Hotel Bliss Guest Blog

Natural Beauty: Hair Series - Hair pampering

As I stated in my last blog – taking accutane wreaked havoc on my hair. For awhile, I didn’t think I’d ever get a healthy looking mane again. But with patience, gentle care, and many many trips to the grocery store produce department, I’m happy to say it’s looking pretty darn good these days. I’ll share other tricks that helped along the way, but along with the right tools, what I feel really jump started my hair to health were some great hair masks.

Yes, that’s right. Just like a nice facial mask can work wonders on your skin, the right ingredients can bring life back to your hair. The good news is that it can be cheap too! Below are some of the recipes I really like – starting with my absolute favorite. But don’t be afraid to mix up the ingredients to find the combo that works best for you. Try them out once or twice a week and see the difference! (Oh, and don’t forget, organic products whenever possible!)

Moisturification

• 1 over ripe banana
• ½ ripe avocado
• 1 tbsp honey

I attribute most of the rehydration of my hair to this delicious concoction. Bananas contain amino acids, potassium, and vitamins A, B, C and E. All this gives you softening properties, increased elasticity and split end prevention. And while I don’t much care for the taste of avocado , this fruit is a beauty staple for me. Full of hydrating fatty acids, it’s great for all kinds of things! Skin, hair, puffy eyes, you name it! Combine with honey, which is jam packed with humectants, and you’ve got one luxurious hair mask.

Blend all ingredients in blender until smooth. (Any chunks make rinsing more difficult). Place a towel around your shoulders, or wear an old t-shirt … This one can get a bit messy… Comb your hair and section into six pieces. Starting with the back of your head at the neck, use your fingers to gently pull the mixture through your hair. Begin at the scalp and pull through the ends of your hair for each section. Once all hair is covered, use a plastic bag, or plastic wrap to cover your hair. Leave on as long as you like, but for at least 30 minutes. Rinse and shampoo. Conditioner is only needed if you need help with the detangling. My fine hair tangles easily, so this is usually a must for me, otherwise the mask should provide all the moisturizing you need. If after shampooing you find you still have any mask left in your hair, you can shampoo a second time, or if you have the time to wait until your hair dries, using your natural bristle brush should pull it right out.

Shinesation

• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tbps olive oil or almond oil
• ½ cup cool water

Egg yolks are an excellent source of protein and good cholesterol – but that doesn’t mean you will only benefit if you eat them! Egg yolk is great to use on brittle hair, and it adds shine like nobody’s business. Olive oil and almond oil are great for sealing split ends and helping keep moisture in your hair. I prefer almond oil over olive, but it tends to be pricier.

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and beat well. (The water helps with smoothing the mixture into your hair). Apply to wet, clean hair and leave for 20-30 minutes. Rinse well – but be warned – use warm water, but not hot. You may end up with scramble eggs!

Repairifying

• 1 egg
• ¼ peeled cucumber
• 1 tbsp olive or almond oil

A variation of the recipe above, the added cucumber brings vitamins, minerals and antioxidants to the mix. In particular the caffeic acid in the cucumbers protect hair from damaging UV rays. This one’s also great if you have chlorine damaged hair!

Blend oil and cucumber in blender, then add egg. Pull through wet, clean hair. Let sit for 20 – 30 minutes, rinse. Just as above, careful not to rinse with hot water so you don’t cook your head!

Natural Beauty: Hair Series - The first step to healthy hair!

I have a confession. Until relatively recently, I have been absolutely murderous on my hair. Anything you shouldn’t do to your hair, I did on a regular basis. Blow drying, curling irons, ponytails, coloring, over washing, over brushing… Guilty. I did it because I could. I was blessed with naturally very healthy hair, and it seemed indestructible.

That is until awhile back when decided to take accutane for my acne. Accutane is a very powerful drug. While I still do not regret taking it, even on my low dosage there were some side effects that I wish I had been better prepared for. Namely how severely it weakened my hair. What had once been full and lustrous and smooth, soon became thin, dry and fragile. In a matter of a few months, I didn’t even recognize the hair that was on my head. I didn’t know what to do with it. It had become so weak, I was afraid to do anything with it for fear it would fall out entirely!

