HARMATAN OF 18
Fruits,
brushstrokes of colour, and harmattan life hacks to the rescue.
Harmattan has finally begun to sneak in its long arid claws into our lives. The windy air laced with the smell of dust and time recalled. Of chapped lips, cracked ashen skins and a caricature ghost town.
I have always possessed a somewhat ambiguous relationship with harmattan, one fuelled by both love and dread. Love for the cold air and the nostalgia it brings and dread, for the way the weather seems to be apparently designed to unleash hell on my skin and hair. As a first-grade dry-skinned human, it feels like my skin is made of cardboard most times, but at its worst during harmattan. So, over the course of my life, I have learnt through various trials, how to drift through harmattan with far less calamity than usual.
If for anything, the cases of health issues
that flit in with the season is something to look at. From the flu, to common
colds, to fevers in their varying extremities, taking good care of our body is
where to start. A healthy diet with ample fruit and vegetable consumption
should not be neglected and sealed in with generous water consumption for
adequate hydration. Trust me, your bladder business would be worth it. And you
can always add in vitamin supplements just to be extra sure.
Then comes the important aspect of oils, if
you’re a dry-skinned person also, you would know how life saving the right body
oil is to “un-cardboard” that skin. For normal skin types depending on how
harsh the weather is at your location, I would recommend baby oil, but I fear
it may not suffice for dry skins, in which case denser oils like glycerine,
castor oil, and petroleum jelly would be a saver. I personally use a mixture of
shea butter, olive oil, coconut oil and castor oil, to achieve well moisturised
and glowing skin during this period.
For the lips, I endeavour to exfoliate
regularly with a homemade sugar and honey mixture. For moisturizing, I use
mostly balms and gloss.
My hair is always braided into a protective
style and covered with a scarf when I go out. And I regularly spritz it with
water and moisturise with leave-in conditioners because let’s face it hair
breakage this season, is real.
Clothing is a tricky business because this
early into the harmattan, we are blessed with chilly mornings and nights, and
afternoons with the sun overhead melting our skins. So, I ordinarily wear a
cosy jacket in the mornings when I go out, with a light weight blouse
underneath, so when the sun begins work, I take off the jacket and wound it
around my waist or fold it into my bag until it gets chilly at night-time
again.
To protect the feet, good cotton socks are
needed, and generous amounts of petroleum jelly on the sole of my feet to keep
it moisturized and to prevent it from cracking endlessly. Having a pedicure this
period is something worth doing if you’re not always one to spend time and
money pampering your feet.
So there we have it my harmattan life hack,
for the season. I hope you ride this harmattan out smoothly.
Here I was
thinking that with school work out of the way I would have more time to create
content and post but alas, clearly that has not been the case. But nevertheless,
I shall continue to try.
A hi nya, with
love, x E
Photography
|| Ene Ijato assisted by Titus Zhiri
Styling || Ene Ijato
1 comments
Your oil combination is a good one for this type of season. As for Petroleum jelly I don't much recommend it even though the individual has a dry skin because it's not a body cream neither is it a moisturizer. It's a sealent which helps create a thick barrier between the skin and it's environment. It doesn't goes into the skin like oil do.
ReplyDeleteIndividuals with dry skin can mix their cream with the oils you've said and it would work for them.
It's nice knowing your blog through a friend.
Eager to hear your thoughts!