Hair Loss?

How can I stop my hair from falling out so much?

As we grow older, some of us loose hair very easily, whether its genetically or if it's just naturally falling out. There are a few ways to prevent this from happening or happening slower if its genetics.

• Dying our hair, no matter how much you look after it, the dye still affects our hair, dye's have ammonia in it, this chemical is also in bleach, so even though people don't bleach their hair, thinking that its safer, it doesn't make much difference as hair dying can still harm us. I'm not saying to NOT dye your hair, I dye my hair, only six months at a time, I don't go crazy and dying it every month.

• Keeping it tied in a pony tail  a lot can cause it to fall out, if you always have it in a bun or just up, what you're doing is essentially pulling on the roots, this will cause the hair to fall out more easily.

• Putting too much chemicals in hair, for instance, if you always have hairspray on daily and other products, its not natural for our hair, it may say its good on the bottle, but the more your put into the hair, the more harmful it is. I do use hairspray, but I only use it once a week if that, or on special occasions. This includes all styling products, e.g. gel, moose, hairspray.

• Over washing your hair. Shampoo is abrasive, it prevents your scalp from retaining moisture, not only does it cause our scalp to be more dry but it also loses a lot of goodness. I wash my hair twice or three times a week.

• Over drying your hair, when I mean over drying, I mean if you use the hair dryer too often, if you prefer to use the hair dryer, its best to keep your hair in the towel for about 15mins, this helps to keep your scalp moisturize, and when drying, don't put the hair dryer on full heat, no matter how long you've kept the towel on your head it will still dry out your scalp, especially high heat and close to your scalp. 

Other things you can do to prevent hair loss.

• Massaging your head before you dry your hair.

• What you eat is always important to any part of your body, most of the nutrients goes to our hair first, so plenty of vitamin B and vitamin D. 

• Anything with sea minerals in it, is pretty good for your hair, if you don't live far from the beach and you like swimming, don't be afraid to go for a dip and just rinse your hair with water after, no shampoo or conditioner, this will just get rid of the minerals. 

• Tea Tree is great for scalp, personally what I use, it helps the scalp and prevents it from drying. Healthy scalp, healthy hair.

• Now here is a very weird tip, that may make some people think twice, but it has proven to work with people that I know, using compost (essentially soil, not just any that are in your garden, stuff you buy at your garden center) on your hair. Compost is used to make the grass healthy again. It's weird because many will see it and think " this is good for my hair? " However, if you have a shower cap, and just put some compost in it and then sleep with the shower cap left on your hair, it actually helps to prevent hair loss and thickens our hair. This is NOT one of those tips that will work over night, it will take about a month before you probably will see any affect taken place.

• Use yogurt washing your hair, yogurt is not only good for our skin but very nourishing for our hair. If you don't like the idea of really doing it, try once a month, massage the yogurt all over your clean already washed hair (like normally with shampoo) then just rinse out with luke warm water afterwards. You'll notice the hair is a lot smoother and looks healthier.

Hope this post has been somewhat helpful.

Ciao
Vivi x

Simple skin-care routine

Easy steps to good skin care routine

This image is from freedigitalphotos.net link here

If you're anything like me, I hate rushing to get out the door because I spend way too much time in the bathroom. This is my skin care routine, however you may adjust it to whatever suits you best.

Before I go through the steps, just a bit of information about cleansers and toners etc, I don't use store bought cleansers on a daily basis as our skin doesn't need it, cleansers are good though they can be damaging when overly used, I like to use the store bought cleansers twice a week. However, if I have been wearing make up, then I use it at night, not in the day time.

I do use plain yogurt as a cleanser when I can, this is different to the cleansers you buy at the store. Yogurt is not only healthy to eat but it's very good for our skin, it can prevent spots or acne from starting, and helps those red blotches on our faces to go away. Yogurt is very nourishing, and leaves your skin smooth. I will, at a later date, do a post on how I use yogurt as a cleanser, along with other home made skin care recipes.

With toners, I try to look for one that is alcohol free, and I use this every other day (e.g. Mon, Weds, Fri). With exfoliating, I do this only once a week, over exfoliating can cause our skin to break out very easily and this can cause spots, exfoliating is getting the dead layer of skin off, if you over exfoliate you are scrubbing off layers of skin that are perfectly healthy, and can be damaging your pores. 

Day time routine

1. Using luke warm water, I use a natural sponge ( you can use flannel if you prefer, I use natural sponge as this is softer and not harsh on the skin), and just rinse my face with the luke warm water, this opens up my pores gently so that the dirt can be washed away, then I use a clean flannel/towel to pat my face dry.

