Health and Beauty

Beautiful fingernails would have to be every woman’s dream. How confident do you feel when your nails are looking their best, and how dowdy do you feel when your nails are broken, peeling and brittle.

A good fingernail shape can help make all the difference to your fingernails health. And if your nails are in good shape you are better able to have nail art applied, or you have a good nail base for fake nails.

Everyone has a different nail shape, you may have short fingernails with a short nail bed, or long fingernails with a wide nail bed, yet one thing all healthy fingernails have in common is a good color, smoothness and strength.

There are five basic shapes for fingernails, square, oval, round, squoval or pointed.

If you are unsure what shape to file your fingernails, take a look at your cuticle. An oval shape nail looks best on pointed cuticles, and a square shape nail looks best on cuticles which are oval shaped.

The most common fingernail shape is the square look. This type of shape is considered the best for helping keep your nails strong and healthy, and you are less likely to experience damaged fingernails. The nail is filed straight across with the sides of the nails left straight.

The oval shape is one which never goes out of fashion, and gives a timeless, classic look. The oval nail works well with short or long fingernails. For short fingernails, it can help make them look longer. The oval can also be the most difficult shape to file.

Squoval is in-between the square and the oval nail, and provides the strength of the square shape and the femininity of the oval. Your nails are filed straight across with slightly rounded sides.

Pointed fingernails can actually weaken nails and lead to nails splitting. Fingernails are filed at the sides to create a point at the tip of the nail.

There are many celebrities sporting the pointed look, and it can be OK, if your nails are strong and healthy.

The round shape is a good one for people who like to keep their fingernails short. This shape is ideal for helping with your nails strength. Nails are straight at the sides and the tip of the fingernail is rounded.

If you have neglected your fingernails, it will only take a couple of weeks of nail care, before you will notice a difference. File your fingernails to a shape that suits, and you are on your way to beautiful fingernails.

Pauline Downie is passionate about helping people achieve Beautiful Healthy Fingernails and toenails, check out her site and find ways to increase nail growth, overcome nail diseases and problems and have healthy nails.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Pauline_Downie

Porosity Tests

With low porosity hair, the cuticles lay flat and overlap neatly. The opposite is true for high porosity hair. There are several ways to check the porosity of your hair. One popular method is to take hair from a brush and place it in a bowl of water. If it sinks within a couple of minutes, your hair may be porous. If some float and some do not, then your hair texture could be uneven. The best approach is simply to be observant. Does it air dry evenly? Where is it frizzy? If you have curly hair, is the shape of the curl consistent? When porous hair is dry, it feels puffy and rough. If you hair sheds water easily, you may have low porosity hair. Normal porosity allows moisture to pass through to the cortex of the hair and at the same time, your hair is sufficiently sealed against external moisture and humidity.

Finding the right identity for your hair.

It’s normal to want to identify how you look with a certain hair type. In many ways, it’s the first step that women take when looking for the right products for their curls. But it can frustrating when you try a product that is “designed” for your specific hair type and it doesn’t work for you but it works wonderfully on your friend who has the same hair type.
Why does this happen – because hair isn’t one-dimensional. Your hair is defined by more than just curl size.
Hair has a “personality” that comes from a combination of many things; some are natural and others are “woman made”. On the natural side, you have: curl size, coarseness and texture, elasticity, density and porosity. On the other hand, the “woman made” conditions are all the things that you do to alter the appearance of your hair including coloring, styling, perming, straightening, etc.
Just because you share the same curl size as your friend doesn’t mean that you have the same “hair personality”. You may both share the same curl size but if your hair reacts differently with humidity, it may be a sign that you have different hair porosity. Maybe your hair is much frizzier and the only difference between the two of you is your hair length. If her hair is a lot shorter than yours, maybe the entire hair shaft isn’t being conditioned properly.

Achieving the right balance

Determining your hair needs means looking beyond the established “hair type” that defines the size of your curls. It is essential that you know your hair’s porosity so that you can find the best products that work most closely with the natural state of your hair.

Your “naked” hair (i.e. in its most natural state) is probably less porous than in its processed state. This is because the cuticles lie flat when hair isn’t damaged. It is normal for hair cuticles to lift somewhat especially with curly hair. But when they begin to lift like old roof tiles, you’re going to lose your natural texture. Your hair will be harder to manage; it will split, frizz and break.

What affects hair porosity?

Shampooing your hair:

You should always use a sulphate free shampoo. Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, commonly referred to simply as sulphates, sulfates or SLS are cheap foaming agents found in many shampoos. They are used in industrial strength cleansers such as car wash soap, engine degreasers and garage floor cleaners because it instantly dissolves grease and oil. Clinical studies have proven that SLS can be very irritating to both the skin and hair because it strips both of their natural protective oils.

