Hair Guide for Winter Time

The shift from warm weather to cooler temperatures is enjoyable for many people. You get to dig out those sweaters and jackets, walk through fall foliage, and wake up to brisk air streaming through the still open windows. But the flip side of crisp, cool autumn – and the approaching winter – is that something else needs to change: the way you take care of yourself.

Cold air, central heat, increasing winds, and less humidity means that your once luscious skin and hair will begin to dry out, leading to dull skin, an itchy scalp, and cracked feet and hands. While these conditions are uncomfortable, having dry skin also affects your self-esteem. If you don’t think you look your best, you’re not going to feel your best. And as skin is designed to protect us from infection, illness, and allergens, it’s essential to tend to it.

Caring for Skin and Brazilian Hair Weave in Fall and Winter

Good news: There’s plenty you can to do to insulate yourself from the drying climate, and the best time to start is now.

1. Moisturize Frequently

As the outdoor humidity drops, so too does the water content of your skin. In essence, this means it needs better protection – aka a heavier moisturizer. The type you choose depends largely on your skin type. If you have dry or combination skin, pick a moisturizer that’s oil-based rather than water-based, which is what many use in the summer. Thicker, greasier night creams are usually oil based so they can work their magic all night long.

If you have oily skin, your skin may actually relish the loss of moisture in the air, and you might not need to make any transition until winter fully arrives. However, if it starts to feel tight or itchy or looks as if it’s drying out, it’s time for the big guns. Either way, natural moisturizers work best. Olive oil and coconut oil are my saviors, though shea butter, cocoa butter, avocado oil, sweet almond oil, and vitamin E oil also work well.

Lest we not forget, thorough skincare means moisturizing from the inside, too. Taking vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids – either as supplements or through increased intake of nutritious foods, such as fish, nuts and leafy greens – helps to improve your skin’s elasticity.

And don’t forget a critical rule of skincare in any season: Use sunscreen. Even in fall and winter, especially with snow glare, the sun shines damaging rays. This is the fastest way to age your epidermis. If possible, find moisturizers that contain sunscreen. Otherwise, make sure you apply a good quality SPF 30 simultaneously. If you are concerned about the efficacy of your sunscreen, consult the Environmental Working Group’s Sunscreen Guide for a list of the best sunscreens on the market.

Always moisturize head to toe right after a shower, when your pores are open wide. However, if your skin is prone to acne, this could clog your pores and cause a breakout – so experiment to see how your skin responds best. When you find something that works, stick with it.

If your skin is super dry during the height of winter, consider doing your hands, face, and neck hourly with a natural moisturizer sans any irritating chemicals. You need to be careful because some commercial products actually contain ingredients linked to cancer. If you’re unsure if your current moisturizer or other beauty product is safe, look it up on the Cosmetic Safety Database.

2. Protect Your Brazilian Hair Weave

Just as your skin takes a seasonal beating, your locks get dry and frizzy as well. Flyaway hair and split ends are often reported from the lack of humidity, so hair needs a thick moisturizer to coat each strand and protect it from blow drying on top of the outside air.

Coconut Oil
This is my personal favorite, a miracle product many people don’t know about. I use it in my hair, on my skin (even my face), and even as an additive in food and coffee. It’s so multipurpose I actually buy it in bulk.

What’s so great about it, you ask? Well, besides smelling great, it is loaded with vitamin E, helps control dandruff, contains lauric acid (an antimicrobial that can slow hair loss), and coats the Brazilian hair weave shaft with proteins to build strength, repair damage, and improve shine.

Coconut oil becomes a liquid at 76 degrees. Simply melt a couple tablespoons in the microwave for a couple of seconds (don’t overheat!), or use warm water to melt it down, then massage into your hair and scalp. Let it sit a few minutes, then rinse thoroughly. You can also use solidified coconut oil to tame frizz and add shine. Simply rub your fingers on the coconut oil and massage it into your hair and scalp. If your hair is thin, you might find coconut oil weighs it down, so use less and smear it on the hair but not the scalp.

