dandruff shampoo

So, thankfully it’s not lice with all that it entails. It’s not gum either. This time, it’s dry itchy flaky dandruff.

What is dandruff? Dandruff is a mild form of a common skin condition called seborrheic dermatitis. It’s what happens when your scalp sheds skin cells faster than normal. There can be many causes of dandruff, including Psoriasis or other skin conditions but the most common cause of dandruff is the cold dry winter weather.

So, what to do?

First off, prevention is always best, so keep your scalp warm and cozy with a warm knit hat or other womens head covering. The more coverage the better!

Shampooing daily, especially if you have oily hair can help prevent dandruff. Make sure you rinse our all shampoo residue so you aren’t left with a different skin irritant! And after the shower, brush your hair starting at the roots down to the bottom to distribute oil from the scalp all the way down the hair.

But as much as you can do to try and prevent dandruff, it always seems to catch up with someone at one point or another, so here’s how to treat it once it’s there. There are many dandruff shampoos on the market, but the best one I’ve found to work is head and shoulders dandruff shampoo. Dandruff shampoos have active ingredients that will get rid of the dandruff. Start off using it daily and once the dandruff is under control, use it 2-3 times a week and then slowly stop.

When you use the dandruff shampoo, massage it into your scalp and leave it there for 5 minutes. Then rinse it out very well. Also two more things to keep in mind are not to use excessive heat on your scalp, and not to scratch it cause you don’t want it getting infected.

And one more thing – which is really important – is to decrease your stress level as stress adds to dandruff! So check out our spa gift package give-a-way on our facebook page and we hope you win!!

“Could I go to the bathroom, I reeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllyyyyyyy have to go” they shout.

Although they just had lunch I let them go thinking that at least the class will be quiet.

They come back in with their side bangs perfectly swept and their soft wide headbands sitting perfectly on their heads.

So that’s what they had to go to the bathroom for. Not only that, but they keep on opening their desks every two minutes to look in their tiny little mirror to make sure it’s still in place. Well, of course within the next five minutes one hair actually did move out of place and all of a sudden they’re frantically crying that they reeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllyyyyyyy have to go to the bathroom.

“Wow, this is gonna be fun” I think to myself.

Don’t you agree with me that life would be so much simpler with some nice and stylish hair accessories that just let our kids live life?? Put it on once and you don’t have to check up on it till the end of the day.

The first step would probably be to drop those side bangs. Grow them in once and for all. Besides for being busy in the mirror the whole day making sure they’re perfectly in place and besides for constantly making sure they’re not oily (because they were touched the whole day), we teachers will actually be able to see your daughter’s eyes and face and she’ll be able to concentrate in class so much better. If she insists that she likes a cut in the front of her face why not try a middle part? The middle part cut is actually back in style in full force. And it keeps hair out of the way and we can actually see your child’s face that way too!

Another great way to keep her hair out of her face is with a headband. NOT a soft headband that slips and will probably fall off every three seconds, a headband with teeth that will actually stay on her head for a longer period of time.

Drop those bobby pins and go for the clips, they come in many different colors and are much more secure.

Next on the list is the back of the hair. The best way to keep it out of the way is to put it up. A banana clip can be an idea as long as it’s not loose and doesn’t slip out every two minutes. Otherwise, a butterfly clip, a jaw clip or a scrunchy could make the perfect fit. Stylish, simple and comfortable she won’t need to be all busy with her hair 24/7.

I can go on like this forever, but I think you get the point and I’m sure you agree with me by now that life and school would feel a thousand times more free and enjoyable without always having to be busy with hair accessories and what people will think if one hair is out of place because this way no hairs will be out of place.

For our part, on our side of the teacher’s desk, we will finally be able to have a class without any disruptions!

The Toque - the Hat of the Chef

When you picture certain people you automatically dress them in a certain outfit or a specific uniform. Often you associate a Hat or Head Covering with the person as well. Here’s one – cook – what did you think of? Probably his/her tall white chefs hat was one of the first associations you had, no?

So, the big question is how did the chef hat, a tall white hat known as a toque come to be?

Well of course everything has a history. Yes, even a chef hat.

Word has it that even before the 7^th century chefs wore chef hats in order to make them look different than any other people working in the kitchen. Why? Because in those days lots of chefs used to try to poison the king and kill him. The king thought that if he made their job into a more prestigious job by giving them a hat that made them look different and sophisticated they might feel a little more highly of themselves and would never even consider doing such a lowly act.

Another reason which may have brought about the chef hat was that the man who cooked for King Henry VIII started having hair loss and his hair used to fall into the food being prepared for the king. The king therefore had him killed and declared that the next person to work in the kitchen should wear a hat.

