Lizzie Hair Remedy Tips

Hair Product under Microscope

2007-03-22T20:03:00.000-07:00

We use Hair Products and depend on them everyday. But most of the time, we do not know what are the 'magical formula' added that may benefit or harm your hair over long period of time and they assumed that it is thoroughly washed out from your hair and scalp after use. (we all know that it is not possible sometimes and shampoos are commonly known to build up in our hair). In addition, some of the chemicals can also harm the environment as well. Let us open our eyes to see the labels next time we buy our hair products.

Imidazolidinyl urea and Diazolidinyl Urea

These are common preservatives that is antiseptic and deodorizing. On the flip side however, these can also cause skin sensitivity such as rashes and it can get quite severe (American Academy of Dermatology).

Propylene Glycol

It is a petoleum-derived humectant, surfactant, solvent and carrier that can also cause allergenic reactions. This chemical is often added into 'natural' products. The natural alternative to the humectant is vegetable glycerin, an alcohol used as a lubricating base for cosmetics.

Parabens

Methyl, Ethyl, Propyl and Butyl Parabens act as another preservatives that inhibites the growth of microbes. However, this chemicals are also allergenic to skin. There are natural alternatives to reduce the use of parabens, such as vitamins A (retinyl), C and E (tocopherol); essential oils such as sweet orange, peppermint, rosemary or grapefruit seed oil.

Cocamide Diethanolamine (DEA), Methylethanolamine (MEA) or MonoIso-propanolamine (MIPA)

These are often referred to as natural and 'derived from coconuts', but they are actually synthetic surfactants used in soaps and shampoos. In low concentration, it is generally safe but in higher concentration, it can be allergenic and possibly contaminated with nitroasmine (highly carcinogenic). To overcome this, vitamin A and C should be included in the products to act as blocking agents.

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate

This is a synthetic detergent that is widely used and can cause eye irritations, skin rashes, hair loss and allergenic reactions. This chemical is linked to the formation of nitrosamine. Again, the use of this chemical is approved due to the nature of shampoo use; to apply and wash off completely. It may also be described as coconut derivatives. A gentler alternative is to use alkyl polyglucoside and it is gentler to the hair and the skin; it is made up of sucrose, fatty acids and glucose and it is biodegradable.

Hair Scalp Oil Rub

2007-03-17T01:46:00.001-07:00

Oil Treatment can be quite beneficial for dandruff and dermatitis condition (as described in my previous post). It can help to stimulate, srengthen and moisturize. It can balance both oil and dry itchy scalp conditions and gives a healthy shine on your hair. Its function is similiar to hair conditioner except that it is applied dry before shampooing. For oily hair, scalp or fine hair, you should not use oil massage regularly.

Herbal Oil recipe

To make your very Herbal oil, you can simply use about 2 to 4 tablespoons of dried herbs with your favourite carrier oil (250ml). For dry hair and scalp, you can use chamomile, aloe vera and lavender. As for oily hair and scalp, you can use chamomile, lemon grass and mint. Put them into an air-tight container and let it stand for several days in the dark and cool place (or weeks). Then, strain the mixture and store the mixture in dark or amber glass bottles at cool place or refrigerate. This oil can also be used on your hair and body if you have left over from the hair and scalp treatment.

Shortly before use, transfer the oil into another small container (if you have prepared in bulk) and warm the oil with a hot water bath (in a cup). Warming the oil will help your hair to absorb the oil though it is also dependent on the porosity of your hair. Then, rub the oil on your hair and scalp gently. Then, cover the hair with a plastic cap or bag. You can wrap a hot damp towel around the plastic cover to quicken the process. Wait for about 30 minutes (maybe do your facial mask at the same time) before washing it off with shampoo. You can leave it overnight for deeper absorption but I do not think it is comfortable to sleep with it.

Dandruff

2007-03-09T09:36:00.001-08:00

Having dandruff on your hair can sometimes be uncomfortable and especially awkward when friends point out to you about the presence. It is good to find out more about the causes of your dandruff before you consult a trichologist or dermatologist for further treatment.

