Hair Care

I know I am deviating from Skin Care suggestions and moving into Hair Care.  I was coming to this eventually, but a little later.

Today, I have been requested to consolidate all my suggestions, which I made in a forum on Facebook, on hair loss and email them to a friend on the forum.  So I thought, why not post it on my blog as well before the Facebook posts get lost in ocean of  'posts' there?

My suggestions on Facebook were in response to a lady who is desperately seeking solution for sudden hair loss....."Any tips to control sudden hair loss?"

Again, thanks to my grandmother, I have many tips up my sleeves for this problem.  However, whether or not hair loss comes under control depends on two major factors....(1) how disciplined are you in going through the regime, (2) how healthy are you from inside as well.

I have mentioned time and again that the beauty and health of skin and hair depend almost 80% on our internal health factors. In case of sudden hair fall, that does not come under control within 3-6 months, a complete medical check is imperative.

It is no rocket science to understand that for good health of skin or hair or insides, balanced diet is extremely important.  We all have our weakness in terms of tastes and eating habits.  There is no harm in indulging once in a while, but keeping a check on what we eat, how much and when should be the unwritten rule to maintain well grooming.

Do you think actors and models get their skin only from cosmetics?  Or do you think they are the favorites of God and are born blessed with beauty?  Neither!  They slog for their looks.  It is their full time job.  They are very very disciplined about quality and quantity of their food and drinks. In their interviews they say, "...I love hogging on chats...." or ".....butter chicken masala is my fav..." or "......my visit to Juhu is incomplete without eating vada pau there...."....well,  rest assured these events happen once in 12 or 24 or 36 or 48 or 60 months.  And we think..."wow! she hogs on chats, but still look at her skin..."!!  

Don't be fooled...................

Winter Pains.....

Winter.....a killer for skin health. 

Winter....a season, during which, we don't feel like drinking much water due to cold atmosphere our body is placed in. This naturally dehydrates our system from inside.

Winter.....a season, during which, moisture in atmosphere condenses due to low temperatures making the air dry - this leads to moisture being drawn out of our bodies into the atmospheric air with the process of Osmosis denying our body of hydration, making it necessary for increased intake of water.

As a result, our bones, our muscles, our skin, our hair do not get their share of hydration - in turn, this leads to arthritis-like pain in joints, cramps in muscles, brittle hair and nails, dry/cracking/scaly skin.... 

In a situation like this, it is extremely important for us to be careful and be sure of the cosmetics, moisturisers, soaps we use to treat skin dryness.
The amount of chemicals used in moisturisers and soaps that are advertised as being suitable for Winter use, is actually pretty alarming!

As can be  seen in this image, these are the ingredients of two very popular brands of Winter Creams. There is mention of a few fruit extracts but the percentage of these extracts is usually in single digits.  Creams are mainly made of plenty of chemical preservatives, thickening agents, perfumes, skin pores blockers and grease.  Imagine if these creams have additional chemical to act on your pigments to make your skin 'fairer'!  Ultimate effect is.....soon after washing off these creams from your skin, you get the terrible feeling of "stretch' and dryness, skin appears white and flaky, and then apply these creams back on your skin.  Result is a vicious circle of damaged skin and harmful cream!

Perfumes in these cosmetics are enough to harm the skin, sinus, lungs and brain without having to add on other chemicals.  Over the years these chemicals lead to pigmentation, for which once again we turn to chemical treatment which get into our blood stream.  These chemicals in our blood stream cause various health issues like cancer....

From personal experience over past few years, I have learnt that going back to basics is the only answer we have to escape from this harmful vicious circle.  What our ancestors did for skin's health and beauty has no comparison.  Of course, following their methods would be a lot of effort and will take up a lot of time from our busy schedules.  But there are options to this problem - home made remedies.......

Long Break...

Wow! That's a long break to take from writing Blog. The danger of taking such a long break is, people either forget or lose interest in the subject matter. July, August, September three months!! What could be the reason for staying away from writing blogs on a topic so close to my heart?......for not continuing with the blog that I started with such a lot of enthusiasim and interest?? Whole of July I was extremely busy working for college Reunion to celebrate our 25th Anniversary of Bachelor's degree graduation. Whole of August and September I devoted my time to take care of my old parents. By God's grace they have regained their health and are now self contained. So, now will have enough uninterrupted time to devote for blogging on a subject that is close to every teenage girl, young lady, middle aged woman and old aged granny. Once I have shared all that I know about skin care - which is not much I must admit - I was thinking of moving on to other health related matters......please let me know your opinion, dear Reader.

Skin Care

Whenever anybody refers to Skin Care, the first thing we look at is our face; and why not?  after all that is the first thing anybody looks at when they see us!