Coconut oil is available in most large grocery stores or in natural food stores like Whole Foods. Some health and beauty chains, such as The Body Shop, sell coconut oil specifically for hair and skin, but it’s quite expensive. You can save far more buying a tub of it from a market or from Amazon.

Apple Cider Vinegar and Baking Soda
Shampooing in general tends to strip hair of natural oils, and that’s why many people choose natural shampoos. Some use baking soda and apple cider vinegar exclusively to wash their hair. If you search online for “baking soda hair” or “baking soda shampoo,” you’ll find countless stories of people who say their Brazilian hair weave is fuller, healthier, and stronger using these two natural ingredients. My husband uses apple cider vinegar several times a week for his dandruff, and it works far better than any expensive shampoo. So making this switch is clearly a cost cutter as well.

Use the baking soda as a wash by mixing one tablespoon in one cup of water. It’s easier if you put it in a squeeze bottle. Let it sit a couple of minutes, then rinse with the vinegar by mixing one tablespoon with one cup of water as well.

Once you first start using this regularly, your hair weave might actually react by producing more oil – but this is normal. Your Brazilian hair is used to having all the oils stripped out by shampoo and then replaced with conditioner, so it might take several days, or even a few weeks, until it adjusts. Then it will balance out – and look amazing and much healthier.

3. Exercise and Stay Hydrated

Ever notice how much healthier people look during the summer? That’s due to several factors: We spend a lot of time outdoors absorbing vitamin D; we are more active; and, partly because of the heat, we drink a lot more water. Then the seasons change, and we slowly move into hibernation mode. And quite simply, stagnation and sitting isn’t good for any part of your body.

In the chillier months, it’s essential to keep up your level of exercise. It not only makes you feel great, but it helps remove toxins from your system and gives your skin a healthy glow. There are plenty of ways to work out at home, so a gym membership isn’t a necessary purchase. I gave up mine years ago in favor of doing yoga at home, and I’d never go back to slogging on a treadmill!

Because you also need to keep drinking water when the temperatures dip, try to develop a routine at work where you sip throughout the day and aim for a full eight glasses by the time you go home. Once you’re in a good groove, try to extend the routine to the weekends. And use a small cup so you have to walk more to fill it up. Every step counts.

4. Don’t Turn Up the Hot Water

When the weather gets cold, it’s tempting to turn up the hot-water heater to make those showers extra toasty. However, hot water actually dehydrates your skin and Brazilian hair weave, especially in drier air. Soaking yourself in a too-hot tub is like cooking the moisture out of your skin, stripping it of natural protective oils – and you actually risk surface burns. By contrast, a comfortably warm bath can help seal in skin’s moisture, especially if you add oatmeal, dry or liquid milk, and even honey to the water.

To help temper your use of hot water, keep the water heater at the same position all year round – or better yet, see if you can edge it down in the fall and winter.

5. Exfoliate Naturally

Skin cells are constantly dying. As sad as that sounds, it’s actually a healthy thing, because they’re always being replaced with fresh new cells. When you exfoliate – scrub away the dry, dead cells – you accelerate that process and prevent your skin from looking dull and pasty. I use oatmeal as a natural exfoliant, as it’s great on dry skin, especially when blended with milk and honey. If you have oily skin, use baking soda and water. Both work wonders and are far cheaper than commercial masks.

Scrub your skin with a quality exfoliant at least twice weekly during the cooler months. If your skin is especially dry, you might want to opt for three or four times.

6. Use a Humidifier

During the winter, chances are your heat runs constantly. In my home, the moisture level indoors can be as low as 25% without a humidifier. To put that in perspective, the Mojave Desert often has a humidity level of 20%. A humidifier running quietly in the rooms you use most keeps a necessary level of dampness in the air. There are single-room units and even whole-house humidifiers that connect to your HVAC system. Consider it money well spent.

It’s especially important to use a humidifier overnight. In addition to keeping your skin and Brazilian hair weave moist, this keeps your sinus passages clear and better equipped to fight off germs. Plus, you no longer wake up with gunk in your eyes.