Psoriasis

The skin condition is a inflammed characterized by excessive layers of new skin are formed over the normal skin (scaling). Typically, they are well-defined patches of flaking and the scales appear silvery. The patch can get really itchy and they are sometimes triggered by stress and hormonal changes or infection. Research shows that this could be caused by abnormal immune system that produces too many T cells that triggers excessive inflammation and flaking of skin. Some even suggest that it could be an indication of heart attack risk factor.

Neurodermatitis

The dandruff is stress-related condition that resembles psoriasis. It is a skin inflammation condition where the skin tends to flake at localised area. The initial could start with as small as an insect bite. It gets worse with a constant habit of scratching due to the itch (scratch-itch cycle) and stress. As the symptoms are similiar to psoriasis, consult your hair specialist for a more accurate diagnosis and effective treatment.

Seborrheic Dermatitis and Cradle Cap

It has dry or greasy scaling and can be red and itchy. It is a condition that causese the flaking of the skin. For serious conditions, this rash can also spread from the scalp to the face. For a condition that occurs in infants, it is called Cradle cap. You can try to soothe the rash with olive oil and brush the hair regularly to loosen the flakes. For infants, you can rub the scalp gently with olive oil and leave it overnight before brushing and cleaning.

Contact dermatitis

It is also flaky and itchy on the scalp. Sometimes, it can also be blistered due to reaction with the chemicals that contact with the scalp. Typically, the chemicals are from colouring dyes, wave and relaxer treatment as well as shampoos, conditioners and styling products. The blisters may rupture and form a crust. If worsened, the skin may become dry and the scales thicken as the cells accelerate the rate of replacement. When this occur, you need to find out the source, preferably with a tichologist or dermatologist to determine the right treatment for you.

Other useful articles

1) Psoriasis

2) Neurodermatitis

3) Seborrheic Dermatitis

Hair Dryer

2007-03-01T19:05:00.001-08:00

Hair Dryer. You see them at Hair salon and most of the time, you even own one. For many years, it has always been a great way to dry and even style our hair. Though it is better to dry hair naturally, most of us found it useful especially when you need to dry the hair quickly for an important appointment or to catch up with sleep.

Settings about Hair blow dryer
Hair drying may seem like a simple task, but there are some things we should at least know in order to maximise the benefits of hair blow dryer and reducing the damage to our hair. To start with the purchase, the reccommended dryers should be between 1,200 to 1,500 watt range. More sophisticated dryers have separate temperature and air-speed controls while the more common ones combines both. Low speed and cool air setting will add fulness to thin, fine or sparse hair. It is also useful for chemically treated or weak hair. To form some curls, you can set the heat to medium with low air speed. Having a higher heat can also efficiently dry and set the hair to reduce the frizzines but should be done at medium or high speed.

To reduce hair damage, you can:-

1) Reduce Heat
High heat setting should not be used too frequently on your hair as it can stress and damage the health of the hair. Cool air setting on hair blower is more preferable option if you need to blow dry your hair on a daily basis. Keep the blow dryer in constant motion to avoid over-heating certain portions of the hair.

2) Use Hair-Protectant
Use hair-protectant such as leave-on conditioner or hair serum to protect your hair strands. Also use them regularly so that it can protect against strong sunlight in a long run.

3) Cut down on Hair-Blowing Time
To save energy and hair stress, towel dry your hair before you start the hair blowing business. To further reduce the hair damage, cut down on the blow drying time. It will give unneccesary stress to your hair if you try to dry your hair completely with the blower. It is reccommended to blow your hair till it is partially dry.

Beer gives great hair body

2007-02-21T23:16:00.000-08:00

I believe it must have been exciting trying vinegar on your hair and noticing its results on your hair. The next thing you can find in the kitchen to put on your hair is beer. Yes, it is the beer that often results in beer belly when you drink too much. For hair experts, beer treatment on hair is not a big secret. But for hair novice, this is something really interesting to know.

