Beauty and Personal Grooming

This homemade hair-pack conditions as well as imparts shine and bounce to lifeless, dull hair . Start using this pack twice a week for a month before your wedding. Soon you will have shiny, breathing, voluminous hair sans dandruff . Be prepared to expect compliments galore on your D-day.

Check out this simple recipe for a rich hair- conditioner :

In the world of conditioners, there are many distinct products to choose from. WEN by Chaz represents an interesting option for those hoping to improve their hair more naturally, but will it work for you? Here’s what you need to know about this increasingly popular cleansing conditioner. Many conditioner products stake their claim to fame on being unique. The WEN product line takes this a step further by offering a less complicated solution to hair care that relies on natural ingredients.

When you think about beauty products like lotion, shampoo, facial toner and makeup remover you usually do not think about them being made at home. However many of these items are easy and inexpensive to make yourself. All you need is a few common ingredients that you can pick up at your local supermarket and you too can create your own homemade beauty products for much less than store bought brands. Here are some simple recipes for you to use:

Sheila asks: My long hair fall up to my waist, but it is fine and straight. It gets tangled after a shampoo. It becomes difficult for me to brush or comb my hair while it is wet. What should I do?

Just the other day, an over-ripe banana in my fruit-basket caught my attention. Since it didn't look good enough to eat (I don't like the taste of an over-ripe banana), I decided to whip up a DIY recipe for my hair . I had just returned from a place that had an extremely dry climate and all this had taken its toll on my tresses. So I was thinking of going in for a deep-conditioning hair treatment to rejuvenate my dried-up, dull & lifeless hair. To my thrifty self, a homemade hair pack appeared more viable than an expensive salon treatment. So I concocted an easy recipe with the minimum ingredients. Here's the  recipe:

You barely have time to shower, much less wait for a hair conditioner to work while you're in there. If that's your problem, an overnight repair hair masque like LaCoupe Overnight Repair Deep Treatment is a godsend for you. As compared to other expensive over night hair treatments like Fredric Fekkai Overnight hair repair and Kronos Phyx Overnight Repair Masque 4 fl oz. ,, this one's quite affordable at $7.99 and works just as well. What's wonderful about this stuff is you don't have to apply it to wet hair and wait around in the shower to rinse out. Just finger-comb it from scalp to ends. It dries quickly with no messy lean dry pillow residue. Go to sleep and the  next morning all you do is wash your hair and shower as usual and of course, enjoy your new shiny locks!

For beautiful tresses, try these DIY hair-conditioners:

Sometime back, on an impulse, I had picked up Sunsilk thick & long shampoo as well as conditioner. It was the older variant, not the new Sunsilk lusciously thick & long, specially formulated for Sunsilk by seven internationally renowned hair experts Rita Hazan, Yuko Yamashita, Jamal Hammadi, Dr. Francesca Fusco, Tom Taw, Ouidad, and Teddy Charles.

With monsoon in full swing in India, it’s time to look for a shampoo that helps fight frizz. The extreme humidity and rains in monsoon tend to make hair rough, frizzy and unmanageable. So when I came across an ad depicting the virtues of Garnier Fructis Sleek & Shine Fortifying Shampoo as the perfect frizz-control shampoo, I immediately purchased it. I don’t stick to shampoos or conditioners of the same brand ; I like to experiment with different combinations. It’s a myth that changing shampoos frequently causes excessive hair-fall . All you have to look for in a shampoo is the ingredient list (some may have issues with the presence of SLS/SLES in shampoos), it’s suitability for the season and the hair-type.

Is it necessary to use shampoo and conditioner by the same company? This question keeps bugging us, usually as shampoo tends to finish before the conditioner. Pros say that it isn’t really essential to use shampoo and conditioner of the same brand, you can go ahead and mix and match different shampoos and conditioners to see what works for your hair. Chris Gummer, a researcher at Procter & Gamble, England  however advises: “If you do mix brands, try to find products with ‘complementary technologies’. For example, if you have dry hair, you want extra moisture all around.While it’s true that a same brand combo gives you that conveniently, hydrating formulas from different labels work fine too."

If making a hair-pack is not your cup of tea, then try Emami Hair Life-Instant Hair Pack . It’s a premixed, ready-to-use, non-coloring herbal hair pack enhanced with vitamins and proteins to make hair beautiful and healthy from within.No hassles of soaking, grinding or even mixing the ingredients. You have to just squeeze out the contents from the packet, apply it to your hair with a brush or gloved hands, leave it for 10-15 minutes and then rinse it off. And you are done with it. Enriched with the goodness of soya proteins, multivitamins and Keraherb-11, it’s a perfect balance of rare herbs that claims to revitalize and strengthen your hair roots without colouring the hair . Get manageable, strong and beautiful hair by just sparing only 10 minutes.

