Female condom gets new lease of life

29 Mar, 2015 - 09:03 0 Views

The Sunday News

Robin Muchetu Senior Reporter
THE female condom (FC2) has been very unpopular with women as compared to its male version which has been distributed in bulk in Zimbabwe. However, some enterprising hairdressers have given it a new lease of life by using its oily lubricant as hair moisturiser. The abundance of the female condom has seen seemingly creative citizens using the lubricant found in the condom to do an array of things which are isolated from the conventional use of the FC2.

Asked why they were using it as hair moisturiser, hairdressers said it was because the oily lubricant contained some hair stimulating products that make hair grow fast.

However, Dr Owen Mugurungi, the head of the Aids and TB unit in the Ministry of Health and Child Care, said there was no scientific basis to the new use of the FC2.

“The lubricant is just a natural oil without anything. It doesn’t stimulate hair growth, it is a lie that these hairdressers are spreading. It has no anti-fungal properties so it cannot heal ring worms, the same applies for brake fluid; there are no healing properties,” he said.
A tour around the city’s hair salons showed that it was indeed true that the oil was a hot product.

“We use the oil in the condom to moisturise the hair line which is usually prone to hair breakage and the hair grows for real,” said a hairdresser, Thobekile Ncube.

One hairdresser even had a consignment of the female condoms in her drawer and said she gives them to her clients when they come for a hairdo.
“Some of our clients who have hair breakage issues come to us for advice and I am not shy to show them the FC2 and what we use it for and these clients are willing to use it as they want to maintain their beauty,” she said.

Another hairdresser said the oil in the FC2 can be used to cure painful knees by aged people.
“Ogogo just have to rub the oil on their knees regularly and this reduces the pain of arthritis. People must actually try it,” she said.

Further research from these hair technicians opened more uses of the female condom that are far from imagination.
It is believed that the oil has healing properties that sees ring worms clearing in no time.

“People who get ring worms can just rub the condom on their faces or any part that has ring worms and they disappear over time, it does work wonders,” said Nomalanga Maphosa, a hair specialist.

She said it should be used just like the ordinary skin moisturiser and one would actually see the ring worms fading away.
For those that may not have skin conditions, the oil can also be used regularly and is said to give very soft, smooth and clear skin according to women in the hair business.

“This gives you smooth skin I tell you, it works better than all these creams that are available on the market that purport to give you pimple-free skin,” one woman claimed.

With the new wave of skin lightening creams in the country, women and some men have tried to use them on their skins to enhance their complexion to a fairer one. However, once one bleaches their skin they become very sensitive to heat and the condom oil, they said, was just the right thing to prevent this.

“Abagcobayo can use the lubrication as their moisturiser as it protects against the rays of the sun that have a negative effect on the bleached skin. They are shielded from being damaged by the sun,” said one hairdresser.

She said the oil offers good protection as the skin would be very thin and needed to be protected from the heat.
While women have been the biggest users of the lubricant in the female condom, men have not been left out too.

The oil can be used as a shaving “cream”.
“What we do is rub the oil on to the shaving stick and you can shave well, it gives a smooth finish and one will not even know that you shaved with condom oil, it is good,” said Maxwell Msimanga, a man who claimed to be using the oil.

The female condom satchet contains about 1,2 to 1,4 grams of lubricant. The lube is polydimethyl siloxane fluid also known as Silicone oil commonly used on male condoms.

The silicone is useful in a number of cosmetic products such as antiperspirant.
Silicone oils, also known as silicone fluids, are the most commonly used lubricants that are applied to male and female condoms during manufacture.
A very wide range of different silicone fluids is available but condom manufacturers generally use polydimethylsiloxanes.

Online research states that Silicone fluids are inert, safe and have minimal effect on the properties of the latex film.
They are not, however, widely available as personal lubricants in many markets. They also tend to be relatively expensive.

Peer educators who distribute the condoms at public institutions and salons expressed their dismay saying the hairdressers were abusing the condom.
“This is abusing the condoms, we give them to distribute to their clients and now they have diverted the use and really it is not fair. We want to save the women from HIV and Aids but they are more concerned with beauty than health. It is sad,” said Mrs Nelly Ngwenya.

She said they had to desist from wasting the life-saving contraceptives.
Many women, however, said the condom was ugly, huge and a turn-off when one wanted to have sexual intercourse.

They said it was so unattractive that women were better off sticking to using the male condom which is smaller and discreet.
“Why does it first have to warm up before you engage in sex when the male condom is just like instant coffee, you put it on and you are ready to have fun,” said one woman.

The female condom requires that the woman wears it and waits for over 30 minutes while it warms up to a woman’s body temperature.

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