I had to retrain myself to work with my hair. I began looking into natural products to help get back the healthy hair I once had. Thankfully I found some amazing natural treatments that slowly but surely got me back to where I started. In the next few blogs I’d like to share how you can naturally begin to repair damaged hair, or add extra umph to already luscious locks.

The first place to start is with the right tools

As I struggled to get my healthy hair back, I used all the tricks I could think of. Reduced washing, gentler natural shampoos, hair masks, scalp oils. And all of it definitely helped, but after months of trying, it seemed I had reached the plateau of my repairs, with hair that still didn’t look entirely healthy. I comment about this to one of my friends and she told me how much healthier her hair was after her stylist convinced her to buy a wooden comb. I figured it couldn’t hurt, so I began to look into it.

As I said, I never gave much thought to what I did to my hair before. That meant most of my tools like brushes and combs were cheap plastic. For all my efforts to repair my hair, the tools I used on a daily basis were undoing some of my progress. I quickly learned what a difference the right tools can make. The best thing I ever did was buy a good wooden comb and a natural bristle brush.

You see, plastic combs have seams along the teeth. These are caused when the two sides of the mold are pressed together and released. The seams may look miniscule and harmless, but it’s like running a razor blade across each hair strand. They rip and tear at the shafts, and can leave you with damaged hair.

Wooden combs are seamless and much gentler on your hair. They are especially helpful if your hair is weak, thin or fragile. These combs can come in almost all the same shapes and sizes of plastic and metal combs, so it’s easy to find one suitable for you. I have very fine hair, so I can use a thinner tooth comb, but thick coarse hair will do best with wide tooth combs.

As for brushes, I now use a natural boar bristle brush. It gently spreads sebum from the scalp throughout the hair as you brush. This gives your hair a protective layer and keeps your hair shiny and smooth. The first time I used this brush, I flipped my hair upside down, brushed, then flipped back up. My hair instantly looked and felt fuller than it ever had when I did this trick with my other brush. And it left my hair so soft!

(Vegans may be wary of boar bristle brushes, as it is indeed hair from boars. You can use synthetic nylon brushes, but they may be damaging to thin hair.)

Boar bristle brushes may not come in all the shapes you use to style your hair, but you will find them for most. Also, I have noticed that if I’m using mine to style my hair with a blow dryer, my hair has much more static, so I do use my older brush for this. But since I use my dryer less often and use my natural brush on a regular basis, I find it hasn’t been a problem.

Finding the right tools

You can easily find natural combs and brushes. You can look online for several options, or take a visit to your hair salon or a department store. Just make sure the brush is 100% natural (they often are a combination of nylon and boar bristle). You can easily pay upwards of $100 for a good brush and comb set, but I don’t think that is necessary. I got mine from a Target. The bristle brush and wooden comb together cost less than $30. You can also find some very pretty wooden combs, which I’ve found to be excellent gifts!

Hope you’ve found this helpful. In the next blog I’ll share the hair mask recipe that I attribute to saving my hair!

Natural Beauty: The first installment - Guaranteed to be the funnest!

Well, my first natural beauty suggestion isn’t necessarily about beauty. At least, not on the outside. But since I discovered this little trick awhile back, I’ve been dying to tell people about it. Some of you may already know the benefits, but everyone else, get ready for a treat!

What’s got me all excited? Well it’s the beauty of coconut oil. But not just for its uses on the skin and hair (though there will definitely be more posts about that in the future). It’s about what a fantastic natural lube it makes!

I was surfing the net one day, looking for information to back up my belief that coconut oil is one of the healthier oils you can use for cooking, when I came across a blog talking about using it as a lube. I hadn’t really thought about that one, but the idea intrigued me, so I started doing some research. I’ve been looking to replace as many of my personal products as I can with natural alternatives, and you can’t get more natural than that!

After lots of reading, I decided to give it a shot. One night I blindfolded my man, smoothed some on my hands and started ‘working him’. He instantly knew it wasn’t our normal water based lube, and he definitely liked the difference. After playing with him for awhile I went up to kiss him. He was pleasantly surprised! (Well, he was already happy by that point!) We both love coconut, so the taste was an added bonus. After that first time, we haven’t gone back to our regular lube. The coconut oil is just too much fun!

