Beads Not Just for Beauty

The new fashion trend known as waist beads, are used to enhance the look of one’s sexual appeal when wearing certain clothing styles.

No one really knows about the true meaning behind them and why lots of cultures are offended or upset by this fashion trend.

In different Caribbean or African cultures waist beads were used as a sign to show a young girls coming of age into woman hood, much like Hispanic cultures and Quinceanera’s and their symbolism for the event.

They were also used as trackers for menstrual cycles, weight loss and weight gain, as a signification of beauty and femininity.

In African cultures they believe the beads have to be made of glass, the crystals and small added accessories must be real material nothing plastic, they believed plastic is toxic and can block off certain things in spiritual practices.

Each waist bead are hand crafted to fit perfectly to the users waistline, and aren’t meant to come off unless there’s a major weight gain or loss.

With this trend most women that don’t know the meaning behind them used this as a way to over sexualize themselves and add to the things they wear, like the idea of having the straps of their thong showing above the waistline of their pants.

People who partake in or know about the culture of waist beads tend to detest this fashion trend because women with different ethnicity, used them by replicating the beads with other materials beside glass or organic compounds of the accessories, so that they can claim it as their own.

Per social media to African and Caribbean cultures it came off as offensive or disrespectful to their practices and the history that follows this trend.

They also created new names for it and some tried to claim it as their personal idea, when someone else who partakes in that cultural belief tells them otherwise some of the women who aren’t educated on the topic tend to ignore or take the credit from the culture itself by saying things like “No one walked around with those on before me,” or “I was the first one to start the trend and create it.”

So the next fashion trend that involves something unique that you’ve never seen or thought of, google it and research to see the meaning or symbolism behind it, it may have interesting history or may have historical background or it may simply be a new trend.