Lifestyle Choices

Essential oils are absorbed through the skin and penetrate its deepest layers. The main property of all essential oils is that they are highly antiseptic, though at different degrees, depending on the essence chosen. They help speed up the removal of old skin cells and thus encourage the production of new cells.

Essential oils help muscles to regain a healthy condition and aid the soft tissue to get rid of excess fluid and waste materials or, if required, to restore lost hydration. They also act as blood regulators, improving the blood circulation. With the help of pressure points on nerve centres, the essential oils help to regulate the nervous system, making it more alert to impulses and quicker to react. (more…)

While drinking plenty of pure water will help to keep your skin hydrated and facilitate the release of toxins, you can also take advantage of the purifying benefits of water externally through the use of saunas, steams, and special cleansing baths. A daily bath or shower removes surface perspiration and toxins. But you don’t want to dry out your skin or upset the natural protective acid mantle. Use gentle vegetable oil soaps and lather up only where you absolutely need to. A thorough scrubbing with warm water and a loofah or rough washcloth is all you need over most of your body to remove dry skin cells and refresh your skin. Be sure to install a water filter on your shower if your tap water is chlorinated. Your skin and your hair will be much softer and you won’t be absorbing chlorine, which is a potent toxin. (more…)

In the busy lives we lead today, people often shower rapidly. We can benefit greatly, however, from the luxury of relaxing in a bath. This time can be a real beauty treatment — for your face, your body, and your soul! To get the most out of your bath or shower and to appreciate these relaxing minutes of your day, here are some suggestions:

1 The ideal temperature for showering or relaxing in your bath without becoming drowsy is about 95°F (35°C). The steam is very good to open the pores of your face for a thorough Cleaning. (It’s also therapeutic if you have a cold with congestion.) (more…)

Meditation has been practiced for centuries in many spiritual traditions as a way of purifying the mind. Basically, meditation involves quieting the mind so that the mental chatter that fills your waking consciousness can be stilled, if even for a moment. Through quieting the mind, you cultivate a sense of calm, and come to know yourself in a deeper way. Meditation helps you to become aware of habitual patterns of thinking so that you can make better choices about how you are living. Meditation is an excellent way of relieving stress, because when the mind is calm, the body naturally follows. Many people experience feelings of deep peace and clarity through meditation. Experiment with the different meditation techniques that follow and find those which appeal to you. (more…)

There are three kinds of permanent hair colourants: vegetable dyes such as henna, metallic dyes such as those used to gradually cover grey hair, and the aniline dyes or oxidation tints, which include most of the colourants used professionally in salons.

The Vegetable Dyes

Henna is the best-known, since its use dates back thousands of years. Taken from the Lawsonia plant, which is indigenous to Africa and Asia, henna varies in colour depending on which country it comes from. It can be strong orange in colour, as Moroccan henna, or a deep red, as the henna that comes from Iran — the most sought-after in the world. The plant is harvested, dried in the sun, and then crushed into a greenish powder, which is what one puts on the hair. It coats the hair shaft’s cuticle a reddish colour. (more…)

Your poor feet! Walking, running, dancing, jogging, basketball and pogo sticks, stiletto heels and pointy toes—do they ever get a rest from all the abuse they’re forced to take? The tips below will help get your feet looking—and feeling—their very best, day or night. You don’t have to visit a fancy beauty salon to benefit from these footwise suggestions.

1. For swollen feet that are really beat, soak in cool salt water for five minutes. Dry carefully and moisturize.
2. To step up circulation, soak feet for five minutes in shallow footbath or tub of warm water; switch to cool, and keep soaking for an additional five minutes. You’ll be ready to dance the night away.

