Beauty Talk


Dear Sadia,
I'm a 14-year-old girl and a regular reader of your column. My hair is very rough and dry and I have a lot of hair related problems. I use All Clear Active-Care (Anti-Dandruff) shampoo and Lolane conditioner. I also use a hair iron to straighten my hair occasionally. I don't have much dandruff. But for the past three months I have been shedding hair terribly. Is the hair iron or the conditioner responsible for this? Can you suggest some products that will solve my problem? Many people have advised me to go for a deep conditioning treatment but the problem is I don't know how to apply it. Please give me some advice.
Anisha

Dear Anisha
You don't have ‘much’ dandruff but that only means you do have some. Healthy hair is completely dandruff free. Apply oil to the scalp and massage lightly followed by lemon juice. This might itch a little or you may feel a slight burning sensation on the scalp. Keep on for 15 minutes and shampoo off with Selsun Blue. Once you are completely dandruff free, stop using Selsun Blue and switch to any mild shampoo. Always condition your hair after each shampooing. Conditioning treatment at home can be done as mentioned above but if possible please do try the professional conditioning treatment at a salon once a month.

Dear Sadia
I am 19 and I have a lot of problems with facial hair. I've got a thin line of hair over my upper lip. I have suffered with this for year. But I am afraid to remove it because people say that once you remove it, it starts growing more rapidly and also becomes as thick as a moustache. Is that really true? Is there anyway to slow down the growth rate? Is there any kind of machine or cream besides threading that can help me? I can't go for permanent hair removal because I heard there are side effects and my parents won't allow it either. Please tell me what to do.
Nodi

Dear Nodi
Oh please! How many women have you seen or met who have a moustache like a man? Most women remove the hair from their upper lips. You have several options. Threading being the first and easiest. I'm sure you thread your brows anyway- just do the upper lips as well. Waxing is another option. Bleaching is a possibility. If you don't want to remove it then camouflage or hide it by lightening it.
A fourth option is to get rid of it permanently. There are no side effects but this takes several sessions over a period of a few months and is expensive.

Dear Sadia
I have a nail-related problem. It's not a recent problem but one that has always existed. My fingernails are fragile, and the growing part is translucent instead of normal opaque white. Despite regular filing & shaping, when I try to grow my nails they tend to be shapeless. Dirt always seems to lodge underneath the nails no matter how many times I clean them and the translucent part seems to become lighter with each scraping.

Dear Reader
What do you mean with each "scraping"? What are you scraping your nails with? And why? If your nails are already thin and fragile you must not buff or scrape them as you will further weaken them. Keep your nails short and avoid growing them long for the time being. Massage your cuticles with olive oil everyday. Apply a coat of Sally Hansen's nail hardener regularly. It is clear and can be worn on its own or under nail colour especially when you decide to grow them longer later. Initially when nails start to grow long they tend to accumulate dirt but after a certain length you will notice that this stops happening. Nevertheless invest in a nailbrush and wash under the nails with it until such time. Ideally nails should be filed in an oval shape. Also make sure you have adequate calcium in your diet for example milk, yoghurt, tofu and so on.

Dear Sadia,
I am a 23-year-old girl and I have some problems with my hair. My hair is very curly and I have straightened my hair twice and rebonded it 3 times. I rebonded it last year in June but the procedure was not done properly. The beauty salon told me that if I rebond my hair again before one year it might not work properly. How true is this? Now my hair is becoming curly again and if I rebond it this June, while I face any problems?
Also my hair is very dry and damaged so I am afraid to colour or streak it. If I colour my hair will it cause any damage? Please suggest some home remedies or any other product that can soften my hair.

Dear Reader
Use 'Restoria' for coloured, damaged hair or Loreal Elvive for dry damaged hair. Deep condition your hair at a salon and apply regular conditioner to the length of your hair after every shampoo. But first get a trim to remove the split ends. Apply the following pack on a weekly basis.
1 mashed banana
2 tbsp milk
1 tbsp conditioner
Keep on for 20 minutes

How/when can we stop payment of cheques or pay orders?
A customer can stop payment to a cheque after issuing the cheque. Sending a written request to the bank usually does this. The bank checks if the payment has already been made or not. If the payment is not affected till then, the bank then accepts the Stop Payment instruction.

However, a stop payment cannot be instructed for a pay order, nor will it be acceptable to the bank without the consent of the payee. Once a pay order is issued against the fund of a customer it becomes an obligation for the bank to affect the payment.

