August, 2009Serums and Conditioners, Part IV
Part IV of our hair-care series deals with the use of conditioners and hair serums. For advice on which product is best for you, talk to your stylist, they know the products and which ones will work best on your hair.
Hair serums are used to protect your hair from heat damage from styling tools, to keep your hair from appearing frizzy, and to give you a beautiful healthy shine. The trick to using hair care serums is to only use a very small amount and apply it to the ends of your hair first, keeping it away from your scalp. Applying serum to your roots and scalp will give you an oily appearance, and weigh your hair down. Serums should be used with extreme caution for those of you with very fine, thin hair. It will only weigh down your hair.
You can apply most serums to your hair either damp or dry. When you apply the serum to damp hair, it will give you excellent protection from the damage caused by blow dryers and curling/straightening irons. It is applied to damp hair, and then combed through to distribute evenly. If you only need to give your hair a bit of shine, a very light application to dry hair will instantly add light reflections, preventing a dull and frizzy appearance.
Conditioners are a little more commonly used, but you may be surprised at the many varieties that are now available. There are dozens and dozens of formulas that are designed to keep your hair healthy and strong, available as sprays, mousses, gels, rinse-out, and leave-in formulas. Each conditioner is actually designed to meet a specific need, and your stylist can tell what type of damage you need to be correcting for your hair.
Most people with colored hair (including highlights) need conditioning on a regular basis. Chemically permed or straightened hair needs regular conditioning. If you heavily style your hair, use accessories that regularly break your hair, or are exposed to chemicals and sun such as chlorine by the pool, you, too, will need special conditioning attention.
Teens Who Don't Send Thank-You Notes
This is a pet peeve. You send a niece, nephew, grandson, granddaughter a gift or money for a birthday or graduation, and you never got a note thanking you. You could call the parents as a not-so-subtle way of finding out if your gift was received; but instead, think about your relationship with that teenager. Do you really know him or her? Perhaps this is your chance to establish a relationship, one that is not just about obligatory gift giving/receiving. Something that could actually last.
The Benefits of Drinking Tea
Green – filled with antioxidants that interfere with bladder, breast, lung, stomach, pancreatic, and colorectal cancer. Helps to prevent clogged arteries. Decreases stroke risk. Also decreases the risk of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease.
Black – highest caffeine content. Protects lungs from exposure to cigarette smoke.
White – most potent anti-cancer properties.
Oolong – decreases LDL (bad) cholesterol.
Pairing Wine with Food
We all have a pretty good idea what it means to pair food with wine, you drink red wine with red meat, and white wine with white meat, right? Not so fast! This rule only holds when you are talking very light foods such as sole and flounder being paired with white wines and very heavy foods such as lamb chops or game meats being paired with red wine. For foods that fall in-between such as shrimp, veal, tuna, pork chops and stews, you can actually find either a red wine or a white wine that will work, depending on your palate and the overall spices that are used in the food and its accompanying sauces. Lighter sauces such as butter, cheese, and basil pair better with lighter white wines. Heavier sauces such as tomato, onion, bacon, and peppercorn pair well with chardonnays and a variety of red wines.