Final Word

These are just some of the things you can try. Another strategy is not to walk outside without gloves on. Your hands have far fewer oil glands than other parts of your body, which is why they’re so vulnerable to harsh winter air and so much harder to keep moist. Keep them wrapped up when outside, and use a natural moisturizer like coconut or olive oil right when you come back in.

With proper tending, your skin and hair can thrive all year round. My skin used to get so dry and itchy starting every November, and I was in misery until the warm rains of April. But thanks to the natural products I use now, I look just as good in December as I do in June.

How do you keep your skin and hair healthy through fall and winter?

11

iRobot Braava Jet 240 Mopping Robot Review

Dried pools of dog drool, coffee spills, and pasta-sauce splatters can thwart even the fanciest robo vac. Instead of sucking, IROBOT BRAAVA JET 240 MOPPING ROBOT tackles floor gunk using water-activated cleaning pads.
Testing

The Braava Jet runs on a removable lithium-ion battery, which needs an initial two-hour charge before you can send the bot off on cleaning duty. While you wait, you can also download iRobot's standalone app; it's not mandatory, but gives you access to a few custom options, like a spot cleaning mode and control over the amount of water the scrubber uses during cleaning.

The bot comes with three kinds of cleaning pads: a blue one for wet mopping, an orange one for damp sweeping, and a white one for dry sweeping. It'll automatically recognize the pad type you load and use the appropriate corresponding cleaning pattern. As far as we can tell, the main difference between the three modes is how much water the Braava use (a lot, a little, and none, respectively), the sweeping pattern, and number of passes. Also, the pad vibrates in wet mopping mode.




We set our test unit loose on an objectively gross 49-square-foot sealed wood kitchen floor, which clearly called for a triple-pass wet mop. So we loaded the Braava with one of the two included blue cleaning pads, set it in the left corner about a foot away from the walls, and hit the glowing "Clean" button. We did subsequent damp and dry sweeping tests on the same kitchen floor after creating our own artisanal messes consisting of dried soda, dog hair (it's shedding season!), and some dirt from the backyard. We also had the Braava Jet clean our two bathrooms.



Observations

With a week's worth of dinner prep debris on the floor, we were worried this initial mess would prove too much for the Braava Jet. To our surprise, the tiny 7-by-7-inch bot did a remarkably thorough cleanup job. The cycle took about 14 minutes, during which time the Braava Jet managed to sweep up the small bits of food, and eradicate all evidence of the liquid spills on the floor. While it had a little trouble with the dog hair (the bot managed to mop some of it up, but a fair amount it just pushed into the corners), the kitchen floor looked great overall.

The wet-mopping pattern has the Braava Jet swing out to the left and right as it moves forward, occasionally squirting the floor with water. Once you start the cleaning process, it will do a double pass on the first row then move gradually from the left side of the room to the right, Zamboni-style. In our case, a thin carpet created a natural border separating the kitchen from the hallway, which the Braava recognized on its own. You can also set up a virtual wall via the app if no such barrier exists in your home.

Automatic Gate Opener: How To Choose

BODY

MIGHTY MULE 350 was designed to be used along with the Sentry 300 S model. The gate opener unit comes in black color. The Sentry 300 S has to be installed first to use the Sentry 300 D for the double swing gate. Separate batteries are not required for the unit to function as it is connected to the Sentry 300 S, which has already been installed onto a single swing gate.

FEATURES

• Some of the features that were seen in the Sentry 300 S can be seen in the MIGHTY MULE 350 as well. Though there are very few exceptions, like for instance the battery requirements. The complete Sentry 300 D kit does not include the battery and does not need them. The Sentry 300 D is added to the gates to which the Sentry 300 S is already installed to make the swinging action of both the doors efficient.
• This electric opener derives the power from the 12 volt DC battery and the AC transformer that is included in the Sentry 300 S. This way, the Sentry 300 D can be fixed to the double gates of farm gates of 20 feet length. It can also be attached to wood paneled gates without any fear of damage to the gates.
• The complete package of MIGHTY MULE 350 consists of a watertight junction box, wire nuts for connection and a controlling kit. A 50’ cable is present to connect to the Sentry 300 S and a linear actuator that can be coupled along with the linear actuator of the Sentry 300 S. All the mounting hardware units required for the safe installation of the gate opener to the gates are included in the package.

