Africa's unique wedding beauty baptism
At grand weddings in Africa, the bride often has to undergo an extraordinary beauty baptism before she can walk into the sacred hall of marriage hand in hand with the groom. Some cosmetology techniques may seem incredible but have been passed down to this day and are widely loved and admired by local people.
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1. Fragrant beauty Before marrying, Shimba girls living in Namibia use red ochre, milk grease, vanilla and resin to synthesize a spice, and apply them on themselves. They are bright in color, and red is particularly prominent among them, symbolizing the bride's strong vitality and fertility after marriage. At the wedding, the bride wore a newly made dress sprinkled with perfume and orange juice.
After arriving at her husband's house, the bride followed family custom and asked the bride's family to apply milk grease from the groom's cows on her arms, breasts and belly. This ceremony is the continuation of the beautification of the bride's body before entering the bridal chamber, and also symbolizes that the groom's family has fully accepted the kidnapped bride.
2. Henna beauty In the Atlas Mountains in northern Morocco, the ancient Berber people live. Before Miss Berber was married, the mother would collect some henna, stick the petals with saliva on the face of her daughter who was about to leave the house, and apply the juice of the henna on her daughter's legs. This was a must-have ritual. Berbers believe that by doing so, the bride will become beautiful and sexy, and will drive away all evil and ghosts.
3. Full Body Beauty The Swahili people live in the Ramo region of Kenya. Kiswahili weddings are often filled with various cumbersome etiquette, which seems to be a reversal of the imprisonment they suffered before marriage. Many of these projects are to dress the bride beautifully and sexy. A few days before the bride gets married, her body has to undergo a series of pre-marital treatments.
First, except for hair, all parts of the body below the neck are shaved cleanly; then, after massaging, the bride is smeared with cocoa butter and perfume from sandalwood; the bride's limbs are also soaked in henna juice, and then female relatives draw some patterns on her body.
On the day of the wedding, an elderly woman called Somo (an indispensable character in the wedding) was responsible for teaching the bride how to beauty and how to make men live quickly. On the wedding night, Yingmo often hides under the bride and groom's wedding bed, so as to help the couple successfully complete their initial couple life when they encounter any problems in bed.
4. Shura beauty The Karo people located in the hinterland of Ethiopia are a very small ethnic group and very poor in terms of material wealth. In order to find a good family, Karo women have to put a lot of money on their bodies. After entering puberty, they often have to endure severe pain. They perform some surgeries on the front body and abdomen and use blades to cut some cuts in the skin. Then, they insert a large number of bamboo sticks into the wounds and make them appear in a certain pattern. In this way, after the wounds heal, the carefully crafted patterns will remain on their chests and bellies. According to Karo men, this will be very tempting for men.