As I drove in to work this morning, I illegally checked my twitter, facebook, and email accounts for any new and exciting news. And boy did I find something that completely appalled me. Are you ready for this? Loreal, yes the cosmetics company, has come out with a new product that will prevent you from ever getting a gray hair. The pill which you must take everyday, FOREVER, which they have been researching and experimenting on for about a decade, is expected to be launched in 2015. 

 It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that such a supplement will probably have a variety of risks and side affects. Yet, the question that has popped into my head is “have we really grown that vain as a society?” It literally frustrates me that people are dying left and right from different types of cancer, yet our businesses continue to make products that enable these cancers to get stronger instead of making products that will fight against them. Is it that difficult to understand that in order to live a healthy life we must stop putting foreign junk into our bodies? Is it really worth risking our very health to try to stay young forever?

It’s a real shame that certain products make it to the market without the “proper ethical” testing. So many people are getting sick that I believe we need to take a different approach on what actually hits the market. Perhaps we should take into consideration the types of sources that cause cancer and then eliminate them completely from all products even if it means we have become a little old fashioned . I don’t mind getting rid of the microwave to stay way from radiation and using the stove instead. Or staying away from processed foods and actually eat something that was grown on land instead of something that wasn’t made by a mixture of chemicals. Life was simple. Why did we make it so complicated? How did we become so enthralled by the bright and shiny things?

At this point no one knows how the pill can affect the human body, but it is of major concern. In my opinion, Loreal should probably throw the entire idea away and focus on something that is actually important. Like teaching people how to embrace their natural beauty instead of trying to make them look the same forever. Yet, people are vulnerable when it comes to the age process and are also extremely gullible. Just because a product makes it into the market does not make it safe to use. Unfortunately, most people have that type of logic. All we can do is wait and see if this pill really is approved and sold or will be fought and banned by the doctors who believe the pill will be a threat to a very bodies.

About a week ago I dyed my hair black. A few days before I took
the plunge to change my light brown hair with golden highlights to a midnight
black, I mentioned it to my aunt to get some feedback on the color. Instead of
getting the approval on the color I was yelled at for damaging my hair. My aunt
who has permed and colored her hair millions of times was very opposed to me
doing the same. She advised that if you do anything to your hair too many times
you will damage the root and you will end up getting random patches of gray
hair. Sooooo after I colored my hair I decided to do a little investigating to
confirm this side effect that my aunt mentioned.

To begin dark-colored dyes are the most dangerous. That’s great to hear after you’ve colored your hair the darkest color ever. The second scary detail is that one of the chemicals in hair dye is banned in many countries in Europe. So after reading this I had to research further. 

Well, we all know that hair dye can cause allergies; the most common being skin allergies which may be just simple irritation on the upper eyelids or the rims of the ear but is not limited to those areas. When dying your hair, if you start having trouble breathing and your mouth and tongue swell up call 911. You are probably going into an anaphylactic shock, which can be fatal. A safe way to avoid allergic reactions is to do a patch test each and every time you are going to color your hair. 
Remember, it doesn’t matter how many times you have colored your hair because you are always susceptible to having an allergic reaction.

A new reaction that I haven’t hear d is that hair dye can cause asthma. The more you dye your hair the more your airways can become sensitive, which can lead to asthma.

Then there is the scary thought that hair dye can lead to cancer. Cancer occurs when the DNA of a cell is damaged. That is why it is encouraged to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables so when a cell is damaged it can be quickly repaired.  The debate between the link of hair dye and cancer is that even though they have found it to cause cancer in high doses it is unsure whether the low doses can lead to the same results. I can go into depth in this area, but the bottom line is anything that you use in excess will hurt you. If you abuse liquor you may hurt your liver. If you abuse hair dye you can create any of the issues mentioned above. You must also keep in mind that everyone’s body is different. What one person may do with no negative side effects will not be the same for another person. So always use these products with caution.

Now to the damaging hair part! Obviously if you dye your hair too
much you will dry it out which will cause it to be brittle and dull. But hey, I
didn’t find anything on root damage! At least not yet. 

So if you are crazy like me and want to dye your hair some crazy color once in a while there are some natural alternatives. Two options that I found are to use Henna for red or dark coloring and if you want to lighten your hair you can use honey.

So the safest bet to avoid serious complications is to not dye your hair at all or at least use one of the natural options. As for me, I guess I will lay off the hair dye for a while. I didn’t find an article on root damage, but genetics can sure kick you in the
butt!

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Well it looks like the 4 to 5 hours of sleep a day have caught up to me. No more late night working and definitely no late night partying. It looks like my quote “I’ll sleep when I’m 40” has come a lot sooner. Dark circles seem to have been permanently tattooed under my eyes. Sometimes my eyes even get puffy and I have to say that it’s a bit scary.

So I began to read up on why they appeared on my face and how to get rid of them. First, if you’re obviously sleep deprived you must get your butt to bed ASAP. If not then the issue might be genetic, it can be caused by sinus conditions or allergies, or what may be my issue also is eating a lot of salty food snacks. Salt retains water, which unfortunately can cause the puffy eyes.