DURABILITY

The manufacturer provides a warranty of 3 years for the Sentry 300 D and covers the replacement and the repair of the defective components in the gate opener. An extended 7-year warranty can be availed on the device from the manufacturer; wherein you have to pay a minimal amount for the replacement or repair of the defective components.

PROS:

• Watertight control box keeps the wiring away from water contact
• Commercial grade dual gate opener
• Wireless keypad facility on request
• Dual swing door opening becomes easy

CONS:

• Does not come with a solar power panel and needs to be purchased separately.

Comprehensive Guide to Prepare Health and Safety Policy for Small Business

Having a health and safety policy in place is crucial when running a business. It’s a legal requirement to have your policy in writing if you employ five or more people. You should also make sure your policy contains the right information, in case a health and safety inspector pays you a visit.

So, when it comes to putting together your health and safety policy, what should you include?

Key sections of your policy

First, it’s important to mention that a good health and safety policy is set out in three sections. These are policy statement, responsibilities, and arrangements.
Understanding each section and what it should cover, which is relevant specifically to your business, can help you know what to include when writing your policy.

Policy statement

This is your statement of general policy on health and safety in business. Sometimes called a general statement of intent, the statement, which you should sign and date, should set out your commitment to health and safety in your place of work.

Importance of Annual Employee Drug Testing for Businesses

Drug testing your employees is not only a mandatory requirement, but also company policy to which many businesses follow. The need to have a drug test is to prevent the increase of accidents as well as low in productivity. Drug testing is an important factor which company owners need to adhere especially that it affects production and in providing services. This activity obliges personnel, new and/or old, to take a drug test. Usually, employees are required to present their urine samples for screening but there are also those which need hair, blood, sweat and even saliva samples. Some people do not understand the concept of having to undergo drug testing and other businesses don’t practice this at all.

The growing importance is enough of an explanation. As far as where medical needs stretch, the test is limited to those that can present legal papers for proof. But there’s still another procedure for that to confirm when the result comes in positive. Even then, getting your employees test for a yearly or even a quarterly drug test is beneficial for you and your people. Why so?

Productivity

Drug abuse is one of the common problems in a workplace aside from taking it as a medication. This type of illegal substances can impair a person’s senses, such as his or her physical capability as well as the mental state. When that happens, how do you expect them to reach a certain level of productivity when they are not consistent with what they are doing? Even if you’re earning 70% of your capital, once it is affected just because you didn’t know one of your workers is taking illegal drugs, your profit will basically go down. Applying the test into your business will let you know who these users are and you can promote a much safer and productive floor for your company.

6 Tips for Printing DIY Stationery for Your Home and Small Business

Creating stationery is not an easy art form, especially if you are planning to turn it into a small business. True, the tools you need are easily available, such as a good printer, art materials, paper, and image-editing software. However, creating designs for letterheads, notepads, and the like are not simple. It takes a lot of talent and skill to balance form and function when designing stationery. After all, a couple of mistakes here and there can cost you dearly.

Thankfully, there are several things you can do to lessen your financial and artistic load. Here are six tips to help you in making DIY stationery, be it at home or for business.

Switch to Compatible Ink Cartridges and Toners

Printer ink is a necessity in completing your DIY stationery designs. However, it is a known fact that original equipment manufacturer (OEM) ink is expensive. Luckily, cheaper alternatives like reliable, compatible ink cartridges and toners exist. Compatible ink cartridges are manufactured by a third-party company. Because the cartridges are made by a different manufacturer, compatible products don’t have to worry about recovering their development costs, unlike original manufacturers. This allows them to sell ink and toner cheaper, even when the cartridges are produced en masse. What’s more, the cartridges of compatible ink and toners have not been used, so the product works like new.