Maintain Your Mane :: Beauty

Maintain Your Mane
by author Sherina Jamal

Daily life is fast-paced no matter how old you are, but as you age it’s more important than ever to ensure you’re addressing your body’s changing needs–both internally and externally. Take hair, for instance. It’s primarily protein, and, over time, can take a beating from overdrying and chemical-based hair care products. Other internal factors that play a role in hair health include nutritional and hormonal imbalances, poor circulation and stress. As a result, you may find your hair becoming finer, limper and less able to hold its shape after styling as you grow older. Fortunately, there are ways you can help keep your hair strong and healthy throughout life.

The first step to proper hair care is to ensure that your hair and scalp are receiving adequate nutrients. Older people often suffer from digestive problems, which can lead to the accumulation of internal toxins that prevent nutrients from being absorbed. Replenishing the body with fresh vitamin- and enzyme-rich vegetable juices, such as carrot, spinach and beet, plenty of purified water and a good multivitamin-mineral supplement can help keep the digestive tract healthy and nourish the entire body.

Another factor that affects overall hair health is your choice of hair products. When purchasing products, choose a hair product that matches your hair type, and always look out for suspect ingredients. Sodium laurel/th sulphate, for example, is a chemical lathering agent that can clog pores, dry the scalp and strip the hair of its natural oils over time. Other synthetic ingredients to avoid include propylene glycol, DEA (diethanolamine) and TEA (triethanolamine), which are implicated in cell damage and are suspected carcinogens.

In contrast, many ingredients can help strengthen and protect hair from damage:

panthenol - from vitamin B₅-assists in protecting and nourishing the hair
vitamin E - provides moisture
bay leaf, lavender, lemon, rosemary - help prevent dandruff
horsetail, oat straw, silica - help strengthen hair roots
essential oils of rosemary, lavender, chamomile-help to stimulate circulation, reduce scalp dryness and balance pH
birch, elder, kelp - good conditioning agents
Burdock, chaparral, thyme - good for conditioning dry scalp
chamomile - helps mend split ends
stinging nettle - helps strengthen roots; wash with stinging nettle juice to make hair thick

Keep On Moving

The modern tendency is to become less active as we age; however, poor blood circulation prevents nutrients from reaching the scalp and can be one of the main causes of premature hair loss. Staying active is important to keep your circulation moving effectively. Try to make a daily habit of walking, swimming or another of your favourite low-impact aerobic activities.

Body And Scalp Massage

Giving yourself a quick daily massage is another way increase circulation, assist detoxification and help nourish the hair follicles. Use a carrier oil, such as almond, apricot kernel or jojoba, with pure essential oils known to enhance blood flow, including grapefruit, geranium, lemon and thyme. Blend 10 to 15 drops of essential oil to one tablespoon (15 millilitres) of carrier oil. Begin the massage on the feet and continue upwards towards the heart in circular strokes.

Massaging the scalp two to three times a week is an additional aid for healthy hair and also provides you with an opportunity to relax and unwind. Products containing oils such as burdock, flax seed, olive, ylang ylang and rosemary are especially effective for boosting scalp circulation. When massaging the scalp, use fingertips (avoid using the nails) and apply gentle pressure. Begin moving the scalp back and forth. Massage the entire scalp starting from the temple to the crown, then from the back to the crown and from the sides to the crown. Afterward, cover the head in a warm towel and leave on for at least 30 minutes.

Healthy hair is a direct sign of good health. To ensure the hair and scalp stay well-nourished and strong over the years, we must take the time to replenish lost nutrients, reduce internal toxins and stimulate circulation. We may not be able to completely avoid hair loss or hair thinning, but we can ensure we are doing what we can to prevent premature hair degeneration by keeping ourselves healthy on the inside and out.

Good Foods for Healthy Hair

Food	Nutrient
millet, rolled oats	silica
organic whole milk, fish	vitamin A
carrots, yams, dark green leafy vegetables, apricots, blueberries, cantaloupe	beta-carotene
wheat germ, white and green beans, whole grains, eggs	vitamin B complex
cold-pressed nut and seed oils	essential fatty acids
eggs	sulphur

Sherina Jamal is a contributing writer for several health magazines and the founder of Ancient Secrets, a company that produces natural skin and body care products.

