Tuesday 18 July 2006

Tone blind

Beat the heat

Were now experiencing a major heat wave in Europe. The mercury is playing on the 90s Fahrenheit and on some places would exceed a hundred.

We can expect 35 Celsius in Utrecht which just about 40 kilometres from Amsterdam such that it is a blessing to be in an air-conditioned office.

Those have their dangers, only last week a good 5 days were expended in finding source of an outbreak of Legionnaires disease, which end up in the cooling towers of Post CS, the building temporarily housing Stedelijk (Town) museum. That resulted in a fatality.

Generally, I wear a suit to work, but never in this kind of weather, my full African garb consisting of a white guinea caftan with trousers to match and a traditional Yoruba cap is good fashion against the heat and the sun.

Whereas this offers an opportunity to dress up or dress down depending on how you look at it, the amount of exposed flesh observed on others sometimes leaves much to be desired.

The tone of a raccoon

As I waited at the bus stop, there were signs of what that sun and more at done to many; people who take off their sunglasses and you see the facial equivalent of a panty-line the barely tanned eyes in the collage of a face that makes the people look like happy raccoons.

Somehow, everyone wants a tan of sort regardless of the risks, even if they have slapped on gallons of sunscreen.

The converse is the tone, darker skinned people who attempt to lighten up using chemicals that are probably better tested on gullible humans than helpless animals.

A lot can be done to tone skin and other exposed parts of the body like the legs and the lower arms.

Knuckles, Elbows, Knees all darker

Summer however affords the opportunity to dress light, expose more and in effect reveal the stubborn dark parts that the creams could not lighten.

This lady in front of me as I tried to board the bus had been at it, and her elbows so contrasted with the general skin tone one would have thought those were tailored patches.

Another stubborn region is the knees and the knuckles; I would not make too much fuss about palm prints.

Vitiligo might be the haven for some, but the uniformity of skin discolouration would leave one rather suspect of that diagnosis, but with goes without saying that when these issues come up, Michael Jackson is a full appreciation of bigger considerations as your pigment deserts you.

Reference

Skin Bleaching vs Tans

Skin Bleaching/ Lightening & Its Dangers

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