Just like vinegar, beer can help to remove residue from the hair. The sugar and proteins in beer are great hair volumizer as it makes the hair feel thicker. In addition, it is also great as a hair detangler. If you are thinking about the pH, beer is said to have a close pH to our hair, which means that it is less damaging.

Application method
If you are scratching your head for ideas on how to put them on your hair, some suggest that you should apply use the beer on your hair as the last rinse after shampooing. A less messy method is to put them in your spray bottle to spray over your hair after shampooing. Alternatively, you can also add the beer on your hair while shampooing, though many would share that the beer will vapourise and leaving with a more bouncy hair-look. If you run short of beer, champagne can also be used, giving the same body-effect on your hair.

Other related articles

1) Remedyfind- Beer

2) Natural beer rinse

Vinegar shines your hair

2007-02-15T23:01:00.000-08:00

Hair conditioning has become part of our lives as its benefits is widely known and often it is used together with the shampoo. For convenience, conditioners are also included in the shampoo. There were some who suggests to condition your hair more regularly than shampoo, especially if you frequent swimming in high chlorine-containing pools. In this post, I would like to focus on the use of vinegar on our hair. Hope you can test it out and give me your feedback.

Vinegar is not only beneficial for health when consumed, it also helps people to cope with oily hair and in addition, it makes your hair shine and helps to remove all the old residue from shampoo, conditioner and even hair spray.

As vinegar gives of a strong smell, you might like to take some measures to handle it properly. Before use, dilute the vinegar with water 1:1. Wet your hair with water before you pour the vinegar on your hair at the sink. Then rinse with water again and shampoo your hair. If you like to prepare and contain the diluted vinegar in advance, you can store it in a glass bottle.

Many would reccomend the natural vinegar and I totally agree with them. To play safe, start with apple cider vinegar. For creamy alternative, you can use salad dressing (eg Miracle Whip), but use this once a week; simply apply the cream to dry hair and leave it on for 30 minutes before shampooing thoroughly.

Caution:
Be extra careful not to let the vinegar gets into your eyes. It can sting really badly. But if that happens, rinse your eyes immediately with lots of water and seek the doctor if the pain persist. Your eyes are more important than your hair!!

Other related materials
1) Natural Hair conditioners

How to count your Hair loss

2007-02-08T18:02:00.000-08:00

Detecting hair loss is essential to avoid scarring that may lead to permanent balding on localised areas. Some times, the cause of hair loss could be due to the weight of the long hair, while others could be due to stress or even serious hair conditions (eg. lichen planus).

Hair counting method
To count your hair lost, you can collect your hair lost in your combs, hair brushes, bedroom, bathroom, toilet. You should remove all hair strands in that area before use to ensure that the hair belongs to you.

Collect the hair strands each day over 3 days. Examine the hair and separate those with the hair roots intact from those without. Those without the hair roots means that the hair loss is due to hair breakage and not true hair loss; True hair loss should include the hair roots. Divde each by three to obtain the daily rate of hair breakage or hair loss.

The daily hair loss should be within 50 to 100 hair strands but for the above method, if it exceeds 50 strands, it may indicate possible hair loss problem and you should consult the specialist for further diagnosis on your hair. As for the hair breakage, if there are more than 30 hair strands per day, you should also consult your doctor or hairdresser.

Counting on the possibility of excessive Hair Loss
Please note that this above method is only one of the ways to check for possible excessive hair loss and breakage and not a confirmatory diagnosis. But it is definitely one easy way to determine if you should spend the dollar to consult the hair doctor for advise.

Treatment for oily hair

2007-02-01T17:58:00.000-08:00

I have been looking for a natural formula. It is a natural remedy for oily hair. One of the many agrravating factors that leads to hair loss is due to oily hair. Typically, it indicates the person's lacking in vitamin B in their diet. While waiting for the effect that works from inside out with a good protein diet, there are some therapies you can begin working on your hair.

Lemon Juice
You can start by finding lemon in your kitchen. Squeeze the lemon juice over a filter. You don't really want the lemon fibre to be stuck on your hair and cause some awkwardness when your friends see them on your crown. I think I like to coffee filter paper but it's up to individual's preference.

