Chinmayee Manjunath

One of my favourite memories of summer spent with my aunts and cousins is of all us girls being rounded up to have our hair oiled, one after the other. My mother and her sisters would sit in a circle with steel bowls of castor and coconut oil next to them. And we would sit on the floor in front of them, chatting, laughing, swapping stories. It was a ritual I loved, and one I keep trying to recreate each time I see my family. Sharing a beauty routine felt intimate, and special. I never got my hair oiled in front of my friends – it was something we shared with family.

Recipes and remedies were passed down from one generation to the next. After a day spent out in the sun, I still turn to a simple facepack of cold yogurt mixed with honey, which a cousin swears by. My mother taught me to mix castor and coconut oils for the hair and I will use nothing else. Body scrubs are made from besan, sugar, honey and almond oil, and face scrubs out of ground almond and cream. Even today, I’d rather mix my own concoctions than use a store-bought hair oil, face pack or body scrub.

And even today, I turn to years of conversations with my mother, aunts and cousins for little bits of kitchen wisdom on how to deal with everything from an upset tummy to broken nails. It feels both comforting and wise, to listen to what my family has set store by, and keep those little bits of tradition alive.