đź“żHow to wear and adjust your waist beadsđź“ż

Waist beads are spread across the African continent. Depending on country or culture they have different meanings and a different symbolism and heritage......and sometimes even a different way of manufacturing.

At Waistbeads Berlin we sell Zambian handmade waist beads, so the waist beads that you can order with us are manufactured in the Zambian traditional way. With Nigeria seemingly having the highest population of emmigrants from the African continent, naturally the most wide spread representation of African waist beads outside of Africa itself, will be embedded within Nigerian cultural understanding of waist beads. Our observation has been that in West Africa, the most commonly used string for waist beads is made of cotton. The waist beads are mostly customised to fit the size and shape of your hips, waist or stomach.

 

 

In Zambia the most popular type of thread is actually made of nylon. Cotton threads are quite rare, in fact I have never seen one made of cotton thus far. As such I thought it would make sense to show how to wear and adjust your waistbeads seeing as ours are made of nylon and not cotton. 

As for wearing the waist beads, it is in fact quite simple. Once you receive your Waistbeads Berlin waist beads they will still be bundled up to resemble the shape of a bone as in the image below.

 

 

To open and uncoil the waist beads you need to look for the golden coloured screw closure and unscrew it. Start by detangling the loose end if need be and simply pull on the coiled string holding the waist beads together. Once fully uncoiled, your waistbeads should stretch into an impressive 1,80 - 2,00 meter beaded nylon thread.

Take the beaded thread and start wrapping it around your hips or waist and let the ends of the string closure meet. If it sits comfortably, feel free to close the waistbeads by screwing together the two ends and if not, you can adjust the size to suit you as described next. 

To adjust the waist beads, make sure you are not currently wearing your waist beads. If you still have them wrapped around your body in one way or another it would make this whole process a little more difficult. 

Once they are off your body, choose any of the two screw closures with the nylon thread knot inside of it. Push back the closure and expose the knot to cut it off, or simply cut the nylon thread immediately behind the closure, in case the beads are too tight to create enough space for your scissor blades to fit.

Once you have removed the screw from the thread you can remove as many beads as needed to make the waist bead fit around your body. Make sure to hold the string and ensure the beads don't fall off when handling the waist beads. Simply check two or three times if the size and fit feels more comfortable and if not, keep removing excess beads until it feels comfortable. Also, keep the excess glass beads for a fun DIY project or home made craft.

Once your waist beads fit you the way you feel comfortable simply thread the nylon string back into the closure, tie a smooth knot, and cut off the excess thread. Then push the closure over the knot (make sure not to forget this part other wise the knot will keep scratching against your hips and will irritate your skin) and consider yourself a newly crowned #WaistedQueen.

 

 

For our more visual queens we also have a video showing you how to adjust your waist beads here and how to wear your waist beads over here.

 

 

If you are still struggling, please feel free to get in touch with us and we can help you figure it out together over a video call if necessary. (Don't worry...we got you!)

 

Love and Light

Your Waistbeads Team

 

#WaistedQueen

#WaistbeadsBerlin

 

Leave a comment