From time immemorial, human race has been obsessed with the quality of facial skin - especially women!  My grandmother would always reprimand me for touching my face saying "don't keep touching your face, all the dirt and rubbish on you hand will get deposited there and you will get eczema!"...or...."don't rest your cheeks on your fingers, you will get wrinkles!!"...etc...etc....

Teenagers have the worst time of all....at this age they not only have to deal with nagging of their parents, peer pressures, study stress, confusions regarding professional choices, physiological and psychological changes....they have the biggest problem of pimples and acne!! 

It feels really terrible when one of these oldies in the family shouts out at the sight of a pimple..."what have you done to your face?  Don't touch it....don't pluck it..." Ufff!!
As if the poor girl or boy has brought these pimples upon oneself out of choice!!
And then whole lot of suggestions and remedies start pouring in from all directions!!
But then, 30 years ago, I did well by listening and following all the home remedies my Granny forced me to do!

I had Chicken Pox for the first time in life at the age of 24!!  I was still unmarried at that age.  For 10 days my mother had not slept peacefully! Her worry was... "Oh, my beautiful daughter!! This girl has got Chicken Pox at such a mature age, the blisters could just as well leave a lot of scars. 

Her skin is not tender any longer, so the scars will stay permanently!  And then who will marry my child?  She will lose her beauty!!"

And then the grandma treatments started!  I must thank my Mom and Grand Mom for the killer treatment they gave me!  Even after 22 years, my skin has no signs of Chicken Pox!!

At the cost of sounding conceited, I must say, I am proud of my skin. In fact, all of us women in the family have good skin.  In fact, even at the age of 76, Mom has better skin than a 40 year old woman of this generation!

Thank you Grand Ma, Thank you Mama!!  It's not just the genes....it's lots to do with teens........

Next, I will share some valuable tips to keep having glowing skin.



18th Feb 2013.....

I know many of my friends are waiting for some of my Grand Mom's tips... In fact, I think they don't really care for my terrific writing skills, they are only following this blogspot for turning out in streets looking prettier than me!!

Okay...okay..... Let's get on with the job of keeping promises !! 

Face is one part of our body, of which, we take extra care of.  Especially, we women are almost obsessed with every minute change, or what we perceive to be un-seemable, that appear on our face.

This is not something that we have seen happening today or in this generation or in our own generation.....this has been and obsession with women since centuries.
Whenever we talk of beauty in Karnataka, the first name to come on the lips of old timers is 'Shantala Devi'!  She is one of the most celebrated women in this state's history.  She was considered as an expert in dance and music.  Most of the sculptures of highly ornate dancers on the walls of Belur and Halebid temples are inspired by or of Shantala Devi.

She was the first wife of the Great Hoysala King Vishnuvardhana (1108-1142AD)

This is a very famous sculpture - a bracket figure, of lady admiring herself in a mirror, in the temple of Belur (built in 12th Century AD) - that we all associate with Shantala.

Such depictions of beauty and grace are also found in 11th Century temples of Khajuraho and many many others across our Great 'Bharat Varsh'.

Sorry for deviating.  I was just impressing upon our obsession with beauty.

The major change in this century is.....now its not just women, but men have also joined the bandwagon.  Should we thank the Cine world for

this, or should we thank the chemical cosmetics making industry? 

 I don't mind the men in my life paying a little attention to what they look like, but would not like them to get obsessed and go overboard with it.

Sadly, when we say BEAUTY, most in our country, by default, assume FAIR SKINNED.

NO!!

By being Fair Skinned one doesn't become beautiful.
By being beautiful one becomes beautiful.

Being beautiful start taking roots in the teenage - believe it or not..

Our teenage years are most formative years in terms of attitudes, behaviours, beliefs, and of course, the looks....  This does not mean that if we have been good in our teens, we can then do whatever we like in 30's...Oh No!

The point here is that whenever there are hormonal changes in our system, we have to watch what we are doing with ourselves.

To begin with, watch what you eat!!
But first of all, Oh dear Mothers of Teenagers, watch what you feed you children!
Mothers have a way of feeding their children too much food on the pretext "....if you don't eat you will become weak...."
And then whatever the food industry advertises as good food is immediately put on the table - and this begins right from the time the poor child is hardly 2 years of age!!

We all know Quality over Quantity - this has to be the mantra of Mothers and Teenagers.

This is where glowing skin begins.............

You know, I was just chatting with a friend on mine on Facebook and he tells me...."Sunanda, your blog screams out... 'see me how my skin is..'...
I know this is a bit of "I, Me and Myself", but......

Actually it all started because a bunch of my friends keep perstering me about tips all the time so I just decided to start a blog

I needed a place, a reason, a topic to start off with... :p

Now having purged myself of all the guilt of "I, Me and Myself..." let's move on...
Heard the cliche' "you are what you eat.."? well, its so true you know.

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