Source: alive #241, November 2002

Good Oils, Great Hair!
Most people try and remove the oil from their hair. That's the worst thing to do. Your hair needs the essential fats and acids found in essential oils to make it healthy and luxurious. Healthy hair is just a drop away. Here are some sure-fire recipes to give you the hair everybody envies.

Holiday Hair and Nails
The gift of healthy hair and nails can be yours this season with help from a nutritious diet, supplements and pampering beauty treatments. Luxurious hair starts beneath your scalp in the papilla, where new hair follicles are produced. There are openings for sebum (oil) from the skin's sebaceous gland to flow.

Hair Analysis
Doctors criticize the validity of hair mineral analysis as unscientific, and some alternative health-care providers have even been disciplined by medical licensing bodies for ordering hair mineral analyses.

Healthy Hair: Your Crowning Glory
Soft, shiny and manageable-hair that begs to be touched! It seems that everybody wants trend-setting hair like Jennifer Anniston or Brad Pitt. But before investing in a haircut with a hefty price tag, start by examining the hair products you use, your hair care routine and the foods you eat.

Basic Beauty Essentials
Hair, Skin, Nails and More It's a big day tomorrow--a job interview, a date, a friend's wedding, your wedding--and you're relaxing for the evening.

Natural Hair Makeover
If you're spending money on expensive hair products that don't deliver their promise of shiny and silky strands, perhaps it's your nutrition that's the problem.

Hanging on to Your Hair
Dawn, age 36, is a busy mother of two whose hair has been thinning since the birth of her second child three years ago. Visiting my clinic, she expresses dismay that others can see her scalp when she wears her hair pulled back.

Rapunzel, Rapunzel!
If your hair isn't happy, pay attention! Dry frizzy hair, hair that lacks shine, is thin or sheds, an oily scalp or brittle strands that break are all signs of poor health. If your hair is gradually thinning, you may have an under-functioning thyroid or iron deficiency anemia.

Fabulous Fast Fixes
Stylist Dalida Dagher of Marc Anthony's salon on Avenue Road in Toronto offers some quick tips for gorgeous hair everyday.

Healthy Hair
Hair is essentially protein, so be sure that you're getting an adequate supply. Look to legumes like beans, peas, lentils, and fermented soybean products for nutrient-rich vegetarian protein sources, along with moderate amounts of meat and fish. Because your hairs' cuticles are rich in silicon, be sure to include dietary silicon in your diet to provide elasticity and strength to hair.

Big, Fat Beautiful Hair
Strong, healthy hair and smooth, glowing skin requires a daily intake of essential fatty acids (EFAs). These natural oils help build a soft flexible cell wall, resulting in smoother hair and skin. Our bodies crave fat because cells use these good fats to regenerate and build new tissue.

Harmful Hairspray?

Clear Your Skin-With Tea

Be Cautious of "Cruelty-Free

Looking good
Quick tips to perk up down days We all have those days: hair looks limp and lifeless, skin looks slate grey, a pimple has appeared literally overnight, and the lips sting as a cold sore lurks.

Healthy hair massage

Facial clay

Clay mask

Hats Off to Luscious Locks
Nothing ruins your hairdo faster than a woolly toque-except, of course, the dull, dry, flyaway hair that often accompanies cold winter months. Happily, you don't have to hide your hair under a hat to survive the winter hair season.

Bald and Beautiful
Most of us take our hair for granted. Only when we're faced with losing it do we realize how important it is to our self-esteem. It's our "crowning glory and we define ourselves by its colour.

A Good Hair Day
Is your hair doing its own bidding? Are you tiring of the daily tousle with your tresses? With a minor change of style and the use of some effective natural products, your hair will look and feel so good, you'll find you can't help but feel good, too!

Chemical-Free Coiffure
Creating the perfect do can be a hair-raising experience if you're concerned about toxins in the products you use. With the newest innovations in natural hair care products, it's easy to get the look you want without the fear of ugly health consequences.

Becoming a Silver Fox
Grey hair is in. It's hot. It's now. But embracing your silver side isn't as simple as letting it slowly take over your head-unless you want to spend some time looking like Cruella de Vil. You just need a little help from your favourite stylist.

Jojoba
The cosmetic properties of jojoba (pronounced ho-ho-ba) are amazing. Jojoba can bring body and shine to dull, lifeless hair. It's also great for skin care, offering simple, speedy, and surprising results.