“WEAVE RIGHT NOW IS AN EPIDEMIC”

“African women can easily get away with murder because every hair recovered from the crime scene by the forensics team will be traced back to someone in Brazil or India.”

This joke was doing rounds a couple of months ago on social networks and was largely shared by men to have a laugh at African women and their obsession of weaves and wigs.

A few days ago I was watching a programme about black women and their obsession for weaves. One gentleman was asked for his opinion on black women and how they spend a lot of time and money on weave instead of their natural hair and his reply was a curt “Weave right now is an epidemic”.

That reply set my mind in motion because I have never really thought about it like that. Weave is definitely not a wide spread outbreak of an infectious disease infecting many people at the same time but it has surely reached an alarming proportion in terms of popularity with black women.

We all know that women love their hair and that is why they spend a lot of their time and money on it. Every woman wants her hair to look better than the next woman’s hair.  If her hair is kinky or dried out, they call it “a bad hair day” and it is a disaster of a kind which only a woman can understand. A bad hair day can have its own implications and these may include the woman staying indoors the whole day because she does not want anyone to see her bad hair.

There are times when I am watching the news on TV with my wife and while I am concentrating on getting the details, she suddenly says, “The hair is not well done,” referring to the female newscaster’s hair style. Such is the mind of the woman on hair.

Sometimes saying “all women love their hair” can be an overstatement because many women nowadays use wigs or weaves on their heads. These women clearly do not love their own hair because if they did, they wouldn’t be wearing wigs and weaves,  putting other people’s hair or synthetic fiber on their head.

Wigs are made from different types of materials. Some are made from human hair, animal hair or synthetic fiber and they have been worn for various reasons.  Nowadays, wigs are mainly worn by women for fashion.

Wigs have been around for so many years. The ancient Egyptians wore wigs to shield their shaved heads from the sun and they were worn by both men and women. Other cultures that wore wigs were the Assyrians, Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans who wore wigs as an everyday fashion. It is said that the Romans used to make their wigs from the hair of their slaves.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the usage of wigs fell into disuse in the West for a thousand years until they were revived in the 16^th century as a means for compensating for hair loss or improving ones appearance. 

One interesting reason was that wigs also served a practical purpose. At that time the conditions were unhygienic and it was common for hair to attract head lice. This meant that people had to shave their own natural hair and replace it with a wig, which was much easier to de-louse.

In our modern society, women are known to wear wigs more than men and it has been seen as a product for women alone. A lot of men used to wear wigs at one time. Perukes or periwigs for men were introduced in England in 1660. These wigs were shoulder length, imitating the long hair that had become fashionable among men since the 1620s.

These wigs were extremely heavy and uncomfortable to wear but people wore them as a symbol for prestige (like buying an expensive i-phone) because they were expensive to produce and were made from natural human hair. The cheap alternatives were made from the hair of horses and goats.

Women’s wigs were worn from the 18^th century on-wards and were not fashionable. They were often worn by old ladies who had lost their hair.

In Britain and most Commonwealth nations, special wigs are still worn by barristers, judges and certain parliamentary and civic officials as a symbol of the office.

The advancement of technology has made stylish synthetic wigs within reach of everyone.  There are so many styles and colours to pick from.  Women claim that synthetic wigs are easier to maintain and are less expensive to take care of than natural human hair. They also say that wigs are convenient especially for the busy modern woman. Some women own hundreds of wigs and it is convenient for them to just pick one and put it on their head instead of sitting down to style their hair.   

Some people wear wigs not for convenience but because of medical reasons.  There are wigs which are made available for people suffering from hair loss which could be due to medical conditions or treatments such as radiation and chemotherapy.

Hair extensions are methods of lengthening hair by incorporating artificial hair or natural hair collected from other individuals. This is a favoured technique by many modern black women because it is an advanced technique and it is used to change hair drastically without looking unrealistic.

The selling of human hair for weaves and wigs is an industry that generates hundreds of millions of dollars annually and is growing as a large export economy in some Asian regions, such as India.  In India, a large portion of this hair is sourced from Hindu temples where it is donated for religious practices.

A woman’s hair is often seen as a symbol of her beauty and her personality. So why would the gentleman at the beginning of this article think that “Weave right now is an epidemic?”

One thing about women who are addicted to weave and wigs is that they forget to take good care of their own natural hair. Some of these women do not even take time to choose what would look nice but instead opt to go for anything that is wearable on the head.

Have you ever witnessed a fight involving two women? The first casualty is always the wig or the weave.  Every woman knows that by pulling out the other woman’s wig, the fight is almost won. I have seen such fights and when that happens, you will notice how ugly the scalp on many of these women is without the wig.

