Grooming, glitter and glam...oh, and puddles (From The Northern Echo)

Grooming, glitter and glam...oh, and puddles

6:26pm Tuesday 31st August 2010 in Reader Blogs

Rain! A biblical downpour. What bliss. The water is hurling itself down onto the palms of the coconut tree outside my bedroom window.

A tiny gecko scuttles down the trunk to look for shelter. I feel a rare cosiness as the lightning flashes and thunder explodes at intervals. Pretty scary stuff...but in that exhilarating way which makes you laugh at your own fear as the sky sounds like it will rip in two.

In this season, Dakar is beholden to the elements. Their whims and extremes can dictate your day. Sandy streets and badly lain roads fill with water, making some parts of town impassable.

Many taxi drivers refuse to take their elderly cars out, as they may not survive the shift. Those who do venture out, raise their prices ... because they can. How kind.

So getting to work (or more importantly, a hot date!) can prove troublesome and usually involves jumping over copious puddles or gritting teeth to walk through rivulets coursing along the road.

Though in reality, I’ve got it easy when I think of the thousands of families in Dakar’s poorer suburbs who face real flooding each year.

During one of my intrepid missions across my neighbourhood’s puddles I had to do a double take. Was that a lady with a plastic bag tied to her head?

Sure enough, an ingenious trick has been adopted by local women trying to stop their hair getting soaked.

And as fake hair ‘weave-ons’ are common place (and must be a killer to dry out) the little black plastic bags from the local shop are just the ticket.

Senegalese women are no strangers to rigorous attention to their appearance. It’s part of a woman’s repertoire for keeping her man’s attention firmly on her – hey, he’s allowed up to 4 wives after all! Any outing…even a trip to the local shop…is an excuse to get dolled up.

Getting ready times are major – we’re talking hours. A great comfort to me, as I’ve often been told I have “serious issues” in this department (mostly by ex boyfriends..!)

Tasteful and discreet stand side by side the outlandishly bright when it comes to colours. The stylish lines of traditional dress mix in with more ‘Western’ apparel. Clothes, shoes, bags and effortlessly elegant tied headscarves sometimes match...and sometimes clash violently.

Vivid local fabrics range from harmonious patterns to garish prints of mobile phones, Barack Obama and even Jesus.

And if you thought the 80s had spangle, think again. Shawls entirely covered in sequins are not uncommon.

I myself gleefully try out my own experimental fashion with a feeling of liberation that there are no voices from Society telling me what I “should” be wearing this season.

There are other voices though – or rather looks – which make it clear what is and isn’t acceptable for a woman to wear, if she wants to respect ideas of decency.

Showing your legs is much more shocking than showing cleavage here. Although women are by no means forced to cover up, (and many of the younger generation don’t at all) subtlety goes a long way in looking – and feeling – attractive.

Strings of beads (‘bin-bins’) are worn around the hips...out of sight for most eyes. A signature incense is burnt near clothes so a woman can waft a delightful scent as she walks by. This also means you can tell whether your man’s spent the afternoon with another!

Big is beautiful and respected, even aspired to (it’s better if your bum DOES look big in this...great for an English girl’s body image). The phrase “diaye fondé” is used to describe a well-formed posterior (meaning literally in Wolof “sell me some fondé” (a dish made of millet) – ie. You obviously have enough!)

Some women even compete to gain curves, taking supplements to enhance their form. But however long I spend in Africa, I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to the ‘compliment’ of “oh, haven’t you put on weight?” even though I know it’s a whole lot more healthy than Europe’s stick insect obsession.

Some young women here are starting to follow the so-called ‘slim ideal’ of the West though. And there’s an even more worrying side to “Western aspirations” if that’s what they really are ... skin bleaching products are everywhere, and are encouraged by some husbands/boyfriends who prefer the fashionable lighter skin tone.

I was shocked to see that major brands like Nivea and l’Oréal stand in line on the supermarket shelves. Ironic when I’ve used the very same brands to help me get a tan (fake or otherwise).

It seems that on both continents, when it comes to grooming, the grass is always greener...