Later, in the 1800’s a chef from France by the name of Marie- Antoine decided that a chef was really a prestigious job and decided to make the hat look a little more fashionable and elite looking. Also, at this time they were becoming more aware of cleanliness and basic hygiene so it was decreed that all chefs should wear hats to prevent sweat and hair from going into the food being prepared. He chose the color white since white is a clean color and displayed cleanliness and so is food in the kitchen (at least we hope). Now of course, there were different ranks and levels of people working in the kitchen. So they started making many hats in with different heights; the higher it was, the more prestigious the job.

Did you know that:

1.       The chef hat has 100 folds in order to symbolize the 100 ways to cook an egg.

2.       Marie- Antoine’s hat was 18” high (because he was the best chef) and had to be held up with cart board.

To this day, employees in kitchens wear head covers, hair nets or toques while involved it food preparation for hygenic reasons. I guess we should all thank Marie- Antoine or Henry VIII next time we are in a restaurant for that clear bowl of soup!!

Combing Hair to Remove Lice and Nits

Mention Lice to people and around 30% of them will start feeling itchy! Sorry to make you itchy but unfortunately Lice is a part of life. If you or your child gets infested, don’t feel bad – it doesn’t mean you are a poor housekeeper or have dirty hair…In fact, Lice actually like clean hair better!

Before we start with how to deal with lice, I’ll just mention a drop of prevention. Lice will have an easier time getting into hair that is flying all over, so send your child to school with some pretty hair accessories in her hair that will not only make her look pretty and feel great, but will help prevent lice from getting into her pretty tendrils! Headbands and pony holders are great and pretty bows or clips will also do the trick.

If your daughter is itchy or scratchy, or you heard that some of her friends or classmates got lice the first thing to do is to check her hair. Part the hair and look for the nits – small white/clear oval eggs attached to a shaft of hair around 1 inch from the scalp. Lice like to hang out in dark spots so check at the nape of the neck or behind the ears first.

See them? Ok, it’s not as bad as you may think. First off, there are lots of over the counter or prescription shampoos to help you get rid of the lice. They will kill the lice, but not the nit eggs which hatch in batches every 10-14 days. And need to be combed out with a nit comb or picked out by hand. Part the hair when you do this and use a pencil tip or blunted skewer to part the hair in small sections to help you go systematically through the hair removing the nits.

Some shampoos come with a plastic comb with instructions to use it to comb out the remaining knits after using the shampoo. In my experience, it is much better to invest in a metal toothed nit and lice comb which has teeth far more close together to help remove the remaining knits and is available at most drugstores.

What about the rest of the house? Instead of investing hours of work cleaning and laundering the whole house, focus on getting the nits out of the hair before they hatch. Lice or nits off the head have a lifespan of about 12 hours so you don’t need to fight them too aggressively. Just wash coats, clothing, bedding head scarfs, head wraps and tichels recently used in hot water and that will kill the lice/nits. Other items that can’t be washed like wigs or dressy hats can be placed in the freezer as that will effectively kill the lice/nits as well. Disinfect the hair brushes and hair combs by dipping in alcohol, wash or freeze hair accessories and buy a fresh set of pony holders to be on the safe side.

It may take a couple of times with the lice shampoo and a couple of days of rigorous nit picking to get rid of the lice but hang in there – they will be done with before you know it and you can look back and laugh at your lice adventure!

If you’ve got any lice experience or tips please leave a comment – we’d love to hear from you so we can help keep our  kids (and our) hair free from unwanted visitors!

YOU set the style! Try it with these mini jaw clips or any other hair accessory you like!

Do you ever feel like wearing some real original hair accessories, like something that not EVERYONE is wearing and just don’t have the courage or self-esteem to be “different” that EVERYONE else??

Now, let me ask you something- Who starts the trends?? Well, the answer is very simple – you and I are the ones who set the trends. “What?!?!” you may think, but it’s true. Okay you might not have been the one to actually start the trend but it could’ve been your next door neighbor, best friend or even a family member.

The nature of people is that we are always looking at “the other person” to know what to wear and what is in. Try coming to school or work once with a hair style that no one is wearing yet and see how many people start wearing it within the next month. For example, let’s say no one wears braids to school. Try wearing a braid to school every day for the next month – you can even add a ribbon at the bottom to make it a little more interesting and don’t forget to walk with your head held high! Now my dear friend, you will be surprised to see how many people actually start wearing a braid to school. It may take some time till people get used to it but the more they see it, the more they like it and that’s when they’ll decide they need change and start wearing it too. Funny, no? Trust me it’s true! Try it for yourself and let me know!

