Today's instalment of Beauty Around The World Series takes us to Pakistan, written by the lovely Abeeha. I have
And if you're interested in writing about your country / city / culture for the Beauty Around The
World Series, drop me a line at eternalvoyageur (at) gmail (dot) com.
Assalam-o-Alaikum,
guys! That’s how we say “Hello” in Pakistan! It’s Arabic for
“May peace be with you”, although our official languages are
[British] English and Urdu, in that order! Today I’ll be going
over four major categories; beauty obsessions, beauty rules and
theories and products as well as homemade recipes. Let’s begin!
Beauty Obsessions
Although
the most common impression of Pakistanis in the media is that they
are pretty much brown all over, that is hardly the case. Pakistan, as
a result of being a geographically significant location (for trade
and such), contains many ethnicities. In fact, every single ethnic
group in the world can be found here. Most of us fall under the
umbrella of “Caucasian”. In the northern provinces, most gals
have a light sort of coloring, and I’m pretty sure that our
northern provinces has more natural blue eyed-blondes than the USA
does! In the south, most of us can pass for Filipino, Mexican, North
African, and such. Our coloring and facial figures vary wildly, and
so do our heights! I’m a mixture of north and south Pakistani, my
father being 66 inches tall and my mother beings 63 inches tall. I
fall right in between, but we’ve got big and small people in our
family! (It is worth noting though, that a US size 4 is a Pakistani
size L; as many gals here have small frames)
Sadly, with the worldwide depiction of the perfect women being, well, a Barbie doll, many Pakistani girls have been trying to achieve this look. They use things like BB Creams, hair dye, contacts, etc. And to make matters worse, the men here only go for white women. Which isn’t bad or anything, it’s just that not many men have a preference for Pakistani women. To summarize: we have a lot of sad, really well educated bachelorettes.
Sadly, with the worldwide depiction of the perfect women being, well, a Barbie doll, many Pakistani girls have been trying to achieve this look. They use things like BB Creams, hair dye, contacts, etc. And to make matters worse, the men here only go for white women. Which isn’t bad or anything, it’s just that not many men have a preference for Pakistani women. To summarize: we have a lot of sad, really well educated bachelorettes.
Beauty Rules and Theories
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In
Pakistan, there are three types of makeup; no makeup, eyeliner, and
so much makeup that you can’t breathe. Thankfully, the latter of
those three options is usually reserved for parties and weddings.
Most of the time for married women, the only ones who wear makeup in
our culture; Kohl is the way to go. Also known as Kajal in Urdu, it
is applied soon after an infant’s birth to protect its eyes from
the harsh rays of the desert sun, and regularly afterwards to ward
off evil spirits.
Another regular application is Henna, or Mehindi in Urdu, which we put in our hair. In addition to giving it a healthy glow and tint, our hair becomes moisturized.
Fun fact! In Pakistan, everyone is nice to cats, as it’s an ancient belief that if you care for cats, they pray for you. I really hope my cat likes me.
Another regular application is Henna, or Mehindi in Urdu, which we put in our hair. In addition to giving it a healthy glow and tint, our hair becomes moisturized.
Fun fact! In Pakistan, everyone is nice to cats, as it’s an ancient belief that if you care for cats, they pray for you. I really hope my cat likes me.
Products and Homemade Recipes
One
of the most popular creams in Pakistan is Fair and Lovely. It’s a
lot like BB creams, with a high SPF and whitening properties. We use
this cream in addition to homemade remedies, like:
- Yogurt/Lemon/Egg/Honey face and hair masks. It’s literally just all that mixed together and applied liberally.
- Dried orange peel masks. Super easy to make and super cleansing. Just let the orange peels dry for a day or two, powder them, and mix with equal parts milk, rose water, or regular water.
- Mint water: leave a glass of water with mint leaves in it out overnight, and drink regularly to help relieve acne.
Thanks
for reading and have a great day!
XOXO,
Abeeha
Any lovely readers from Pakistan or have been there? Do you have questions for Abeeha or comments about beauty in Pakistan? Anyone else tempted to try out the orange peel mask?