What is the penalty for cheques being dishonoured for insufficient funds?
The issuer of a cheque will be punishable by law if the paying bank because of insufficient funds returns the cheque issued by him/her. If the payment is refused by the paying bank three times due to insufficient funds, the beneficiary of the cheque can lodge a case in the court against the issuer of the cheque.

How much currency is a traveller entitled to carry?
A traveller is entitled to carry Tk-1000, of which the whole amount can be taken in cash or T/C. If the destination is a non-SAARC country then the traveller can take up to USD 3000, out of which USD 1500 can be taken in cash and the rest in the form of T/C or Draft. Besides foreign currency, Bangladeshi travellers can take Tk 500 with him/her.

What is an FMJ form?
This is a declaration form issued by the customs authorities. Any Bangladeshi traveller can bring in any amount of foreign currency into the country upon declaring the amount, source of the foreign currency brought in, etc, in the FMJ form.

What is a TM form?
A TM form is a form used by Banks for customers. It is an application for permission under the Foreign Exchange Act to purchase foreign exchange for a specific purpose.

What is a debit card?
A debit card looks and feels exactly like an ATM card. The difference between a debit card and an ATM card is that the only function of an ATM card is the use of it at the Automated Teller Machine. On the other hand the debit card cannot only be used at ATM machines for different purposes, but can also be used for purchase of goods.

What is the difference between different account operations?
An account can be operated under different mandates. Singly operated accounts are single or joint accounts that are operated by one person. Jointly operated ones are joint accounts that can only be operated jointly by the account holders. Either to operate means either of the account holders can operate in a joint account, while either or survivor means any one of the account holders can operate in a joint account while all are alive and the surviving holder can operate upon the demise of one of the account holders.

Will a standing instruction received from an organisation remain valid if the signatories of the standing instruction change subsequently?
The instruction will remain valid until further advice is received from the organisation. Change of signatory will not impact instructions provided earlier by the organisation to a bank.

By the Way

You should take special care of your pets during summer because sometimes animals can die from massive intravascular clotting, haemorrhaging, cerebral edema and kidney failure if untreated. Every day dogs and cats suffer from heat strokes due to inattention by their caretakers. Signs of heat strokes in animals are intense, rapid panting, wide eyes, salivating, staggering and weakness. Do not expose your pet to intense heat and do not leave it unattended in the car. If your pet has a heat stoke, place your pet in a tub of cool running water.

On Different Note

Effect of a random thought

It is strange how random thoughts from long ago can come back and hit you with a new force. The time that lapses in between an event and a new thought related to that event may be long, but the knowledge that time brings along with it may be shockingly novel. And if not that, then it might at least put life into a new perspective. Have you never experienced it before? I just did, and following Andrew Morris's advice in 'Skater Girl', I decided to share it you.

First of all, my 'random' thought was really not that random. I was actually thinking about my childhood in Africa; my dad used to work in an NGO in Uganda and Tanzania. We had a maid in our house who used to stay with us, since her own village was far from the town in which we lived. Her name was Christina and she was only in her early teens. She used to sleep in the corridor next to my room and every night, considering myself her guardian angel (I was only 8), I would do things which I considered were appropriate for her, e.g. give her my old books, make her recite the English alphabet (although she knew that really well) and make her teach me some Swahili (all of which I forgot the next morning).

But these are not the things that made me write this article. One particular night I saw Christina cutting her nails with a blade and I (always a bit too eager to help) made it clear through fragmented English, Swahili and sign language that I would happily cut her nails (with the blade) for her. She must have foreseen the risk, but I suppose she feared I would raise a tantrum if not allowed to help.

And so I set forth butchering her nails with the blunt blade, making the same movements that I have seen carpenters make when they saw off pieces of wood. I am really ashamed to say that that day I also cut one of her fingers by mistake. No!! I didn't cut it off; I just made a little cut by mistake.

What strikes me now is the stoic manner in which she accepted it without flinching. Had I been in her place I would have seen red like a mad bull and charged forward to attack. But that wasn't the case here. At that time Christina's silence did not strike me as odd, I was actually grateful because the consequence would have been a thrashing from my mum.

However, now, something bothers me about her silence. Her silence seems to stand out and point at the atrocities that are carried out against such thousands of Christinas that go unmentioned all the time. Their silent screams go unnoticed by us who are either unaware of such events or choose to ignore them. This very article of mine may go unnoticed by many, many of those who choose to read it may forget about it as soon as they are finished. The real change will come when our own attitude changes, when we will question every act that goes against humanity and fairness. I am not saying that everyone of us has to set forth on a mission to rid the world of all evil, all we may have to do is look around us, and we might find a silent Christina…

By Fahima Bintee Jamal