So now the question is, “How do you get rid of them?” So I went on WebMD and I have to say that I was not happy with the results. If you have bags under your eyes, temporary fixes are frozen green tea bas or cold cucumbers. The coldness temporarily reduces the swelling, decreasing the size of your puffy eyes. More permanent procedures are injections and surgery.

If you have raccoon eyes like I do it gets even worse. The dark circles are a part of the aging process, which can be a result of the puffiness. If you pull the skin and the darkness goes away then you do not have dark circles, but instead shadows from the puffiness. Therefore you have to treat the puffiness so the shadows can disappear. The article recommends wrinkle injections. Now if you have a true dark discoloration it is caused by the thinning of the skin because our butts our getting older!!! The article’s solution states that the most common solution is laser treatment.

I usually try to do things naturally so I can avoid at all costs any lasers, knives, or injections. So for now I am going to start hitting the pillows earlier and hope that my raccoon eyes go away.

As I had mentioned before, what you eat shows up not only on your skin but also in other areas of your body. On the Dr. Oz website I found an article from March 16th of this year that mentioned how foods can help you become even more beautiful instead of using chemical ridden products. 

Sticking to great skin, the article stated that squash, liver and salmon help keep clear and healthy skin. Now, I am not a big fan of liver, but I have incorporated squash and salmon in my diet. Squash and other fruits and veggies that are colorful fight free radicals, fight damage and also disease. Salmon, which has Omega-3 decreases inflammation, improves the ability to retain water, and helps reinforce cell membranes. What does that mean you ask? Well it keeps your skin feeling smoother and softer. Liver contains Vitamin A and that helps to prevent dry skin. Even though I am usually open to trying new foods, I think I will find another source of Vitamin A or at least keep my lotion close to me. 

Now moving away from skin, we also want are our teeth, nails, and hair to look awesome. At least I do. In regards to my hair, I have the wild curls that can definitely turn into a Mufasa fro if I don’t maintain it correctly. Yet, even though I want my hair to look nice I never thought about the health of my hair. I really doubt that mousse and leave in conditioner have improved or maintained the health of my hair. Protein helps improve the health of your hair by making it stronger and reducing splits ends. Therefore, it is recommended to eat beans. I believe Navy beans are a good source since it doesn’t contain too much fat either. Don’t quote me though. 
 
Recently, having whiter teeth has been popular. Chemically whitening your teeth can make your teeth sensitive though. At least that is the experience that I had. So a safer way to go is to eat celery! Celery scrubs away teeth stains while you chew it. So next time you are looking for a snack celery would be a great choice. 

I have been fortunate enough to have nice strong and nicely shaped nails. My mother isn’t so fortunate. Her nails break easily since they are very thin and brittle. A good way to prevent that is my eating walnuts.
  Walnuts contain biotin, which is a B Vitamin that helps keep nails nice and
  strong. I like to throw in chopped walnuts in my oatmeal in the mornings. Try
  it out!

I am probably not the best person to make a beauty blog. I have never really been into make up or fashion. I was pretty much a tomboy. Since I was in grade school though one of the biggest things I battle with was acne. I have to say there is nothing worse than feeling uncomfortable in your own skin. I didn’t have just the normal everyone goes through puberty type of acne. I had the huge cystic type. Sometimes parts of my face would swell and I would end up isolating myself in my room because I was so embarrassed. So like most people I ended up trying every single product at the store, every single product that dermatologists recommended, and every single witch doctor concoction my grandma would read about. At a certain point I think I began to damage my skin. 

There was one drug that I began to take while I was in college that I very much regret taking. I started taking Accutane. Even though I was monitored, I had several uncomfortable side affects. My skin did clear up for about a year and the same huge cystic acne came back. There is nothing more depressing than to have your hopes driven up that you will finally have clear skin and then a year later you are worse than you expected. At a point when you are in your late teens and early 20’s and all of your friends are out and about partying and learning from the world it was a pretty difficult situation to handle.

Now that I am in my late 20s my skin has begun to clear, but not because of all the creams and medications that I used. Instead I reverted back to some of my grandma’s concoctions and to healthy eating. One of my grandma’s favorite remedies was a mixture of lime, honey or sugar, and fresh aloe vera. The lime would kill the infection, honey would be used to soften the skin or sugar to exfoliate, and the aloe vera to heal the scar.

Also, I have just started to change my eating habits. Remember when they say “garbage in, garbage out”. It is the same for your skin. One of the most effective foods to clear my skin were my morning smoothies; strawberry, blueberry, and banana. One every morning does the trick. As I ate more fruits and veggies the clearer my skin would get. I understand that it’s pretty to hard to keep such a routine. Our lives are busy and the last thing we want to do is get up early to make a smoothie when you can buy a sugar fille one for a couple of bucks at McDonalds. Yet, the results are worth it and at the end they are cheaper than the hundreds of dollars that are spent buying all the different acne products at Walgreens.

Remember ladies, that a beautiful inside means a beautiful outside.