So why make it so artificial? That’s the work of make up my brother! You use cosmetics to make up what your natural self lacks in your opinion.
Kenny was musing over why women like to wear wigs, fix long eye lashes, fix very long nails that most times you watch them helplessly trying to get through a simple task as picking a call or opening a zip. He went on and on and threw in a jab, which, I felt was harsh.
Truth be told, I do not like to engage in these kinds of discussion because I feel that the beauty stunts women pull off today is assumed to be what men want! So I wondered why this male is not at all impressed. Anyway, he goes on, “the worst part is you meet one person and by the time the day is over, a total stranger greets you as soon as they emerge from the bathroom after a shower.
Boom you are thrown off balance. You begin to look for the person you met.”
I gave him a look of disgust and he understood immediately. “So why not stay in your trousers and shoes, why do you need to change to sleep or relax at home, leave the suit on.”
That said I began to contemplate. Cosmetics are as old as man. It is often used to make up for that which we desire to enhance, with respect to beauty, class and dignity. Worn to help us with the confidence we lack because of the lemons life dishes out to us.
I remember very well in my younger days, when we visit the village, our grandma would be cooking the local dye called Uri in preparation for a wedding ceremony. The bride must be marked with Uri to her look very pleasing to her groom. She will be clad in very short wrapper as skirt and a piece to just barely cover her breast, and alas a master designer (if you like what we have today as cosmetic surgeons or a Makeup artist) comes to draw a elaborate enticing patterns on her supple skin which is glowing from months of being in the fattening room…oh how the generations past also knew the importance of make up and beauty. Her hair is plate in a very pronounced and bogus style often times extra layers of thread are added to create this exaggerated look (which today is the long human hair weave-ons that almost touch the buttocks.) yes ooh
So today what has changed?
Innovation, technology, globalisation and the world in sync with one another.
What did you think? That beauty won’t get an upgrade like any other endeavour in this age of real time?
How naive you must have been. The world as we know today is a bigger village where every culture, tradition and beliefs have a space in the market place and everyone from across the globe is shopping according to their needs and desires.
I am not one again to wonder why it is quite exaggerated. A lot of the changes and goings on in the feminine indulgence in the beauty and cosmetic space is only but a therapy for the female soul.
I do not think any woman should be queried or judged for what motivates such therapeutic indulgence.
Make up your mind as to what beauty is to you. If you wish Keep it modest, simple, expensive, cheap or grotesquely over the top, or understated. You rule your world. So Mr. Kenny, my good friend let your eyes behold it, as it is evolving as it comes across many worlds and be not tempted to judge too harshly for your lady maybe be fantasising of an extra long hair, then what are you going to do about it?
Until I write again, I love you for reading.
Ambassador Adaobi Alex-Oni writes from Lagos, Nigeria.