You can use the juice of 2 lemons and dilute with water (2:1; lemon:water). You can put it in the mini spray bottles and spray it on your hair, particularly, your scalp. Because that is where the oil secretes from, not the hair. Alternatively, you can dip the comb in the diluted juice and comb through your hair.

Vinegar
It is amazing that natural vinegar contains so much health benefits when consumed and it can also help in rescuing oily hair. However, due to the unpleasant vinegar smell, not many would apply vinegar on their hair. Use 2 tablespoons of vinegar, dilute with 1 cup of water. For storage, I would prefer to store it in a glass bottle instead of plastic ones unless you are really sure it can withstand the acidity. You can rinse it off after application.

By the way, do you know that vinegar can help your hair dye stay longer? I recalled when I was young, my cousins and I were preparing the red eggs for my grandmother's birthday. But later realised that we forgot to add vinegar into the red dye concoction, thus the colour doesn't 'stick' to the chicken eggs. How I miss my grandmother! She must be enjoying herself in heaven right now.

Corn Flour and Talcum Powder
At first, this sounds a little extreme for me because I have grey hair and so putting white stuff on my hair makes me more conscious of my hair condition. Still, there are people who use this method. What they do is to brush the powder on the scalp and roots. Then, you let the powder absorb your oil for a while (5 to 10 minutes) before you wash it off. An easier way to apply is perhaps to dissolve the powder with water and rub onto your scalp for a few minutes before washing it off.

Wash your hair with cold water
Warm water would open the pores of your skin, including your scalp. Cold water can help reduce the pores and the secretion of excessive oil, keeping your hair look less dull and healthier. This has been quite to me so far since my cold shower therapy started. So, why not test it out? If you are afraid of the cold water, start the shower with warm first, then turn the heat down. Your body adaptation to temperature can be so amazing.

Related articles:

1) Homemade Remedies to treat Greasy Hair

2) Homemade Spa and Beauty Treatment

Natural dye for your hair

2007-01-23T18:54:00.000-08:00

The Scary Synthetic Story

You must have heard alot of scary tales about synthetic hair dyes. The bad news is that the more permanent the hair dye is, the more damaging your hair is. This is due to the presence of paraphenylene diamine (PPD), mixed with a developer (hydrogen peroxide). This mixture will remove the hair pigments and replace with the new colour. For dyeing a lighter colour on a darker hair, it has to be bleached first using hydrogen peroxide and a catalyst (persulphate) to accelerate the bleaching affect of hydrogen peroxide. After bleaching, the light hair dye is added.

To give you an idea about how dangerous hydrogen peroxide is; if you put a pig's liver into hydrogen peroxide solution, there will be sizzling sound from the liver and I've witnessed that laboratory experiment in high school and I was amazed backed then.

Thus frequent use of synthetic hair dyes may lead to:-

1) Hair thining
2) Hair breakage
3) Hair loss
4) May cause allergy reaction on scalp

The Alternative Natural Dye

The good news is that alternative natural dyes are harmless to your hair. In fact, it is the safest hair dyes to use. In ancient times, vegetable dyes such as henna was already commonly used as body art. Besides henna, camomile, logwood, indigo and rhubarb are also useful vegetable dyes to consider. The only disadvantage is its limited selection of colours as compared to the synthetic dyes.

Another thing to take note is about the black henna. Indigo may give a dark colour resembling black but they are not black. If it is too black to be true, it is perhaps the 'fake henna in black'. You can read more from here.

Weighing the Pros and Cons

Due to limited selection of hair dyes, it is no wonder synthetic dyes still remains available in the market. To get the best of the synthetic world, there are some restrictions on PPD usage where it must be less than 6% in the hair dye products. Some hair colour products also promise a lower PPD content (0.8% to 1.2%) and this is really good news to me. So next time, when you pop by the hair salon for a hair dye, do request for natural hair dyes or at least hair dyes with lower PPD content. I am sure this change will go a long way to keeping your crown of beauty attached.

