By Morenike Taire

Forget brains, beauty and preparation- if a woman wants power, then she needs to dress as though she wants power, or that she already has it, and plans to keep it. Lipstick spoke to two of the leading Lagos-based style consultants (male and female) with widely varying ideas, and they both agreed on the following:-

Keep it straightforward

Keep frills and frumps completely minimal. Avoid unnecessary styling, and ensure the attention is on you, and not on your clothes.

Use strong lines, and strong colours

Nothing wrong with bright red lipstick and manicured, long talons apparently. Gone are the days when a grey or black suit stood for power. Bold, serious colours are now the order of the day. There’s just a word of caution: do not mix colours.

The less skin, the better

Keep the cute cleavage and the luscious legs out of sight if you want to be taken seriously. There’ll be lots of opportunity to show them off on vacation.

Use strong accessories

Your scarf, your bags, your shoes, your hats. Go for understated drama, and spend a little fortune on them if you must. It will be worth it.

Understate your jewellery

Remember, it is not how bogus you look that matters, but how mysterious. Use quality but deliberately understated pieces of jewellery. This would include your watch. Always wear a watch and carry a proper pen.

Keep the hair Clean

A woman with short hair is considered more “professional looking” than one with long hair. Severe cut hair such as bobs are also considered more savvy looking than curls and waves.

Let your Home Nurture, not Kill you!

In this postmodern age, we have overcome many home infrastructure issues. It is now possible to vacuum  the house, put food on the table, do the laundry and  the dishes in less than an hour- thanks to more advanced vacuum cleaners, washing machines, dishwashers, microwaves ovens, and so on.  No doubt, many busy housewives look forward to the day when we will have machies to make the bed, iron the laundry and even take out the trash and wash the trashcan.

But while we wait, many new dangers are lurking in the corner, waiting to launch themselves into your home and you need an entirely new set of awareness skills to counter them. Look out for the following:-

Chemicals in your food.

If you live in the rural area, you would have quite a good idea of where your food is coming from. Large expanses of arable land  in such areas ensure individuals can cultivate vegetables at least, around their dwelling places. Where they do not, small scale agricultural activities ensure food is not coming from far off and is fresh.

The urban dweller  however, tends to be more oblivious of where his food is coming from and would probably buy fresh food  from far away or tinned/otherwise conserved food. She is more likely to get commercial, mass produced food laden with all kinds of chemicals and steroids.

Tips:

You may have limited space, but just a little space in your back garden is all you need to grow vegetables, corn, and so on for your own consumption.

Be  wary of fruit/vegetables that are bigger/greener/redder than usual.

If possible, buy palm oil  and  other vegetable oils in the supermarket. It might be a little more expensive, but you can easily trace the source.

Chemicals in the air

With increasing rates of cancers, including lung cancer, amongst the non-smoking population, it is clear that the air is becoming as dangerous as any other means of contacting carcinogens (cancer causing agents).

Tips:

Avoid insecticides like a plague, even if in a net. Find other means of combating mosquitoes and other insects and if you must use insecticides, use it in the morning just before leaving the house so particles can be cleared while the home is empty.

Use inverters and other sources of alternative energy rather than generators that use fossil fuels (diesel, petrol, kerosene, etcetera). But if you must use a generator, keep it far away from doors, windows and the house in general. If there is not enough space, do not leave the generator on overnight under any circumstances.

Do not allow smoking in the home under any circumstances, particularly if there are young children in the house. If you are a smoker yourself, take urgent steps to quit. Do not be diplomatic about anyone smoking in your house. Just make sure they do not, period.

Do not cook or fry food with windows and doors shut. Avoid burning food.

Chemicals in your water

The general idea is that water is fit for drinking as long as there are no germs in it. The reality is that heavy metals and other chemicals  that can contaminate water pose a much greater problem than germs. In this day of water dispensers and bottled/pure water, chemical toxins are a real and present danger.

Tips:

Boil and filter. The good old fashioned way, yet it might be the only way with loose government controls.

If you have a borehole, ensure the water is tested for heavy metals before using to cook. Also have water tanks tested.

Toxins in preserved food

This is the leading cause of ill health in modern Nigeria, according to doctors and unknown to many. Few foods are preserved without chemicals known as preservatives.

Tips:-

Roast nuts at home. Nuts generally have the tendency to grow a toxic kind of fungus that is highly carcinogenic. It is the same kind of fungus found in dried fish/meats that have been kept for too long, as well as chocolate.

Never buy a dented tin if there is food inside, and never store an open tin with food inside in the refrigerator. This is an old one, but still true.

Avoid ‘everlasting foods’ such as noodles, sausage and so on. They make sure your own system does not last.

Chemicals from the helps

You are not there to see to the day to day running of your house, so you delegate to domestic help. Not bad, but it is important to look out for certain things, including domestic practices. Ideally, set standards on certain things.

Ensure plates, cutlery and cups are properly rinsed after washing in order to avoid residues. Where food is concerned, opt for soap rather than detergent. Read  literature on washing liquids.

Wash children’s toys with mild soap as well, preferably the same soap with which you bathe the child.

Xpressions

Government should stop whining and get to work

Over the years, Nigerian politicians in general  seem to have acquired a firm reputation for seeing reality and firmly looking away from it. It becomes a much bigger problem when government at its highest levels, as it  has consistently displayed infantile tendencies, both as individuals and as groups. Government has shown unflinching determination to look away from the issues, while making a song and dance over issues which either do not exist, or have minimum importance in the scheme of things.

They have become traditionally reactionary, communicating with the people only when there is trouble, or when a rumour has been spun  that requires debunking. The best press secretaries, therefore, are the ones that are more into image laundering than image building, and the ones that can not keep shut the can of worms cannot last.

If the presidency has nothing else to tell the Nigerian people other than excuses on why just about nothing is working then, it should just keep mum. It is far more honourable.