Category Archives: homemade beauty products

D is for Dry Hair? Don’t Despair! Do It Yourself Care!

Posted on September 11, 2012 | Leave a comment

Dry Hair?  Don’t Despair.  Your hair — your “crowning glory” – is the first thing people see when they look at you (I believe your shoes are the second thing – but that’s a whole ‘nother post!).  You want your hair to reflect all the good things about you – your natural health, your natural beauty, your radiance, your elegance.

First things first – Cut it!  Get your hair back into healthy condition by getting it trimmed and rid of the split and dead ends.  That will get you going on the right track.  To keep on the right path to a beautiful head of hair, don’t use your brush when your hair’s wet.  Invest in a good wide-toothed comb and start at the bottom of your hair no matter what length it is and don’t get stuck in the knots and pull – just gently use your fingers to unravel the clumps.  Also invest in a good soft bristle brush, maybe a baby brush, and use it gently to distribute natural oils through your hair without causing any breakage.

Cut down on the frequency of washing your hair – if it’s dry, no more than twice a week!  Check the ingredients in your shampoo and eliminate the ones that have harsh ingredients like alcohols or sodium laurel sulfates.  A soft and gentle shampoo made out of some healthy oils like almond or jojoba mixed a little bit of pure castile soap (Dr. Bronner’s is great) will keep your hair clean and shiny and healthy. Just say NO to harsh chemicals that can harm your hair!

Mayonnaise and avocados have lots of natural oils that nourish your hair from the outside.  Skip the California sandwich of avocados and mayonnaise (with sprouts in LA!) and instead, put those ingredients on your head.  Cover and sit for 15 minutes, then rinse it out with warm water.  Shiny!

Healthy fats equal healthy hair.  Deficiencies of essential fatty acids (EFAs)  can result in unhealthy hair (and body)!  Polyunsaturated, omega-3 fatty acids are the best healthy fats for ensuring your internal health and protecting against the damages caused by free radicals which not only lead to heart disease and cancer, arthritis and asthma — they also result in dry, damaged, lifeless, brittle hair!  Fish oils such as salmon and cod liver, and nuts and seeds are essential to your diet for your hair and for your health.

Drinking water is a key to natural health (see Previous Post – D is for Drinking Water).  Water will help you to get rid of unwanted fat and flab, and will help to flush toxins from your body.  Think about moisture when you want healthy hair and drink a good amount of water daily! 

Here’s a great recipe to restore the shine and moisture to your hair:

YOGURT HAIR MASK -

1/2 c plain yogurt
1 T freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 egg
Blend all ingredients in a bowl until smooth.  Shampoo as usual and apply the yogurt mixture to your hair and scalp. Leave it on for about 15 minutes.  You can cover your hair in a hot towel (put  a moist towel in the microwave to heat it up) to help it be absorbed and keep it from dripping all over. Rinse your hair out completely with warm water, and follow this with a gentle conditioner.

 

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Posted in Diet, homemade beauty products, natural beauty

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U is for Unusual Uses for Everyday Items

Posted on August 8, 2012 | Leave a comment

U can Use a lot of what U have on hand for unusual uses for your natural health and your natural beauty.  We all have toothpaste, right?  Well, it’s not just for brushing your teeth.  Toothpaste is a great way to fill in the holes in your walls or to take the sting out of insect bites.  Toothpaste also works great on drying out pimples and will remove yellow stains from your nails!