So why don’t you try being the leader for once instead of the follower? Just jump into the world of trends in hair styles and hair accessories and be the first one to wear the “newest” style!

Need ideas?! Sure, I’ll help you out! How about mini jaw clips like the ones pictured in this blog or the lookk of  two pig tail braids with a ribbon or hair bow on each side? Or how about the tight twisted bun-piano teacher look? Ever thought of bringing hats back into style?!?! How about a womens beret?  Oh, and I almost forgot, head bands made out of real hair! The hair can be braided and stuck on the headband. You can get exactly the same color as your hair and the look is “oh so natural”!

Now, it doesn’t have to be something so extreme, it could be a regular normal hair accessory. The point is that you can and should wear whatever pleases you and not the world!

I’ll leave the rest of the thinking up to you, so good luck and don’t forget to let me know if you come up with something really interesting!

What to do when the gum gets stuck..

It’s the night before your daughter’s class pictures. Of course, you want your daughter to look her best, so you find yourself cleaning and ironing her best crisp white uniform shirt. After that you go running around the house looking for her cutest head band - a cute hair band with a bow, pair of socks and loafers, make sure she takes a shower and get her off to bed for an early night.

With all the preparations you forget about the piece of gum she’s chewing when she heads to bed…

The next morning you find yourself up at 6:30 ready (or not) to face a brand new day! After you finish preparing all the snacks and lunches you run up to your daughter’s room to start getting her all ready for the “big day” only to find gum all over her hair!!! Your first reaction would probably be AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! But now what? So you let out a scream but that most definitely won’t help the situation. So what to do?

Frazzled you wake her up and start trying to pull all the gum out, but for some reason the only thing you’re actually pulling out is her hair! In tears you start imagining her in school that day with a mushroom haircut. “No, this can’t be happening to me” you think, “There’s got to be another solution”. Before you know it, you and your daughter are both sitting on her bed and crying. She’s devastated and cannot picture herself in such a haircut. You stop crying and decide you better get a hold of yourself because you are the mother in the picture after all. So now with half an hour left until her bus leaves you have got to come up with something.

Sounds familiar? Okay, maybe this never actually happened on class pictures day, but does that feeling or thought of “what to do with gum in my hair” make you cringe?! Well, we’ve got the perfect solution. It’s easy, simple and works wonders!

To remove gum:

1.       Smear or rub any type of oil (yes, oil) all over your hair (or the area with the gum) and just let it sit there for a few minutes.

2.       Take a comb and gently brush out the gum without pulling to hard so as not to lose any hair in the process.

3.       Wash your hair very well to get that oily texture and smell out of it.

So good luck! It only takes 3 small steps to save the day! And of course, once that’s all done you can put on one of your favorite hair accessories or headband to make it look even better!

Bad Hair Day...

There are not such great hair days, bad hair days and BAD hair days. Do you ever find that some mornings you wake up and nothing but nothing looks good? Your hair is frizzy, puffy or stringy and no matter what you try to put on to make it look good, it seems like there’s no hope?! Sometimes even your favorite hat or hair accessory can let you down on such a morning and it just makes you want to go right back into bed for the rest of the day. Well don’t do that yet, below are top ten ideas of how to prevent bad hair days and how to deal with them.

1.     To get your hair wavy and sleek, simply sleep with your hair in a braid. The more waves you want in your hair, the tighter it should be. If you simply want extra volume without getting your hair puffy or frizzy, make it a little looser. It’s a great trick that never lets you down!

2.     This may sound funny but if you simply want your hair to stay natural and not frizzy after you take a shower, simply either put your hair in a neat pony or let it loose and gently put it neatly into a pre-tied bandana either covering your whole head or half. What?!?!? A pre-tied bandana?????? Now how does that make a difference???? Well, it just keeps your hair in place throughout the night instead of it flying around and getting frizzy, puffy and drying in the wrong way. If you still don’t believe me, give it a try and let me know how it goes! Trust me, it won’t let you down!!

3.     For a neat pony with some volume or waves go to sleep the night before with your hair in a tight neat bun. Your hair will dry when it’s all twisted up in the bun and when you let it out in the morning it will be nice and wavy. If you want to give it that extra look you can add moose to your hair before you put it in your bun.

4.     Wake up with your hair all oily and just don’t have time to take a shower?!?!? Don’t freak out just yet. Run to the bathroom (or wherever you keep it) and pull out a BIG bottle of baby powder. Gently sprinkle some on your hand and spread it on your hair. At first your hair will be white but the more you brush it out, the sooner it will blend in. Since it is dry, it works wonders!! Once you try this trick baby powder will become your best friend and right hand man!

