went with, the other half had drifted away somewhere between the drag queens (A Drag Queen is a man who performs as a female and never as a male) and male dancers. I found a seat between the dance floor and the bar, so I sat down grabbing on to my purse. I still have that dumb reservation about NY being an unsafe place and I could be mugged in the middle of a crowded room.
We got there late so only caught glimpses of performances by New York's talented drag queens, they sang and danced and astonished me by being more feminine than myself and the girl next door. They had almost perfect bodies, great make-up; I was awed to see how much effort was put into their appearances.
I looked around to see who and what was there, and the faces around me represented all classes, genders, races, ages and types. Some danced swinging their hips and middles, some stared greedily at the male dancers, debating if they should go near to give money or watch from far, men protecting men, women dominating women and men holding onto their naïve shy ones. I stared shamelessly at all who were around, sometimes my mouth would open a slight bit with awe and surprise. Thinking how different one acts in a half dark room full of hyped crowd and alcohol, how open some feels with others with similar sexual preferences men over women or vice versa, all were showing their biases and directly acting on it. I thought how people's sexual preferences can become such a business. Giving people of all ages a chance to come out of the closet, forgetting their personas kept as fake masks for the outside world, and really being genuine and true to themselves, no matter how against the social norm that might be.
And as far as social norms go, who am I to define that anyway? The norms change at the speed of light now days, what was politically correct yesterday is very politically incorrect today, so I kept my mouth shut and eyes wide open to learn the norms and I admit, I did feel a bit left out.
It was late, a little too late; cutting through two dark-haired women with locked hands and eyes I was under the New York sky where two lights shone dimly, lit from ground zero. It was September 11th 2004, the city was now calm, breathing a smidgen of New York air I tried to fill my twisted inside and feel the impact of 2004's September 11th on my Bangladeshi-Muslim heart. A few clouds glided away, the shining lights cleared the shadows… I walked on.

By Iffat Nawaz