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One of the best things you can do for your feet is to walk barefoot. Wearing exercise sandals is the next best thing. When your feet are free of shoes and hose they relax and stretch; exercise sandals are designed to let the feet do this. They follow the natural contour of the foot, imitating and slightly exaggerating the effect of walking barefoot. This is great for toes as they grip and then relax from the gripper bar with every step. But exercise sandals are just that—meant for exercise, not all-day wearing. You can tire yourself and develop bulky muscles in the calves if you wear them too much. (more…)

Water is the finest solvent in the world. It dissolves dirt on the outside of the skin and carries nutrients to and wastes away from the cells inside. Many a fine-skinned grandmother claims her exquisite complexion is the result of washing with pure water and soap. And health spas have long relied on the magic of water—hot and cold—mixed with mud, herbs, the essential oils of plants, or carefully selected mineral salts to smooth skin, relax tense muscles, refine pores, and revitalize bodies. But there is a real art to hydrotherapy. To make the most of bathing for health and beauty, you need to know the many ingredients that go into it and why each matters. (more…)

Bathing should be a pleasant ritual that should treat your mind as well as your body. There are a number of useful prebath techniques and tools. They are important because they can prepare your skin and body for taking the plunge and ensure you get more benefit from bathing.

A Loofah

A dry, rough-textured sea gourd that you soften by wetting it, the loofah is rubbed against the skin to slough off dead cells and to increase circulation. You can buy loofahs in their natural state (about fifteen inches long) or sewn into gloves and bands of terry cloth to be used as scrubbers. (more…)

BEGIN BY STAYING OUT OF THE SUN

To preserve your skin from premature aging, in addition to the constant use of a sunscreen on your face as part of your everyday skin care, you should understand the art of sunbathing—that is if you want to tan at all. Ideally, of course, you would be far better off pale.

As we’ve already said, the sun is your skin’s worst “ager.” It has been proved that exposure to ultraviolet light brings about permanent fundamental alterations in the genetic material of skin cells and encourages the process of cross-linking. These changes are cumulative and irreversible. Even when sun-exposed skin from an arm is grafted onto a protected area such as the abdomen and left there for years, it still remains older- looking and darker than the skin surrounding it. (more…)

One of the simplest and most effective ways of changing your appearance is to change the color of your hair. As we get older, the color of hair tends either to fade or to go darker, so that a once shimmery golden mane or deep mahogany tresses can become lackluster and dull. One of the best ways of remedying the situation is with a color boost. Hair coloring these days is effective and reasonably priced and can look even better than most natural hair—provided, of course, it is done correctly. Otherwise it can end up looking like a burnished haystack.

There are two categories of hair colorants: permanent colorants, which enter the cortex and cannot be washed out, and the temporary and the semipermanent, which can be used to highlight and intensify your own hair color but won’t alter the cortex.

The Temporary Colorants

These are the easiest to use. They coat the cuticle of the hair with color that washes away with the next shampoo. You can get temporary highlighting shampoos and color rinses in a great variety of colors that don’t disturb the cuticle imbrications. Most of them have a shine- promoting pH, too. But what you can do with them is limited, for while they will darken the hair—say from blond to red or to black—they are really designed for minor color changes only. If you try to go too many shades away from your natural color, they tend to streak and give uneven coverage. They also cannot make your hair lighter than it is, because they have no action on the cortex, where the melanin granules are —they merely coat the outside of the hair shaft. (more…)

Permanent Waves

Waving and straightening hair involve pretty much the same process. First you break down the sulfur bonds connecting the protein molecules by using a highly alkaline solution containing a chemical such as ammonium thioglycolate. Then you rearrange the softened hair into the structure you want it to have. Finally, you use a peroxide neutralizer to halt the chemical action of the bond-breaking chemical and to encourage the new shape to set. Since the neutralizer is acidic, it also helps close up the imbrications in the cuticle and encourages the hair shaft to become strong again. Finally, your hair is treated with some kind of conditioner to restore some of the damage done by the process.

In the case of the permanent, the reshaping of hair takes place while it is wound tightly on curlers. With straightening, the reshaping takes place while it is being combed, stretched, and encouraged to give up its natural tendency to curve. (more…)

5 EXERCISE - FOR AT LEAST 15 MINUTES

Exercise - for at least 15 minutes a day - helps to stabilise your blood sugar levels and reduce your appetite.

It seems that the less we move, the more we eat - and vice versa. The human body needs physical activity to work properly, just as it needs water or vitamins. The right kind of exercise will increase muscle and boost the rate at which you burn fat for up to 15 hours afterwards. A pound of muscle burns many more calories a day than a pound of fat, so every pound of fat you lose, and every pound of muscle you gain will further increase your body’s long-term ability to burn fat.