In most cases when that happens it also signals the end of the fight because the woman who has lost her wig feels exposed. It is like being stripped of her clothes.

Many women do not know that hair extensions can cause hair and scalp damage. The length of the extensions puts additional pressure on the scalp and can pull hair out. This causes long term damage in form of thinning or premature balding.  It is important that every woman understands the different effects that certain hairstyles can have on natural hair.

Some women also forget that the weave must be taken care of like it was a part of their own body.  A dirty weave will attract bacteria. A weave is not supposed to stay on the head for two months or more but must be removed after about 6 to 8 weeks. One reason for doing this is that your natural hair has also grown a bit during that time.

One expert advises that when you remove your weave, check if there is any damage to your natural hair. If this has remained healthy, you will just need your old extensions removed and new ones added. If the natural hair is in need of repair, give your hair at least a 6 month rest from the weaves.

I have seen women slapping or patting their heads, a sure sign that there is something itching inside the wig or under the weave. That is what makes weave seem like an epidemic.

I have also seen women who have literally “sunk” inside a wig. The wig looks bigger than their head. What about the bright red, green or orange wigs? I know that if any of these women who put on brightly coloured wigs or weaves gave birth to a baby with neon hair, they would freak out and that is how we also feel when we see them like that.

Image courtesy of imagerymajestic freedigitalphotos.net

BEWITCHED

In a space of two days alone, I have read stories that have made me realize that many people nowadays are practicing witchcraft without their knowledge. The first case I read was that of a woman who has been going out with a married man who is currently on separation with his wife.

This woman had been going out with this married man for some time and their affair was blossoming. Sadly, the woman did not feel secured in this relationship because the man was not officially divorced with his wife. Her fears were that the man could leave her and go back to his wife. She confided these fears to a friend.

The friend gave her some charms and instructed her to put them under the bed and in the toilet. The instructions were very simple. Let the man sleep in the bed all night and let him be the first one to use the toilet in the morning before anyone else. Fortunately for her, the man had moved in with her and this meant that the task wasn't going to be a very difficult one. She did what she was told to do and everything seemed to be going on as planned. The man slept on the bed all night and she made sure that he was the first person to use the toilet in the morning.

But what she thought was a mission accomplished turned out into something she did not expect. The man became "sarcastic" and rude. He started calling her names and even moved out of the house. This surprised the woman because her friend assured her that the charms will not fail. But now the situation was worse. The man was supposed to be submissive and to even propose for marriage. What could have gone wrong? Was she cheated by the friend?

The other case is of  a woman who has been dating a man  for some time and they were planning to get married soon. However, their sexual life has not been great. Without elaborating, the woman mentioned that her boyfriend told her that he was scared of going into marriage with her because he has been poor in bed and this could affect their marriage.

The woman admitted that his man has really failed to make her reach the peek of sexual pleasure. The man told her that he was not happy that he could not satisfy her and he promised her that before they get married, he was going to sort out this problem. He went to see "an old" man and explained his situation to him.

The old man told him that he had "African medicine" which will make him satisfy his girlfriend but first, he had to do something. The conditions were that the man must look for a woman who he does not know or has never met before and have sex with her 3 times before having sex with his current girlfriend.

There are prostitutes who are willing to have sex with anyone even if they have just met that man as long some form of payment is made. However, this is not an easy task for someone who has not done this before. There are a lot of risks involved including moral issues. 

In the first case, the woman actually used the charms she was given because she wanted very much to have that man as her own and in the end she lost him. In the second case, the man has not yet had sex 3 times with a total stranger. He told his girlfriend what the old man had told him to do and the two are still not sure if he must go ahead or not.

What is so strange about the second case is that the woman has not yet bolted from this man. I am sure if it was the other way round and the woman was the one who went to her boyfriend and told him that she was asked to have sex with a stranger 3 times to enhance her prowess in bed, that man would have left her by now. 

One thing that I noticed  about this couple is that they have very good communication than many couples. You might be interested to know that it was the woman who brought the issue on social network to find out what other people's views are.

But do these charms really work? Was it coincidence that the man who slept on a bed with charms under it reacted the way he did? Was it the charms that triggered his "other side", the bad side when he was a good person all along? Africa is a land full of mysterious beliefs which to some cultures seem like things made up by suspicious minds who can not accept certain things to be naturally induced.

There are stories of people who have charms on their bodies or in their bodies which repel any magic that you try to use on them and many people may conclude that is what happened with that man.