Other related articles

1) Non-toxic Hair Facts

2) Henna from Wikipedia

Diet for Hair loss

2007-01-18T03:00:00.000-08:00

Having a hair loss problem is often quite embarrasing and awkward especially for women. Hair loss may occur at any part of the scalp; at localised patch or the whole scalp.

Causes of hair loss
One of the possible reasons for hair loss is deficiency in protein, zinc, vitamins B and C. It can also be your body's way of signalling stress, anaemia, thyroid dysfunction, gastrointestinal (for women) or diabetes. If your hairloss is diagnosed alopecia areata, it can be due to food sensitivity. Sudden change in diet, chemotherapy or after pregnancy (for women) can also cause extreme hair loss. I say 'extreme' because it is normal that we shed 50 to 100 strands of hair daily. That sounds alot of strands but if you count the strands, this number range is Normal.

Good Diet Plan
The good diet to prevent hair loss is to eat enough protein (excluding animal meat), zinc, iron, vitamins B and C. For easy way out, you can take multi-vitamins supplements daily. If you prefer the natural sources, you can find them in whole grain cereal, wheat germ, oats, brown rice, nuts and seeds, cheese, fish and eggs.

Diet for medical condition
For Alopecia areata, keep a diet log book or at least keep mental track of your diet enough to identify the food you are sensitive to. For hair loss due to gastrointestinal, take acidophilus tablets or acidophilus-containing cultured milk drink (e.g Yakult or Vitagen) at least once a day should do the trick. For thyroid dysfunction, primerose oil is reccomended.

Food to avoid
Where possible, reduce or avoid refine carbohydrates, animal meat, high fat, high salt or high sugared food, especially the processed ones.

Related literatures:

1) Remedies for Hair loss - separating fact from fiction

2) American Academy of Dermatology - hair loss

White Hair for Hair Loss Days

2007-01-15T05:49:00.000-08:00

You feel that you are still young and energetic but you wonder why you are one of those who has white hairs on their head. Stress at workplace, schools and even home is inevitable and it cannot be avoided. If you are working, people might guess your age to be more than your growing stage; If you are schooling, your classmates may constantly remind you of your white hair and attempt to help you remove them. In fact, everybody seems to be reminding you about your white hair problem, even your very own mirror.

White hair versus hair loss
But is it really a bad thing to keep your white hair? I may sound crazy here but seriously, keeping your white hair can be useful afterall. You see, I didn't used to have hair loss problem until I turn twenties. In my teen days, I didn't think I would have hair loss problems so I furiously pluck and cut my white hair out. In fact, I didn't even consider the hair loss possibility as I look at my parents. As I enter into workforce, I realise I was losing more hair than I could afford and I was slowly showing some signs of balding on my crown.

The solution
I had to solve the two problems: white hair vs massive hair loss. So, I figured out the best way to preserve my crown without plastic surgery or treatment is to grow back my remaining white hair and then dye my hair with complementing highlights. As an asian with a black crown, my hairdresser chose the colours that is not too dark nor too light while the highlight colour to complement the main dye and my white hair. Though it took about half a year to grow enough of white hair, I am glad it is worth the wait. I also choose shampoo that helps to make the hair dyes last longer.

Adjusting my diet and lifestyle
As I understand the side effects of dyeing hair (such as more hair loss), I took a step further. Thus, besides the physical changes I've done to my crown, I have also kept a log of what I have been eating. I realised that there were too much salt and sugar in my diet. Thus, I reviewed my options and took another step further to cut down on the soya sauce (Light, dark and sweet) and preserved fruits in exchange for rice vinegar and fresh fruits. I also attempted to exercise though I believe there is still room for improvement. In addition, I also bought in the idea of cold shower as it not only can stimulate blood circulation, but it also improve the hair quality.

So far, I'm seeing some results and I am glad I make the adjustments. Hope you benefit from this personal tip from me and save your white hair early.

My other related articles

1) Diet for hair loss