Here are 25 or more tips for unusual uses for everyday items:

  1.  Olive oil can be used to moisturize your cuticles, remove eye makeup and unstick a zipper.
  2. Cut a tennis ball in half and make earphones out of them – cutting down on noise can cut down on stress!
  3. Vinegar can make your sweaters fluffier.  Pour a few capfuls of it into the rinse cycle and your cardigans will feel soft and lush.
  4. Vinegar also adjusts the pH levels in your hair which will degrease oily hair.  Shampoo.  Rinse with a ¼ cup of vinegar, and rinse again.
  5. Baking soda has a multitude of unusual uses.  You can use it as a deodorant under your arms to absorb odor.
  6. Baking soda can be made into a paste to exfoliate your skin.  3 parts baking soda to one part water.  Gently massage with circular motion and rinse.
  7. Baking soda rubbed into a wet scalp controls dandruff.  And baking soda can ease the pain of indigestion (1/2 tsp. BS in 1 cup of water).
  8. Lemons have Lots of uses.   Use it for your natural beauty when you need to lighten up ugly age spots.  Put lemon juice directly on the spots for 15 minutes.  Rinse with water.  Repeat daily until the spots are spotless.
  9. Lemons can be made into a natural hair spray!  Cut up a lemon and boil it in two cups of water, reducing the liquid to half.  Cool and put in a spray bottle.  Lemon spray keeps your hair in place and smelling fresh.
  10. Looking to smooth out your lips and get rid of the dry, flaky skin there?  Use the sticky side of clear scotch tape.  Or apply a little piece of clear tape to your nail to test the color of nail polish and then remove it!
  11. Got marshmallows left over from a camping trip?  Use them in between your toes for a pedicure.
  12. Vaseline – perfect for waylaying color disasters on your skin when you’re dyeing your hair or polishing your nails.  Just apply around the perimeter of your nails or scalp and wipe away any drips and drabs.
  13. Yogurt is one of our “go to bests” for natural health and beauty.  (See previous post - Yogurt – On You, in You, and All Over You) Today’s tip is cooling off burns with yogurt – burn your forehead with a curling iron?  No problem!  Put some yogurt on it to speed up healing.
  14. Need a little more room in your pants after a binge?  While you’re dieting and exercising and drinking more water to lose the weight, you can expand your pants with a rubber band attached to your waist button, put through the buttonhole and secured on the other side.
  15. Spoons are very handy!  Especially if you want to curl your lashes.  Cup the spoon over your closed eye as close to the lash line as you can.  With one of the fingers on the other hand, press your lashes using the outer edge of the spoon and hold.  Voila, curly lashes!
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Posted in frugal beauty, homemade beauty products, natural beauty, Natural Health

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H is for a Head of Healthy Hair

Posted on July 17, 2012 | Leave a comment

Hair – for some of you, it’s your crowning glory.  It moves and shimmers and shakes and shines.  And then there’s the rest of us.  Hair problems are among the most common for many of us naturally beautiful women.

Do you have spiky, perky short hair?  A long and silky mane?  Is your hair curly, straight?  Oily or Dry?  Turning gray by the minute?  No matter what you’ve got on top of your head (unless you’re bald, of course!), you’ve got to take care of it.  And we can do it naturally and frugally.

First things first – You’ve got to get your hair trimmed to get rid of the split ends.  Don’t brush your hair when it’s wet; instead use a wide tooth comb.  Use the softest bristle brush – it can help distribute natural oils through the hair without breaking it.  If you’ve got dry hair, washing less often, once or twice a week, will keep it healthier longer.  Look for products without Ammonium Laureth Sulfate or Sodium Lauryl Sulfate which dry hair.  Cut back on blow-drying and straightening – let your hair go natural every so often.  Drink lots of water to keep your whole body hydrated and amp up your consumption of healthy foods, especially the good fats.

You don’t have to look any farther than your kitchen for great products to make your hair healthy.  Avocados are full of natural oils that nourish and revitalize your hair.  Mayonnaise will make your mane manageable.  Take these two ingredients, avocado and mayonnaise, and mix them up and slather them on your hair!  Cover your hair with a shower cap.  Keep this homemade mask on for 15 minutes (or sleep all night), then rinse with warm water.   See A is for Avocado – All About Hair! Rinsing your hair with Apple Cider Vinegar will add luster and shine.

Naturally beautiful and healthy hair begins inside with nutrition – the water we drink and the food we eat. Like everything else connected with your natural beauty and your natural health, taking care of yourself will make you shine, inside, outside, and on top of your head.