Coloring your hair:

Let’s assume that you want to color your hair. The coloring process can increase porosity. This doesn’t mean you can’t color your hair but you should definitely deep condition it before you color your hair. Well conditioned hair holds color longer, so give yourself a deep conditioning treatment 3 days prior to coloring your hair and then another 10 to 14 days after.

To avoid color “leakage” be certain to allow at least 10 days to pass before you deep condition your hair with a heat source. A 10 day waiting period will give the color a sufficient amount of time to bond with the hair’s structure.

Straightening your hair:

Every time you straighten your hair the cuticles open and the porosity increases. If you chemically or thermally straighten your hair, it is absolutely essential for you to deep condition your hair every week. The healthier it becomes, the less frequently you’ll have to do it.

Styling your hair:

Porous hair is greedy hair. It doesn’t know when to let go and it is easy to over apply styling gels. Heavy oils, waxes or silicone will bloat the hair. It is better to avoid these ingredients and stick with lighter, natural oils like Aloe Vera.

Sun Exposure:

You don’t need a hot comb or a hair dryer to subject your hair to too much heat. The sun is perfectly willing to step in and do the job. There are organically derived ingredients used in styling products that absorb harmful UV rays that can damage hair and cause your color to fade.

Confusing Water with Moisture

When hair cuticles are lifted and damaged, they absorb much more water than it can handle. The hair shaft stretches beyond its limit, it weakens and when that water evaporates, all that remains is damaged, over exposed and vulnerable hair.
Water is not the type of moisture that benefits hair.
Moisturizing is all about replacing or maintaining your hair’s healthy and natural balance of oils and proteins.
Proteins help to protect cuticles from lifting and they fill in the small holes and gaps in damaged scales. They bind to the hair shaft to help seal the hair. The more it is sealed, the less porous the hair will be.

Recommendations

There are no fixed rules that define your hair. The lesson to learn is that the curliness (or straightness) has little to do with whether or not a specific product or routine will work for you.
Deep condition regularly, especially if you color or straighten your hair. Use gentle heat with your deep conditioner to get the most out of the treatment. But don’t overdo it. Too much heat increases porosity.
Avoid products that will strip your hair of its natural proteins and oils. There is no point in trying to make your hair become less porous if you are going to wash it with a shampoo that is going to open the cuticles.
Protect your hair from the sun. There are styling aides with natural UV blockers.
Be gentle. If you have curly hair, use a wide toothed comb to avoid ripping and tearing.

If you have a passion for healthy hair care and how naturally derived, plant based ingredients can nourish, protect and rejuvenate your hair, please visit Brendita’s Body Works where we have a wonderful line of sulphate free hair products.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brendita_G

Going through aesthetic procedures to maintain or restore your youthful appearance is extremely common today, but too many people do it in single steps. They go in for one procedure and then later become unhappy with something else regarding their appearances and return for another procedure. This is reasonable, but it is much more effective to take advantage of programs set up by some of the best aesthetic doctors.

An aesthetic program will allow you to have different procedures performed at different times. Each step of the program will be administered according to the doctor’s timeline and personal analysis of your skin.

The benefit to doing this is you have a gradual change in your skin that makes you more youthful, vibrant and beautiful as time moves on. This continuous process of improving your appearances over time results in a much more natural change in how you look. That means you can essential grow young rather than growing old.

This gradual process is great if you don’t want others to know that you are having work done on your face. Rather than going in for one thing and seeing results then later you suddenly have other results, a program allows the aesthetic doctor to gradually work on your appearances so you are always looking better and better. It looks more natural to the outside world and you can always just say you are working out and eating healthy to get those gradual results.

Another benefit to going through an aesthetic program rather than having individual procedures done is the ability to work directly with a professional who knows all about keeping the skin healthy and alive. They know what procedures work well together and which ones should be spaced out. They know what should be done first and how much time should pass between procedures.

When you take advantage of an aesthetic doctor’s program you take full advantage of all their knowledge. They create the program because they know it will offer the results that many people want. They are so confident that they offer the program at very affordable prices in comparison to what they charge for individual procedures.

This means following a program could have financial savings for you with some aesthetic doctors. You get the advice and expertise of a professional doctor and all the procedures needed to look your absolute best over time. If you get a small discount on top for being a program participant it’s like the cherry on top of the youthful sundae.

If you are interested in getting any type of aesthetic procedure, it is always a good idea to ask about these programs when you go in for your consultation. Most doctors will naturally tell you about any programs that they feel you are a good fit for, but it never hurts to ask if you would be interested in gradually improving your appearances over time.

Of course, there is more expense when you follow these programs since you are doing more than getting just one quick procedure. You have to consider the total cost as well as the exact procedures included in the program before you decide it is the right thing for you. Some still prefer to just get one procedure and walk away without any further commitments.

Aesthetic doctor in Singapore specializing in aesthetic procedure. Find out more about our aesthetic services here.

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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Charles_Cheow