Almost all cultures believe that witchcraft exists. This kind of juju can be just another type of witchcraft and people who use these charms rarely know that they are practicing witchcraft. How else can one explain how having sex 3 times with a total stranger can boost your sex life with your wife or girlfriend? There is definitely no scientific explanation for that and we can only conclude that it is witchcraft and these people are witches even if they don't know that yet.

Image courtesy of africa freedigitalphotos.net

PLAYING HARD TO GET

Two women who have been good friends for a long time are now bitter enemies and it is all because of a man. I know what you think but it’s not like that. Women have been known to snatch men from other women including from their friends or even from their own sisters, but this is a unique case.

One of these women was approached by a man who liked her and wanted her to be his lover but she was reluctant to accept him. The man persisted for four months trying to win this woman’s heart but she refused. The reason she gave was that the man was not her type.

Then everything changed. When the man saw that he was hitting his head against a brick wall, he tried his luck on her friend who immediately accepted his proposal. The two are now lovers and everything seems to be going so well for them.

This has infuriated the other woman who now claims that her friend is not a good friend because she has accepted the man she had refused. I think this is ridiculous. She did not want that man and they have never been lovers. He was just trying to be hers but she turned him down which meant she did not like him. Her friend on the other hand saw something in this man and accepted him.

If two women walked into a shop to buy clothes and the first one does not like the green silky dress which the attendant suggested to her, that woman would not surely be mad and accuse the otherof being a bad friend for buying the silky green dress she turned down. I know women are confusing sometimes and it is hard to read what is on their mind but if this happened, my immediate thought would be “psychiatric”.

Women sometimes play hard to get. They pretend that they do not like you but what they are actually doing is they are trying to learn something about you. They may even want to buy time so that they get a second opinion from other people. Naturally, women also like being chased by a man because it makes them look valuable.

However, sometimes they push the game too far if they do not know the limits. In this way many women have lost good men. Traditionally, our women are taught that they must not be loose and that they must take time to study a man before accepting him. It is easier for a man to study a woman’s character than it is for a woman. A man can take months observing a woman before making a conclusion that she is the right one.

On the other hand, a woman can spend a lot of time admiring a man but without any guarantee that the man will approach her and ask her to be his lover. This is why when a woman is abruptly approached by a man she has not been expecting, she will find it difficult to immediately say “yes”. She needs time to think about it and to ask other people what they know about you.

A wise woman leaves clues for the man when playing hard to get to let him know that she is just caught by surprise and will have to think about it. The way you look at him, answer back and even your handshake can assure the man that what you need is just time.

Naturally, it is awkward for a woman to propose love to a man. If she wants to do that, she must use accepted standards to avoid being called a loose or desperate woman. It is this same fear of being called desperate which drives some women to play hard to get. They believe that a woman is not supposed to say “yes” immediately when aman asks because it devalues you. I don’t think this is acceptable if you already know the man.

I know that most men believe that if a woman is quick to say “yes” then she is probably loose and will say yes to any man out there without hesitation. While this may be the truth with some loose women, I don’t think it is the same with every woman. Women are just like men. We all have the same feelings when it comes to love. We do not want to fall in love with a wrong person.

We all admire certain individuals from the opposite sex. The only difference is that when a man likes a woman, he will make plans of catching her attention. He also has the liberty to observe the woman before he makes his move. Some men start by being friends with her before they speak their mind. Some men will use her friends who will convey the message to her and her response through them will make him realize if his bid will be a success if he went along.

Some men use a straight forward approach. They will just go to a woman and tell her how they feel about her. I guess if women had the guts, they too would use some of these but many of them just sit and wait. A few brave ones have tried to use the “friendship first” and the “through his friend” approach and it has worked. Even though we believe that women must not approach men who they have fallen in love with, I think they do that every day but they do it differently from men.

If the woman in the story above was playing hard to get, then she did it the wrong way. You do not use words like “not my type” when you are playing hard to get because that line is an ego killer. Telling a man that he is not your type is like slap in the face. We men tend to shrink when a woman tells us that we are not her type. This has almost the same effect like when a woman tells a man that his penis size is small.

I am not saying that women must not play hard to get. They can play as hard as they can but they must know the rules and how long the game is supposed to last. Playing hard to get is a lot of fun. It is like playing a challenging video game. It also makes a man feel special because it gives him the false sense of being superior among other suitors. It makes a man think that his woman is a hard nut to crack and other men won’t find it easy with her even this is far from the truth.

On the other hand, this woman may have set her goals very high on what type of man she wants. That is the only reason she could have said he was not her type. But one thing that women do not realize is that if you want to get the type that you want, you must first become that type yourself.

