Brown: earth, stability. Green: prosperity, fertility, abundance, hope, healing. Purple: spirituality, wisdom, royalty. Red: vitality, passion, bravery, confidence. White: light, truth, purity.
Depending on how you want to wear your waistbeads, you can measure yourself above your navel, just at your navel, or right above your hips. Use a tape measure and measure against your bare skin without sucking in your stomach. You shouldn’t hold the tape loose nor too snug. Think about where you want to wear the beads.
Blue: healing, harmony, insight, truth. Brown: earth, stability. Green: prosperity, fertility, abundance, hope, healing.
In some cultures, these waist beads signify purity and are only to be taken off by her husband on their wedding night. Traditionally, waist beads are considered private, not to be seen by anyone except the wearer’s partner. They possess an intimate appeal that provokes one’s desire for another.
You can wear your waist beads all day, everyday. They may dull after time from showering, if that happens just polish them with a cloth. If you do want to take them off from time to time you’ll want to tie them loosely from the beginning and then just pull them up and off like a shirt.
For beginners, we recommend wearing 1-3 strands. The more you get used to wearing waist beads, the more strands you may add.
White: Another easy guess, white waist beads were worn to symbolize purity, humility, innocence, and light.
They’re everywhere, but “they’re not for show,” said Bowden, owner of Creative Waist Beads by Journey Armon (her children’s names) in Oakland. “In African tradition, waist beads are meant to be worn under clothing,” she said. “They’re for you. It’s personal.
In history these beads are recorded to have been worn as early as the 15th century to serve many celebratory purposes including rites of passage. Black – Power, protection, silence, and elimination. Blue – Loyalty, peace, hope, healing, patience and truth. Brown – Earth, grounding, and stability.
Benefits of Waist Beads- It helps with weight loss. You may use waist beads to chart your weight instead of getting on a scale every day to know whether there’s a gain or a loss.
Boosts Sexual Attraction and Satisfaction.
Heritage and pride.
Maturity.
Purple mala beads
A very spiritual color, purple is linked to the third eye chakra and can enhance your intuition during meditation. Amethyst: enhances meditation, develops spiritual abilities, clears negative energy, helps sleep issues. Sugilite: develops spiritual awareness, increases intuition.
Yellow Beads. Yellow symbolises the gift of prophecy, referred to as isithunywa in Zulu. Healers will use a combination of prophecy, prayer and water during their rituals.
A black bead signifies Protection, strength, good fortune, vigor and health. Yellow beads: It is associated with stability and energy flow.
DIY Waist Beads - What You’ll Need:- Small colored Christmas Beads or glass beads.
Flexible plastic or cloth tape measure.
4 strands of nylbond or similarly strong beading thread (each around 80-100 cm in length)
8 Large Chevrons or similar glass trade beads.
A mix of smaller Venetian Trade Beads.
Waist beads are a piece of jewelry worn around the waist or hip area. Originating in Africa, waist beads are traditionally worn by women as a symbol of waist size, beauty, sexuality, femininity, fertility, well-being, and maturity.
It is perfectly fine to bathe, shower, swim, exercise, and have sex in traditional African waist beads strung on cotton string. Once tied on securely they become an intimate extension of you, and you do everything in them. Just be mindful not to yank on them while pulling your pants down to use the bathroom.
It is said that the beads shape your body and keep the waist small and hips accentuated. It was (and still is) used as a measurement tool. The beads do not stretch, so if/when the waist beads start to feel a little tight, it’s a sign that there was some weight gain, and vice versa.
Yoruba waist beads are also called Ileke, Jigida, and Lagidigba. They are worn mainly by females, from the littlest to the oldest. These beads are made from small pieces of glass, nuts, wood, or metal which are pierced, strung, and threaded together.
Traditionally, waist beads are worn to celebrate every woman’s journey from birth to transition, therefore, there is no minimum or maximum age.
Waist beads are traditionally worn under your clothes, low on your hips. Waist Beads by Sewra™ suggests measuring right below your belly button using a measuring tape to allow for more accurate sizing. Clothing brands use various size standards and are not reliable for gauging your size when ordering waist beads.
Disadvantages of waist beads
They can cause infections if they are worn for a long time without proper cleaning or changing entirely. Many women use waist beads as spiritual protection and attract love, which can lead their partners to break up with them if they find out the true purpose.
Pink – Care, beauty, love and kindness.
Adult men and women can participate in a three-day ceremony devoted to Orula. After completion, they are allowed to wear a green and yellow beaded bracelet which signifies good heath and a long life.