If you’d like to give it a try, here are some pros and cons to consider:

Pros

1. It smells tastes like coconut! That is if you buy the right kind. You’ll want to buy a quality coconut oil. A good coconut oil will smell like fresh coconut. Avoid any that is RBD (refined, bleached, deodorized). Look for coconut oil that is extra virgin. Organic is best. This also applies to using coconut oil cosmetically – but that will be in another blog.
   
2. 100% edible. This makes it really fun to work with. I’ve found that the edible, store bought lubes taste weird, and I just never really trusted putting that stuff in my mouth. Also, if you are of the variety that is hindered by the smell or taste of oral, this can be of a real benefit for you!
3. Moisturizing. My man tends to be frisky in the morning. The problem is I tend get dry over night, both my mouth and my intimate parts. Using lube was our best option, but as I said, we don’t care for edibles, so it limited our options. That’s not a problem any more. And if I’m using my mouth my lips get super soft!
4. Good for him and her. My man and I have both used it on the other, and oh my we both love it so! We’re also very excited to someday use it on someone else *blush*

Cons

1. It tastes and smells like coconut oil. If you don’t like coconuts, well then this won’t be for you. Although you could try the RBD kind. The bleaching and processing takes the taste and odor out of the oil, but it also makes it less natural. I have not tried this kind (the smell and taste are the best part for us), but have read of others using it and enjoying it. I wouldn’t recommend it for cosmetic use, and definitely not for cooking. The more it’s processed, the less healthy it becomes.
2. Not for use with latex condoms. Oils are bad with latex. It is however completely safe with polyurethane condoms. I know that Trojan and Durex both make poly condoms.
3. Some clean up required. Me and my man use it liberally, so a shower is usually necessary afterward. This isn’t the stuff you would want to use during a quickie before you need to be somewhere.
4. It is an oil. I know that some women are wary of oil based lubricants. They say that oils leave a coating on the vaginal wall that is difficult to get rid of thus increasing the chance of bacteria and other infections. At the end of the day, you should make the choice best for you. We have been using coconut oil everywhere, and I mean everywhere, and haven’t had any issues yet. If you are worried, you can still use it safely for external fun. Great for massages!

Working with coconut oil

Coconut oil is solid until around 76 degrees. If your house is cooler than that, you’ll notice it has more the consistency of butter. It melts quickly when rubbed in your hands, so you could scoop some and start an intimate massage on the body part of your choosing. We put some in squeeze bottle and if it’s become too solid, we pop it in the microwave for a few seconds. (Don’t get it too hot! Ouch!)

As I said before, it can get messy (but fun messy!). Being an oil, it has the chance to leave oil stains on sheets and bedding. As of yet, we haven’t noticed any, but if you’re worried about that, perhaps put down a blanket that you don’t care about.

Where to find coconut oil

I’m a frequent shopper at the natural food store down the street from me, and they usually have no less than four brands of good quality coconut oil. I haven’t really looked in a regular grocery store, but if you find any, as I said before, make sure it’s extra virgin and (if possible) organic.

That’s it for my first installment. I hope you enjoy this one as much as we do (and we really, really do). Please share any thoughts or stories if you’ve already tried it!

Natural Beauty

Looks like the blog is working swimmingly. (Thank you Christian and Bliss!)

Enough lovely ladies said they would be interested in hearing about some of my natural beauty alternatives that I’m going to give it a go! Before my first post, though, I’d just like to put some things out there.

First of all, I am by know means an expert. While I’ve spent a lot of time researching and trying many of the things I’ll discuss, a lot of it is a topic of debate even among the scientists. I do promise to offer as much knowledge as I can on each topic, but please do continue to research further.

Second, I completely welcome thoughts, insights, suggestions, alternatives, even downright disagreements are okay in my book. If you’ve got something to offer, please share! I just ask that everyone be respectful (but from what I’ve read from beauties here so far, I don’t think that will be an issue).

Finally, everyone is different. What may work wonders for me, may not work for you. Even worse, you may react adversely, even if the products are natural. (For example I learned the hardway that burdock root makes me immensely itchy!). So, always proceed with caution. Do test spots if applicable. And of course, if you have a known allergy to any of the ingredients, don’t use it. (But if you do, let me know and I can possibly offer alternatives).

Okay ladies! I’ll work at getting the first post up in the next day or two. I’m very excited to share what I’ve learned and open up some discussion!