Vanity & Striving After Wind

I'm going to get so busted for posting this. Enjoy it while it lasts.

In the Oaxacan heat, makeup is optional, hairstyles impossible. You choose your clothes based on armpit breatheability and sweatproofocity. Honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way. However, being intrinsically female, I do enjoy a little sprucing up here and there. After encountering Holly's mutant detached doll head I decided what I've been missing all these years was a head-full of multicolored hair braids. 

My original prototype.

Upon further consideration, Bronnie and I agreed that one tastefully placed hair braid would be enough for us. (We've challenged each other to see who can keep theirs longer. Unfortunately, you can't just unwrap them; you have to cut them out. So I guess it's really more of a contest to see who's the first one brave enough to cut themselves a bald patch.)

Though feeling rather glamorous, we realized more had to be done. The combination of sun, salt-water, and ages of walking had taken a toll on our hair, skin, and feet. With no spa in sight, we realized we would have to invent our own. Holly, Bronnie and I put our heads and refrigerators together and created a Natural Beauty Night for the ages.

What was originally going to be the three of us escalated rapidly. Suddenly, we had candles, incense, ambient lighting and music, a pot of Moroccan mint tea on the stove, and more than a few friends (yes, male and female alike) laying on the floor awaiting their 'treatments'. Avocado and tea tree oil masks for the face, banana and egg treatments for the hair, and assorted other food products were smeared on everyone and everything in sight. In the middle of everything, an epic thunderstorm rolled into town. You can't pay for that kind of luxury!

Sandra & Yanira, glowing anew!

Surprisingly, the questionable beauty treatments worked wonders. We all went home buffed and polished, with bits of banana stuck to our necks and smelling faintly of guacamole. All in all, a smashing success.