Hey there!

Hope you are having a restful Sunday? I woke up really late and just tired from the inside so I am home all of today and taking it a bit easy.

A few days ago,I got a message from a friend asking what my attraction to waist beads were and coincidentally,I have been meaning to write about waist beads for about a month now,so her question just sort of hastened it.

First,waistbeads are not a habit I picked up as a grown up per se.I grew up knowing my mother to wear several beads on her waist. I got my first waist beads when I was 6years old,just one pink strand. They were uncomfortable at the time,so I wore them on and off.

My mum also said she grew up wearing waist beads because her grandmother,my own great grandmother, made and sold all sorts of beads including waist beads,so it was only natural she grew up wearing them.

After my on and off stint with waist beads as a child. When I turned 16,I realized I had grown to love waist beads and I really did like the feel around my waist. So I took some of my mum’s beads and restrung them to my size. That was the start of my journey with waist beads.

This means I have now worn waist beads for about 20 years or more if you take away the times I had to take them off due to pregnancy and the times I needed to let my CS wounds heal.

To why I love them. First,I love colour,beautiful colours are my thing. Orange,red,green, blue,yellow.I love that I can play with colours as much as I want. I am not particularly much of a jewellery person. I don’t wear chains but I love earrings,(reason why I have 4 piercings in my ear).

Waistbeads give me the room to play with colours and stringing them is actually fun for me,before now,I used to wear anywhere from 2 to 4 strands of waist beads at a time. Now,I have more than times 3 of that on my waist,like my waist is actually a lovely burst of colours and I love it.😅

Another thing is this,they make me feel so feminine. I am not a girly girl per se,but I love the feel of my waist with beads on them,like it actually makes me smile when I wriggle my waist and I feel the slight jiggles of my beads. Beads have the ability to take a boring, bland waist and transform it into a beautiful and interesting sight🙊

As someone who is health conscious and keen on a healthy lifestyle,keeping my weight at a certain threshold is important to me. My beads make it really easy to know when I am putting on weight or losing it easily without even having to check. I wear them low riding on my upper hip,some wear them on their natural waist. Wherever people want to wear theirs is not important as long as they are comfortable with it.

Also,waist beads on an otherwise naked body can be a sight to behold. And oh,I have always worn waist beads but after I had my kids and they left me with the gift of a spattering of stretchmarks across my lower tummy and pubic region,I found that my waist beads even made my ‘zebra’ marks more appealing to me. Strange but true.

I am aware that people wear waist beads for different reasons. I heard there are fortified waist beads for ‘favour’ whatever that means and there are also those for ‘holding’ a man. I do not know or care about those. I remember the look in Mike’s eyes the first day he saw my beads,fear! That is story for another day that is not today😃

At the end of the day,I never really worry about someone else’s choices. Wearing waist beads for me is just that;wearing them because I love them and I will continue to wear them and add and replace till a time I decide I no longer want to. And oh,I also string beads for people on request. Beautiful,colourful beads,ordinary beads o. Na God be my Babaalawo😃

Some of these little things people enjoy(that are not harmful to them or anyone else)we should let them enjoy it in peace without feeling the need to question or look at them in a certain way. At the end of the day,we are all trying to live our lives and enjoy each day the best way we can.😊

Do not forget,the small things are where some people find happiness and expression. Be good to yourself and others,always!

❤

Yetunde,

Picture culled from Pinterest