Meet Jada

Some like to call them “colorful strands of femininity.” They’re handmade strands, usually made by women for women of any and all body types and sizes. Traditional Ghanaian culture wears waist beads to specifically signify femininity (as well as wealth and practical usage such as an anchor for a menstrual cloth).

For some women they would wear their beads under their clothes – which only allowed their lover to see them as a meaning of sanctity and purity between the two. For some, the beads are a means of seduction to provoke desire. Sometimes, wives would use the rattling of the beads to communicate their fertility.

Waist beads were a rite of passage for some cultures. Mothers would ornament their daughters with beads during their first menstruation as a ceremonial rite of passage into womanhood. 

Each time new waist beads were inherited, it symbolized a healthy life, growth, and maturity. 

Both traditionally and in modern times, women will wear waist beads to get/keep their bodies intact. 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. 

Speaking of intention, the colors of the beads also have very specific significations. These meanings may vary from tribe to tribe, culture to culture, and they’re open to interpretation, but traditionally:

Blue: knowledge, healing, peace, truth, harmony — a cooling color symbolizing faith, devotion, deep insight.

Green: prosperity, hope, harmony, healing and ripening, generous, humble.

Red: self-confidence, vitality, sexual energy, passion, courage.

Yellow: wisdom, knowledge, clarity, increasing awareness, and calming nerves.