My hair tends become dull and limp in a couple of days of shampooing . So I’m always on the lookout for a good shampoo. So when my friend raved about the goodness of this shampoo called ‘Pantene Pro-V Smooth and Sleek Shampoo with conditioner ’, I decided to give it a try. Though my hair is a bit oily , I went in for this particular shampoo meant for normal to dry hair as I didn’t want to strip my hair of all its sebum by using other strong shampoos. And I must admit that it didn’t let me down; all I can say is Smooth and Sleek Shampoo & Conditioner really helped make my hair smooth and manageable and it stayed that way for nearly a week. I could feel the softness from the very first wash. It even did something to the texture of my hair; now it’s highly manageable with no unruly flyaway hairs and simply looking great. The shampoo itself has a pleasant and light fragrance and I am planning to use it for a long time.

The ubiquitous egg is the centerpiece of most breakfast tables around the world. Eggs, without qualification always mean the eggs of a domestic fowl. And it is a fact that raw eggs can be used to advantage in your skin and hair care routine. Eggs make for some of the best hair conditioners . The properties of egg create a needed impact on your dull, dry and damaged hair. They can help restore shine to dry hair and are also useful in taming frizz. The natural fatty acids in eggs can infuse split ends with the nutrients needed to restore the hair's natural shine and also maintain its texture. Here are some home based recipes to make such conditioners. To add body, bounce and shine to your hair Whip up one/two raw eggs. Massage this mixture on your hair and let it stay for half an hour or so or until dry. Shampoo your hair and then follow it up with a vinegar and water rinse . The protein in the egg coats each hair shaft and adds body and thickness. Follow this procedure twice a m...

To those lucky ones who have normal hair , here are some great hair-packs and conditioners to try. 1. Add a tsp of Brahmi (Asiatic pennywort) leaves ( Brahmi Powder , if leaves are not available) to a small bottle of castor oil. Warm it and work it into your scalp at night. Wash it off in the morning. Remember to wash your scalp thoroughly to ease out the sticky castor oil. 2. Mix henna powder with black tea, a tsp of ground soaked fenugreek (methi) seeds and two egg whites. Apply it and leave on till it dries completely. Wash it off. For the final rinse , add a tbsp of beet juice to a mug of water to get that superb shine. 3. Prepare a mixture of one cup coconut milk, two tsp of gramflour/ chickpea flour ( besan ), 3 tsp of castor oil , 1 tsp of Shikakai and Amla powder and one tsp of honey . Mix well and rub onto your scalp for 20 minutes. Wash off, preferably with a homemade herbal shampoo or reetha ( soap nut) ) water Tip: Substitute shikakai with Neem for equall...

Here are some easy do-it-yourself recipes to make your own hair conditioners. These are suitable for hair types and you can get equally superb results as you would by using well-known, expensive hair conditioners. Sunflower oil hair conditioner Ingredients: Wheat germ oil 5 tbsp Sunflower oil 5 tbsp Procedure: Mix the two oils and warm the mixture. Massage it on the head and wash off with lukewarm water to which 1 tbsp of lemon juice has been added. Cider vinegar hair conditioner Ingredients: ½ cup cider vinegar 2 pints of water Procedure: Mix all the ingredients together and leave on hair for 2 minutes. Rinse off. It gives your hair plenty of bounce and sparkle. Avocado hair conditioner Ingredients: Avocado paste ½ cup Olive oil - tbsp Egg yolk- 1 egg Procedure: Beat the egg and mix avocado paste, add olive oil and blend well to get a smooth consistency. Apply this for 30 minutes on your hair and then wash off with lukewarm wat...

All types of hair need a conditioner –even oily hair . Whilst some people prefer to use conditioners only on special occasions, the regular use of conditioner will help protect your hair cuticle and, thereby, protect the natural shine and beautiful condition of your hair. Even hair that is in ‘perfect’ condition needs gentle protection, especially if it has a tendency to be dry . Conditioners also help neutralize static electricity. For your regular conditioning application after shampooing , follow these steps: 1. Thoroughly rinse out the shampoo. 2. Apply a sufficient amount of conditioner to cover hair lightly and evenly. 3. Allow the conditioner to remain on hair for 60 seconds while you gently massage it through. 4. Rinse thoroughly with warm water until hair feels smooth and tangle-free. 5. Use a wide-toothed comb to gently smooth out any remaining tangles. Also read through Conditioning your hair for more information and also for recipes to make yo...

Why use a conditioner? For the hair to shine and look healthy, it is essential to follow a shampoo with a conditioner. A conditioner is not oily. It relaxes the cuticles of the hair; adds shine to them and gives a bounce to the hair follicles.