I am lucky that as a blogger, I get to try a lot of new products and find things that really work. My skin is pretty good, my hair is growing pretty quickly (although I wish it was faster) and I don't have anything to complain about (ok, give me a minute and I will think of something). That said, I've been trying to adopt new three habits to improve my hair and skin. One takes no effort, one is super silky and one is really hard.
Since I am growing my hair, I am trying to take really good care of my longer locks. Having super short hair makes it really easy. I could color it all of the time, sleep on sandpaper (not that I did) or flat iron the bangs constantly and if I fried my hair, it would get cut off and grow back within two months. Now that it is longer and I am trying to avoid cutting it, I have been researching ways to be extra kind to my hair.
HABIT 1:When I got my hair colored at the salon, I couldn't help but notice how silky smooth my hair was. That changed the second I washed my hair at home. I use a high end shampoo and conditioner, so I doubted that was the problem. But I wouldn't be surprised if hard water in my shower was the culprit.
So I picked out a
water softener and had a contractor install it. Truth be told, I probably could have installed it myself, but we have a contractor at the house often fixing never-ending issues stemming from a blizzard a few months ago. The first time I took a shower with the new water softener, I could tell a difference in the overall feeling of my hair. It felt soft and silky, just like after leaving the salon and not hard and crunchy like when I did it at home. The filter cost me about $20 (plus installation, if you don't do it yourself). After two weeks of use, it's made a big difference in my hair and my skin feels smoother and less dry as well.
HABIT 2:In college, my roommates always wrapped their hair at night to keep it straight, and to help avoid damage caused by pillow cases. I often wondered how a pillow case could rough up your hair, until I really thought about it. When you lay on your hair while sleeping, your hair is pushed around under the weight of your head. Depending on the softness of your pillow, the hair may not be able to slide around easily, causing damage to the strands under the weight of your noggin. Is it tremendous amounts of damage? No, probably not. But I want my hair to be in the best possible condition and sleeping on a jersey knit pillow case could not be helping.
I picked up a silk pillowcase on
Amazon for cheap. I am hopeful this will help my hair continue to grow without breaking or getting "roughed up" in the process. Some people swear by this and there are even lines of
silk pillow cases designed to keep you hair and skin in great shape. Do I buy into their claims? I'm not so sure. Do I believe the mechanics of sleeping on surface that causes less damage to delicate strands? You betcha!
HABIT 3:Finally, the most difficult change I am trying to make in an attempt to make my skin look better (and improve my overall health) is changing what I drink on a daily basis. While this is the hardest change for me, it will probably make the biggest impact on my skin and health. For a few years, I have had a Diet Mt. Dew addiction. And when I say addiction, I am not kidding. On a regular work day, I could easily drink 8 cans of DMD. I know! I could also drink DMD right before going to bed and could sleep like a baby. But all of that caffeine couldn't possibly be good for me and everyone knows that drinking aspartame (or most artificial sweeteners in general) are really not good for you. Especially in those kind of quantities.
But switching to something else poses a problem for me, or three.
One: I love sweet things.
Two: I don't care for water and resigning to drinking only water isn't going to work.
Three: I don't want to switch from aspartame to sugar.
So I needed to find something that is convenient, I can have anywhere, that doesn't contain caffeine or artificial sweeteners. The obvious things, like Crystal light packets you mix with water seem great, but are loaded with aspartame. Caffeine free diet sodas fall into the same category. Drinking plain iced tea usually has caffeine and it's not like I can brew my own everywhere I go.
After lots of research, twittering and label reading, I finally think I may have found something that satisfies my sweet tooth, meets my requirements and is totally portable. But before I tell you what it is, I had to figure out a way to encourage me to actually drink it.
I got a really great, large, reusable Tumbler that makes me smile and is actually encouraging me to drink more. For me, this Tumbler is the equivalent of buying new gym clothes to encourage going to the gym.
I love how it looks, that it isn't a bottle and that it has a lid. Plus, because it's insulated, my drink stays really cold longer than a plain cup or bottle. I picked out a skull and cross bones girly-girl, but
Haute Lava has them in
all different styles and can
special order whatever you fancy.
(side note: I love Haute Lava. They have amazing customer service and carry the cutest things for babies and their mamas.) I accidentally left my tumbler at work the other day and actually turned the car around to get it. Sometimes things like a new cup (or set of sneakers) can push you towards making a real change. For me, my tumbler is helping!
So what am I drinking? Curbing my Diet Mt. Dew habit is a serious problem. Finding something that I like to drink has been tough. Recently, I have been mixing two packets of Truvia (Stevia) with two packets of True Lemon to make a kind of makeshift lemonade. Since it is based on individual packets, it is totally portable. Since the sweetener is Stevia, it gets the approval of my holistic wellness guru (which almost never happens when I check food with her). I also had my guru check out the ingredients in True Lemon and that passed with flying colors as well. Sure, I could carry around liquid lemon concentrate or actual lemons, but that isn't convenient. This totally works for me. I am now down from 8 DMD's per day to a mere two. While some people will still look at two as poisoning my body, I am quite proud !
Have you tried any of these tricks? What beauty tricks do you have? Tell me in the comments!
Update! Since I started writing this post, True Lemon is now also available in True Orange (it's kind of Tang-y, though) and True Lemon is now also available with the Stevia mixed right in, under the name True Lemon Naturally Sweet. And, I am down to one DMD per day!
I bought the pillow case and water softener. The Tumbler was a gift from a girlfriend (thank you!)Subscribe and never miss a thing!
Disclosure/Disclaimer Statement.Makeup, beauty, skincare reviews & more! Copyright 2010, Gouldylox Reviews. All Rights Reserved.
L'Oreal Hip Kohl liner is amazing. It's not that hard to apply, especially after watching this video, and gives a perfect smokey look that lasts more than 8 hours. It's a loose pigment and flies in the face of my above statement, but it's the applicator makes the difference. It comes in several colors and is almost always on sale at one drugstore or another (Bionic Beauty has great roundups of upcoming sales each week!). I personally love the Navy color.