5.     Fizzy hair?! When it’s too late in the morning to start thinking of all the things you could have done last night to avoid it, just grab that banana clip – it makes all the difference!

6.     The best trick for puffy or frizzy hair is DON’T BRUSH IT!!! Yes, don’t brush your hair in the morning; it just makes it all that much puffier and harder to deal with. The only time you should brush it is after the shower to keep the knots out.

7.     If your planning on wearing your hair in a pony but it’s just wild today simply put your hair in the pony and run your hair iron through the pony, it takes two seconds and looks as if your whole head  is ironed. Don’t have a hair iron? Ask someone around you to lie your hair down on the ironing table (yes, the ironing table!) and go over your hair with a clothes iron. Make sure they don’t get too close to your scalp!

8.      Bangs are puffy or just not behaving?! Grab bobby pins and just put them up and out of the way – you might even start to like that hair style so much that you’ll want to wear it every day!

9.     When there’s no hope and there’s nothing to do about it just stuff all your hair into your newest beret and put on a smile ;-) it makes all the difference!!

10.   Can you share something that works for you??

Head scarves make great play material!

I got the idea from my daughter. Well, let me explain, my daughter plays house with her friends every day after school. Every day they go to someone else’s house and they get to use all that girl’s mother’s clothes and pots and pans. Last week was my turn so of course I took out a big box with all my old clothes and let them enjoy.

Half hour later they came up to the kitchen to show me. I couldn’t stop laughing! They looked like they were from the 1900’s “cuz mommy was born in the olden days and is hopelessly out of style”. They had my old heels on that were chunky clonkers and my colorful worn out shirts fit them like a dress. The best part was the way they used my head scarves and israeli tichels as head bands. Well you might think how on earth did they use a head scarf as a head band?!?!?! I’ll explain. It took me a few seconds to get it too, but once I got it, I realized how original and practical it was. It’s taking something simple like a square head scarf and turning into a gorgeous hair accessory. It’s definitely worth the try!

So the way my daughter wore it was very interesting. She folded a purple oblong tichel into a long and very narrow head scarf. She then put her hair in a pony and put the middle of the head scarf on the back of her neck under the pony. She gently took both sides and tied it into a big bow on her head, leaving only a little hair showing in the front. She then took out her pony and looked adorable! Some of her friends decided to do it differently and just did the opposite of her. After they made the head scarf long and narrow, they put their hair in a pony and put the middle of the head scarf in the front of their head and tied it in the back under their pony. They then let out their pony and it really looked good, too!

There are so many things you can do with a head scarf, tichel or bandana, you just gotta be original!!! Let’s see what you can come up with…..

Use Jaw Clips and other Hair Accessories for Women to spruce up your outfit.

Ever feel like you have enough of wearing the same uniform to school every day? That you’re wearing the same color outfit every day to work or even better the same outfit? Wouldn’t you like a change? Well, we’ve got the perfect idea for you! You’ll definitely be pleased with this one for it will give you that change you need without having to buy a whole new wardrobe. Hair accessories for women do the trick. They can miraculously “turn your world pink” and give that little simple outfit that finishing touch. The funnest part of all is wearing the same outfit twice yet changing hair accessories and watching how the whole outfit actually looks totally different.

For example, when wearing a school uniform at times it can get boring and you might be looking for change. So the perfect solution would be to get some really nice and funky hair accessories. If your uniform is more on the light side- like a light grey skirt with a light blue top; or something of that sort, the best thing to do would be to go with the lighter pastel colors so that it doesn’t look like too much. If the uniform is however darker like navy, black or maroon the most ideal thing to do is to wear the louder and darker colors because the lighter colors won’t give enough of the change and difference you’re looking for.

Now, there are many different hair accessories and once you get into its world you’ll be so ecstatic that you might want to wear them all at once. However, even though each hair accessory is beautiful on its own it doesn’t necessarily look that beautiful all on one head at the same time! For example, take a banana clip with gems or stones, a colorful snap clip, a funky scrunchy, black and gold bobby pins and a thin headband with teeth. Each hair accessory on its own is gorgeous but try putting them all on your head at the same time. Truthfully you’ll probably look like you have no hair left and something close to a clown! So, when wearing hair accessories, we have to learn to wear the least at one time yet still attract that different look! Try them, hair accessories are addictive, once you start you can’t stop!

What about work? You still want to keep that classy and put together look and yet give it the change it needs. Well. you can stick to the classier hair accessories for women such as pearl headbands, co-ordinating head scarves, simple banana clips and dark classy colored jaw clips. Although it is simple and dark and doesn’t look funky and colorful it will definatley give you the change you are looking for.