 Image courtsey of stockimages / freedigitalphotos.net,

CHEATERS

The woman tried to push the security guard aside so that she could get inside the building. The security guard pleaded with her and told her that he cannot allow her to enter the building. The woman was relentless. She tried to shove the security guard for the second time.

"Please let me get inside. This man has made me and the children suffer for such a long time. I want to see him." the woman shouted. 

"Madam, I can't allow you to get inside," the guard pleaded with her.

"Why are you protecting him? Do you know what I have gone through with this man?" the woman said. The poor guard looked at the gathering crowd in desperation. It was evident this is not what he was trained to handle. Preventing an employee's estranged wife from entering the work place to beat up the husband was something that he was probably doing for the first time. 

This incident happened at one of the corporate buildings in Ndola. It was early in the morning around 07:30 hours and it was on Monday. 

"What's going on here," I asked the newspaper vendor who was selling newspapers near the entrance to the building. 

"Her man hasn't been home from Friday." the newspaper vendor told me with a huge smile on his face. "Bwafya mudala."

I would have loved to see how this was going to end but I was rushing to the office.  My guess was that it did not end up very well for the husband. The woman was poised to cause confusion so that his husband's infidelity could be seen by everyone. He may have been given a torrid time even by his superiors for dragging domestic issues to the workplace.  

The woman surely had no choice but to go and pluck him from his workplace because after spending the whole weekend away from home, the man still had to report for work. This was probably not the first time he had slept outside his matrimonial house.

This woman was not bad looking. This is one thing that I have noticed with cheaters. Most of them leave their beautiful wives and opt to go out with not so good looking women and they all give a silly excuse "She takes good care of me more than my wife does."

This has become a universal lie. We hear this lie told over and over on TV including on programs like Jerry Springer and Cheaters.   

Alright, maybe with some men, this could be true. We cannot  rule out the possibility that some women fail to sexually please their husbands. Some men confide with friends even before they are caught cheating that their wives are not giving them what they want sexually. 

Take for instance this newly married 28 year old man who posted on a Facebook page seeking for advice. "I am married just for 2 months and my wife is telling me that I demand for too much sex from her. Where can I go? She has made it clear that it is one day per week for me to have sex. I am starving." 

The responses to this man's complaint were overwhelming and many people felt that the woman was not being fair. It is normal to feel sorry for this guy but would it be justifiable if he started sleeping away from home if he found a woman who can give him sex as much as he wanted? 

Many prostitutes know that men like sex so when a married man goes after them, they assume he is "starving" and so they will give him all the best sex they can think of so that he can come back again. 

A few years ago I witnessed the following incident. It was Saturday morning, around 10:00 hrs. I had just paid for my DSTV subscription and decided that before I go home,  I should check out my friends at "the Club" and play a game of pool. 

We were about fifteen people and all of us were men except for one woman who was at the counter in the company of two men. One of the men was sitting on the bar stool with the woman standing between his legs. It was all lovey dovey but at the same time evident that the woman was a prostitute. Her skin was bleached and she was drank.

From the look of things, they must have spent the whole night at a Night Club. Then the man's phone rang. He looked at the caller I.D  on the screen, said something to his friend and handed the phone to him. The  friend went outside with the phone for about 2 minutes before he came back.

After 3 minutes, the phone rang again. The man gave the phone to his friend again who went outside to answer it. This went on for about 4 times in a space of 30 minutes and many of us in the bar started noticing that something was wrong. 

Then all of a sudden, a beautiful woman, wearing a citenge wrap-around and a white top walked in. This woman's entry attracted the attention of everyone present. Everyone stopped talking as she walked to the counter where the two men and the prostitute were sitting.

"Who is she?" the woman asked the man. Luckily for him, the prostitute was not standing between his legs any more but was standing next to him. The man looked surprised and just gulped and swallowed spit as he saw his wife. He was not expecting her to walk in like that. It was a typical scene from a Cheaters episode only that this time there were no cameras following the woman.

Then something amazing happened. A guy just comes out of nowhere. He grabs the prostitute and slaps her lightly in the face. He then drags her out of the bar while shouting at her. "How many times have I told you not to talk to strangers bitch? Do you know this man you were talking to? Come on let's go home. That's why I don't like moving with you cos you don't have manners." 

This caused the man at the counter to gain some courage.  He told the wife a fake story of how his car had broken down and they couldn't leave it in the night. Then  in the morning they called someone to fix it. The wife wasn't convinced but she was not sure of what to do because of the awkwardness of the situation. She just asked her husband to go with her home. 