2. After patting my face dry, I run the flannel under cold water and drying it leaving the flannel cold I just rest it on my face for a few seconds, this helps to close up my pores now while its clean. (However this does not mean that no dirt can get in there, this is just to close it much as possible)

3. I now apply my daily serum, I use a bodyshop product however you can use whatever suits your skin best.

4. I now apply my daily moisturizer moving my hands upwards, and circular motions on my forehead. Never apply anything by moving your hand downwards, dragging your skin downwards only causes your skin to sag more easily. Don't forget to apply on the neck and behind your ears.

5. Now if I would like to apply make up, this would be the time. However I don't wear make up on a daily basis. If you do wear make up, then I would suggest that make up primer/base would go on now. 

Night time routine

I will base this on a night that I do use a cleanser or exfoliate and toner. 

1.  I rinse my face with luke warm water with the natural sponge.

2. I now apply my cleanser or exfoliate (I don't use both on the same night). I apply by using circular motions on my face upwards and circular motions on my forehead, avoiding the eyes. 

3. Using luke warm water again, I rinse off the product and wash my natural sponge/flannel.

4. Repeat step 3, as sometimes you don't realize that you haven't actually rinsed all the products off your skin properly, you'll see if your have murky water. You need to get all of it off your skin as leaving it on will only be harming your skin.

5. Now I apply my toner using a cotton pad, just lightly wiping it across half side of the face and then using another cotton pad on the other side.

6. This is where I apply my eye cream gently patting it on the eye lids, you don't want to pull as this can cause you to have wrinkles easier. 

7. Apply night serum if you do if not go straight to step 8

8. I now apply my night time moisturizer, doing the same as I did before, apply by smoothing it upwards, and circular motions on my forehead, and not forgetting the neck. 

So there it is, I hope you have found this helpful. Again, you can adjust this to however way you like it and whatever suits your skin best. 

Vivi x

My top 10 ways to keep skin clear

10 ways to keep skin clear and healthy

Photo credits go to free digital photos.net link here.

I'm one of those people that has a combination skin, which means I have oily skin and dry skin, I can be very oily in some places and very dry in other. I have gone through the years trying out different treatments and trying to get it right, however, it's not particularly perfect, I still have excess oil or very dehydrated patches over my face, but just a few things I do to try and keep myself balanced.

1. Keep hair and hands off your face if possible. Our hair produces a lot of oil and when stuck to our faces, it spreads that oil, and irritates our skin, bringing spots. Your hands are a major factor as they go through so much in a day, think about what you touch, what you use, where you go, whenever you touch your face, it passes oils and excess anything over.

2. Take off excess oil, when you've been out for a long period of time, your skin collects all the pollution and dust, your face will start to produce oil, especially when wearing make up. I would recommend to keep packets of blot papers on you and gently pat your face when you feel its necessary. Blotting powder is something I try to avoid as this is just caking on more powder and it's not really taking oil away, it's just covering it.

3. Steam your face once a week, this is essentially getting your pores to open up and getting all that gunk out of your face. I like to steam for about 10mins, and then gently wash my face with luke warm water, don't use cold water as this will close the pores and you need to wash out the gunk and dirt out of your pores before you want them to close up.

4. Wash your face twice, daily. This of course is common sense. The reason why we do so, it's because when you go to sleep at night, for the hours you have been asleep, your face can produce a lot of oil even if you haven't been out. Wash your face before sleep as, you have been out or around the house, remember your skin is collecting dust and anything around you. You should wash gently with gentle soap or cleanser, dont use any harsh toners, you want your face alcohol free. Try not to wash more than twice a day, if you over wash it may cause your skin to be too dry.

5. I use clay based products once or twice a week if not steaming, clay soaks up oil and helps clear the pores. It will also help you to produce less oil.

6. Eat fruit and vegetable, again this is probably common sense, we all know that they are good for us. They have so much natural vitamins and it helps our skin and body to be more healthy.

7. Drink plenty of water, I know that it gets said a lot already, so I won't go on too much about it. Drinking water helps keeps your body hydrated and cleanses out any toxins.

8. Drink green tea, if you're not a person that likes drinking water because it has no flavour in it, as my partner is one of them. Drinking green tea is great for the body, it does pretty much the same things, cleansing out any toxins and keeping your body hydrated. ( Also great to drink when drunk to cleanse out all that alcohol before you sleep, can help prevent hang overs)

9. As weird as this may sound, get good sleep. If the body is not getting enough quality sleep, we produce excess oil a lot faster.