 

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C is for Coconut Oil – The Cosmetic Cing of the Citchen!

Posted on July 10, 2012 | Leave a comment

Coconut Oil could possibly be the best all-purpose product around for your skin and your hair!  We’ve said time and time again that your kitchen is full of fabulous fixes for natural health and natural beauty.  And coconut oil is tops on the list!  Coconut oil is anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial, and also anti-fungal so it will help clear up acne and prevent further blemishes

It fights against those dreaded free radicals caused by aging, pollution, smoke, sun and radiation and environmental pollution.  Coconut oil helps to keep the skin from developing age-related liver spots, and other skin discolorations that come with aging and over exposure to sunlight.  Coconut oil helps to keep the connective tissues supple and strong to prevent your skin from wrinkling and sagging.  It can even help the skin to restore damaged or diseased skin.  The coconut oil is absorbed into the cells of the connective tissue and into the skin and limits the damage that excessive exposure to the sun can cause.  This king of oils has also been studied and shown to aid in stress relief, maintaining cholesterol levels, heart diseases, weight loss, increased immunity, high blood pressure, dental care, bone strength, and assist in better digestion and metabolism.

And if that’s not enough to convince you to run out and buy some coconut oil (organic is best!), then how about coconut oil for your skin (I slather it all over my face morning and night!) and for your hair.  To make a nourishing, enriching and moisturizing homemade hair mask that will also help to repair split ends, all you need are two ingredients – Coconut Oil and Water!

Wet your hair.  Put a small amount of coconut oil into your hand and rub your hands together.  Run your fingers through your hair, making sure to cover everything from the scalp to the roots with the coconut oil. Cover your head with a plastic bag or a shower cap and secure it with a clip.  Wrap your whole head with a towel and sit back and relax.  Put your feet up.  Close your eyes and think wonderful thoughts!

Keep the coconut oil mask on for about 15 minutes and then rinse it out with warm water. Your hair will be lustrous, shiny, and fabulous!

 

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Posted in Anti-aging, Diet, homemade beauty products, natural beauty, Natural Health

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B is for Bananas for Beauty – Brilliant!

Posted on July 5, 2012 | Leave a comment

Bananas are a great aid for your beauty – both inside and outside.  They are terrific sources of potassium, which is important for decreasing the risk of stroke and for lowering blood pressure. One banana contains 467 mg of potassium and only 1 mg of sodium.  Eating one banana a day can help prevent high blood pressure and protect against atherosclerosis, the build-up of deadly waxy plaque inside your blood vessels.

If you’re looking for an easy way to help with your weight loss, know that foods with lots of fiber – like bananas – can help.  Bananas are also low in fats and low in calories and have a lot of water content so they fill you up and keep you feeling satisfied longer, and they have a high water content to help you feel fuller faster.

Bananas are also great for your outside natural beauty.  They’ve got lots of vitamins and natural oils that moisturize and repair damaged hair.  You can smush a banana right into your hand and rub it all around your hair.  For extra power to get those locks looking luscious, you can add both mayonnaise and a little olive oil, or dribble in a little honey (liquefied in a double boiler) and mix it all up for a terrific hair mask.

Liquefy the banana in the blender with the mayo and olive oil.  If you’re hungry, stop here and eat it and then do it all again!  If you’re want to deep condition your hair, put the mixture on your hair and let it sit for about 20  minutes, rinse with warm water.  Bananas can be troublesome to get out of your hair and you don’t want to be picking banana bits out, so rinse it more than once to get all of the mixture out.  Shampoo and then rinse again using a detangling conditioner if necessary.

Your hair will be moist, shiny, and looking great – especially if you have brittle, dry hair that needs revitalizing.  Your hair’s your crowning glory and when it looks bouncy and alive, you’ll feel naturally healthier and more naturally beautiful (without having to use any detergents or harsh chemicals — just natural beauty right out of your frig!)

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