To kick-start this process, start by doing 15 minutes exercise a day, or 20 minutes five times a week, or 35 minutes three times a week. Go for it! The short and long-term benefits will far outweigh the initial strain. (more…)

Herbal Conditioner for Oily Hair

Don’t think oily hair needs no conditioning; it needs it as much as dry hair, and a monthly treatment will ensure that your hair keeps its bounce and lustre.

75 ml (6 tbsp) rum

75 ml (6 tbsp) strong yarrow tea

3 egg yolks, well beaten

Liquidise all ingredients together. Wet the hair well. Section the hair and apply this mixture to each section, using cotton- wool pads. Rub into the scalp and hair. Meanwhile have a strong infusion of yarrow and rosemary tea warming on the stove. Dip a small towel into it and wring it out, as hot as you can bear. Wrap it around your head. Cover with a shower-cap to keep the heat in. Have another hot towel ready to replace the first one as it cools, the aim being to keep the hair warm to absorb the conditioner. Try to keep the treatment going for an hour. Finally, wash out with a good shampoo and rinse with yarrow tea. (more…)

A head of beautifully clean, bouncy, shiny hair is indeed an enviable asset. Once again, in order to achieve those smooth, shiny locks, you need to eat foods that are fresh and healthy — plenty of fruit, vegetables and salads. Drink lots of water and make sure that you get enough sleep — eight hours each night will do wonders for your hair. Regular shampooing, conditioning and brushing will further serve to beautify it and is well worth the effort. Old-fashioned beauty tips like adding egg to shampoo as a protein conditioner for dry hair, and lemon juice in tepid water as a final rinse for oily hair, ‘kill hold good. And rosemary, nettle or yarrow tea rubbed into the scalp will stimulate hair growth.

The vast array of shampoos, conditioners and setting lotions available today can be confusing. The general trend, however, is to the natural shampoos that are now on the market. Take a close look at the ingredients to find a product which is suitable for your particular hair type. To give the shampoo that extra something add a herb tea or infusion, eg chamomile, rosemary or nettle. (more…)

Hard Skin Softener

Mix a tablespoon of coarse sea salt with a tablespoon of almond oil, and rub vigorously into the hard, horny areas. Then hop into a bath, adding a little more oil to the bathwater, and soak the well-rubbed areas for at least 10 minutes. Then rub the hard skin away with a pumice stone. After your bath soothe the worked area with a good cream or lotion.

Mask for Horny Skin

This is particularly good for roughened hands and heels.

2-4 cups soapwort, flowers, roots and leaves, steeped in 2 litres (8 cups) boiling water

250 ml (1 cup) pawpaw, mashed OR

2-3 slices pineapple, mashed

half an avocado

250-500 ml (1-2 cups) bran

4 scented geranium leaves, minced (more…)

PATCH TEST

Before starting your herbal treatments always do a patch test. Dab a little of your preparation on the pulse point of your wrist or in the crook of your elbow. Leave it unwashed for 12 hours to see whether you have an allergic reaction to it. Always be sure of the identification of the herbs you are using and if ever you are in doubt, consult your doctor or skin specialist. Many people are allergic to a wide range of ingredients and I urge you to tread with care and always test your blends and mixtures, lotions and salves before using them.

CLEANSING

There are literally hundreds of creams, lotions, tonics and soaps available on the market, enough to confuse anyone. I like to keep my cosmetics simple and effective and the following is a list of natural facial cleansers, fresh and delightful to use, and available to all at very little cost.

Rainwater

The softest and most beautiful water of all — perfect for washing the face and hair. Make a plan to catch some, in a big clean basin, next time it rains. (more…)

No matter what your skin type, you can make all-natural skin care treatments at home—for only pennies! Most of the following “recipes” use ingredients found in your kitchen. (Remember that if you are allergic to eating certain foods, using them on your skin will probably cause problems as well. Use common sense when making homemade treatments.)

Cleansing Masks

Ready to give yourself a facial? Cleansing masks are a good way to help skin with too much or too little oil. (more…)