Five minutes later, the guy who had whisked the prostitute outside came back inside with the man who was caught by the wife. The man thanked him and gave him a K50.00 for saving his day. Apparently, the man who had slapped the prostitute did not even know her. He told us he just saw an opportunity to make a little money. 

To crown it all, the prostitute came back. Someone asked her, "My sister, so that man was not yours?"

"So what?" she replied sarcastically, "after all we have concluded all the transactions." 


Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici, freedigitalphotos.net

BROKE MEN SHOULD STOP HAVING SEX

 One lady wrote on Facebook that “Men who are broke should stop having sex”. This update caused a lot of debate with many people condemning her. This was not a surprise because I too felt this was a ridiculous statement. It was probably the understatement of the week.

However, some women were excited and jumped on her bandwagon, applauding the statement as a true fact. They mentioned that lazy men should not be tolerated. Men should be able to work hard and provide everything that a woman needs.

Yes indeed, the fact that a man should be the provider is correct and all men are naturally born with that instinct. That however does not mean that all men are rich. Some are poor and not because they want it to be that way but because of circumstances that surround them. I have seen poor men who have families and they provide for their families in their own small ways.

Are these men not allowed to have sex?

And how does sex tie in with being broke? I guess only a prostitute can think like that. Sounds harsh?  According to the Oxford English Dictionary, prostitution is the practice or occupation of engaging in sexual activity for payment.

Prostitutes turn sex into a business venture. Their bodies are on sale to anyone who has the money to pay for that service. They sell sex to hundreds of different people and are prepared to perform any sexual act as long as the client pays accordingly. A prostitute’s mind is focused on money before giving anyone sexual favours. It doesn’t matter how handsome you are, you cannot get free sex from a prostitute.

Broke men cannot have sex with a prostitute.

Men who have sex with prostitutes usually do not have any respect for such women because they consider them as sex objects and to some extent they even regard them as retards. Even the prostitute herself is mentally affected. A common argument against prostitution states that selling sex is harmful because it involves selling something deeply personal and emotional.

One woman posted in Yahoo Answers: “My husband wants to pay me for sex. Would this make me a prostitute?” Different answers were given and I have selected a few that I thought were interesting answers

“No, you’re still married.”

“Technically, yes. That would be prostitution.”

“Yes that would make you a prostitute. A weird one actually.”

“This is a strange situation. I don’t think you should do this if no feelings are there which sounds like there aren’t.”

“Sex for pay? Yes that does make you a prostitute. The fact he would think you are the type of person says heaps about how he thinks of you. How you react says as much about how you see yourself too.”

Many people would argue that being paid once for sex is not prostitution unless you take that a full time occupation. If a man takes a gun and walks into a bank and robs the bank, that is robbery if it was the first and only time that he did that. The same can be said of prostitution. If you sell sex once, you have engaged in prostitution.

However, there are relationships in which men would give a woman some money but not necessarily as a fee for the service rendered but just as an obligation. In this situation, a man can come and have sex with that woman even when he does not have money. He can give the woman some money when he has some and not demand for sex. That is basically a sexual relationship. A relationship based on consensual sex.

Men have been paying for sex for a long time and they still do. The reason some men do this is because they do not want to be in a relationship that will bring commitments. They would rather pay for sex from a prostitute because a prostitute will not bring her emotional luggage in their life. As soon as a prostitute is paid, everything is over. Even if you saw her with another man, it will not pain you.

Sometimes a prostitute may become pregnant and will not take the man to task and be responsible for that child because she knows that the man only paid for sex and not to be given a child. Many men would not accept a child from a prostitute because they know she has slept with several other men. This is the same as a businessman ordering merchandise and the delivery van being involved in an accident. The businessman will not responsible for that accident and loss of merchandise.

Women who sell themselves are regarded lowly in society. The reason is simply because it is repulsive to think that one woman can entertain so many people sexually. Some prostitutes get rich through selling their bodies sexually but they still remain with that negative tag. Most of these women, even when they are married still have that trait of prostitutions in them. Even if they have completely given up the profession, people will still regard them as loose people.

There are two types of women, those who are married and those that are not. If a married woman denies sex to her husband because he is broke, that woman must ask herself why she got married to him in the first place. She must also ask herself how many times she has paid for sex.

Every single woman must focus on finding a responsible man than thinking about using her body to earn some money. Men earn money without selling their bodies (although there a few that do that). What I know is that the oldest profession (prostitution) is here to stay and only the rules are changing.

Image courtsey of graur razvan ionut freedigitalphotos.net