10. Avoid eating too much junk food, the word says it all 'junk' food, we can have a sneaky bag of crisps/chips or a chocolate bar a day, but don't over do it as this causes our skin to just dry up and become irritated.

Stay healthy and be safe


Vivi x

Kiss kiss chap chap

What does your lips go through?

Everyday people forget that your lips go through as much as the rest of your body, in fact your lips may go through the most, naming some of those are ;-

• Drinking/eating
• The weather
• Lipstick
• Kissing ( yes this can be dehydrating as you are passing water to whatever surface it touches)
• Smoking

And those are just a few, everyone has dry lips at some point, mostly in winter as the air is more dry and the weather is cold. Some people may not realise that what they eat also effects the lips, for example, if you eat too many food products that has been deep fried or oven cooked can be very dehydrating. It doesn't mean that we can't eat deep fried food or oven cooked food, it just means that we need to hydrate more. Too much salt can also dehydrate our lips and skin, as well as monosodium glutamate (MSG), most people don't realise that MSG is in a lot of foods, particularly take out, when you order that chinese, indian food, they can contain a lot of MSG. Just listing a few foods that can be dehydrating :-

• Chips/Fries
• Take out
• Crisps/Chips
• Spicy food
• Store bought cookies/biscuits
• Toast ( whole grain bread is fine, but white bread is pretty dehydrating)

Even though there are products in stores that say they are high in fibre and good for you, they still add additives and possibly have MSG, organic food is not always better, see the back of packets of some food products to find out if they hold a lot of salt (soduim = salt), a good way to counter balance sodium is hydrogen. Hydrogen is in a lot food products, it is the main element of water.
There is no need to cut out any of our favourite food just because it has a lot of salt or msg, it just means that we need to eat these things in moderation, if we eat anything that contains a lot of salt, counter balance by drinking plenty of water. Water is very good for our skin and lips, as it hydrates our body and cleanse our system.


Plenty of people will use lip balm to protect their lips from cracking, and this is good, as is vaseline or any other skin protection product. Lip balm is there to put a layer of protection, it's basically stopping your lips from losing too much water, instead the fluids that you could have possibly lost are locked underneath the layer of lip balm and is absorbed again into your lips, this may sound displeasing as most people would know that the fluids that are coming your of our bodies is 'sweat' and hearing that you are absorbing 'sweat' isn't exactly nice to hear, however our own 'sweat' is actually just water (more or less), it's a lot healthier for your own body and lips than having to absorb oil and grease from external sources. The job of lip balm is not to hydrate your lips, it's to put over a layer to protect your lips from losing any more fluids that will dry out your lips, lip balm is only there to soothe the cracks and to heal up any cracks that have shown, the rest of the work is within your own lips of absorbing in fluids.

Being around a lot of chemicals can also be very dehydrating, some may say that they're not around a lot of chemicals so it's fine, but what do you clean your house with? Cleaning products such as bleach, furniture polishing, even the spray that you scent your room with contains chemicals, this can be very dehydrating, it will also dehydrate your eyes. If you are exposed to these products a lot, such as cleaners may do, don't be afraid to wear a mask, you are protecting yourself from breathing the products in which can be harmful to your body. If you are exposed to a lot of these things, make sure to put eye drops in and drink plenty of fluids, as much as some people think eye drops are mainly for those that wear contacts or glasses, the purpose of eye drops is to keep your eyes healthy, if your eyes dry up, this can be very painful, our eyes naturally have a lot of water, so if you get dry eyes, best solution is to have eye drops.

No matter what time of year, summer is never far away, and even though it might be cloudy, the sun is always present in the day time, I'm not going to hop on the importance of UV protection too much, as there are plenty of other people out there already stating this case. When the summer comes around or if you live in a particularly sunny spot of the world, it is important always to remember to protect your skin from the suns rays, UV rays damages the skin but whats not talked about is the sun's rays. Exposure to the sun can be harmful to your skin, not just from UV but the sunlight will also dehydrate your skin. The first place to be damaged is our lips and our ears as these are particularly delicate areas, if you choose to use lip balm to protect your lips, try to choose one that protects from UV as well. Protecting from the sun in terms of dehydration is a very small step, but over the years it can make a big difference.

One of the first sign of dehydrating skin comes from our lips, then dry mouth and eventually hitting our skin, so when you start getting chapped lips, drink plenty of water, and keep those lip balms handy.