When I first met Horst Rechelbacher, founder of Aveda and, more recently (thank goodness), Intelligent Nutrients, we spent a lot of time talking about silicone. Silicone, most of you probably know, is widely used in personal care products across the spectrum—from the relatively clean to your standard-issue drugstore brands. It’s especially useful in makeup, primer, sunscreen and tinted moisturizer because it gives products a slippery sit-on-skin feeling that allows for even spreading, no rubbing, and produces a nice surface on top of which you can go ahead and make your face.
It’s also in a lot on conditioners and leave-ins, because it sits on the shaft of your hair and can take the guesswork (and manual labor) out of smoothing unruly manes, especially when it’s humid out. My experience is that repeated use of silicone on my hair makes it look like complete and utter garbage. My experience with my skin has not been quite the same.
As a refresher, most of the people I have spoken with who swear against it do so for one of a number of reasons. Because it’s occlusive (that means it sits on the surface of the skin and blocks moisture from escaping—but also blocks other things from going in); because it might be comedogenic (the research is equivocal on this one); and because it “doesn’t break down in nature,” says Rechelbacher (and others). On the other hand, dimethicone’s molecule weight makes it impossible, I believe, to migrate past the top layer of your skin—which is where it’s designed to sit, anyway. That’s how it “works.” But our research is ongoing at this point.
I know natural-beady diehards who swear by it and diehards who would, well, die before they used a product that contains it. We were in the latter camp. Now, we’re rethinking our position—but the jury’s still out.
No More Dirty Looks has historically said no to all silicone. It wasn’t on the list of our dirty 20-or-so in the book, mainly because the research we were able to find about its toxicity was unconvincing. At the same time, we can appreciate that many ingredients don’t have nearly enough scientific data published about their safety, and we definitely skew more toward “when in doubt, don’t.”
As promised here is the second half of my interview with the wise and wonderful Claudia Welch—along with a great video interview I found online. Loved reading everyone’s comments in Part 1, and I’m looking forward to hearing what you guys think of the book!
Since reading it I’ve been practicing many of the recommendations, and I honestly see a difference in how I feel. I don’t expect overnight miracles, but I’m hopeful that these practices are going to help regulate my periods and hormonal fluctuations. If anyone is interested in going deeper Dr. Welch is offering a live phone and online course in this stuff (that’s a link to sign up for a free call)—I’m going to try to sit in on a few if I can.
We’re curious: For those of you who have experienced imbalances, what—if anything—have you noticed affects this most? Is it stress, or food choices, or have you not made the connection? It’s so great to hear all your stories, and as Dr. Welch pointed out, we have such an intelligent and thoughtful community of readers here. The best!
Onto the interview…
Your prescriptions for rebalancing seem so simple, but they’re also quite specific. Tell us about a few that you’ve found very effective.
It is true that some of the prescriptions are simple. But simple can still be hard. If the prescription, for example, is: slow down, and we have been driving ourselves forward for too long, we may not know what “slow down” looks like, or how to get there from here. Sometimes “slow down” is the main prescription and it is often the most effective. But there are other, easier short term remedies that can be very effective.
When we have excess stress in our lives, our nervous systems become hyper sensitive. When they become hypersensitive, we are more likely to translate benign events as threatening ones. When we do that, more stress hormones are secreted, making our nervous systems even more hypersensitive. It is a downward cycle. If we could but calm down the nervous system, we could help break that cycle. And lo, there are ways and means to accomplish that very thing. And, behold, they are simple. Or can be.
One simple remedy is warm oil self-massage–called “Abhyanga” in Ayurveda. There are loads of nerve endings that enervate our skin–the largest organ of our bodies. In essence, we can calm the nervous system through the skin. It works. It is a bit too much to explain here, but it is described in an Appendix in Balance Your Hormones, Balance Your Life.
I also love 15 minutes of gentle Alternate Nostril Breathing practice, daily. I find it to be one of the most powerful remedies for hot flashes and hormonal imbalance in general.
High-intensity workouts are all the rage right now, but you warn that this type of exercise can be detrimental to some women—when do you recommend against it?
Eastern medicine recognizes that different constitutions require different amounts and types of exercise to maintain optimal health. Stronger, sturdier constitutions do well to engage in longer, harder workouts, while women with slight or delicate frames, do better with slower, er, less sweaty workouts.
There can be many signs that a woman is over exercising. When a woman, for example, is underweight or her periods are scanty, absent or irregular, these are some signs she is either under-nourished, over-exercising or simply outspending her resources in other arenas. In other words, even if she is consuming a healthy diet and getting regular and good sleep–both activities that serve to nourish yin in her body–her output may be exceeding her input. The energy she commits to exercise, work, run errands, etc. may be greater than energy she receives from food, sleep, sweet relationships and down time. In these situations, it would be much better for a woman to engage in gentle yoga, walking, tai qi or qi gong, than weight lifting, running, vigorous yoga or rigorous workouts.
Our bodies prioritize survival over reproduction so they will–100% of the time–allocate whatever nourishment we are receiving, first to our survival and to the organs and tissues that are crucial to survival. If there are resources left over, then they can go to nourish a healthy reproductive system.
Many of us in our forties and older, will remember Jane Fonda’s “make it burn” video workouts and feel like we are being lazy if we do anything less, but there are entire exercise forms in the East that focus more on moving qi or prana–our life force–internally, with gentle, minimal or even no physical movement. When we look at masters of those forms, they may barely move and never break a sweat, but are in incredible shape. These masters understand the value of irrigating our internal organs with energy, rather than simply our muscles, and we can see the results.
Last week the New York Times reported that Johnson & Johnson has announced plans to remove a host of questionable ingredients and contaminants from their products—notably formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane—by 2015.
According to the article they also intend to phase out parabens, phthlates, triclosan and other chemicals we’ve long had on our X list, though it was a little bit unclear from the piece whether this was all going to be on the same timeline.
This is notable progress, and even Kenneth Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, told the Times as much:
“We’ve never really seen a major personal care product company take the kind of move that they’re taking with this,” said Kenneth A. Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, one of the organizations that has been negotiating with company officials to change their practices. “Not really even anything in the ballpark.”
Here’s why: Hormones act upon every single cell in our bodies. For women, their impact is incredibly real. They affect our skin and our moods, whether we fit into our skinny jeans at certain times of the month, and when we need to have a good cry. They are wonderful and awful and mysterious all at the same time, but when they’re out of whack, we suffer in ways that can feel completely maddening.
Has anyone here ever stopped getting their period for seemingly no reason? Suffered from chronic cystic acne, or had the kind of PMS where you just want to cry all the time and can’t get out of bed? Have you been told to go on the pill by a doctor for something other than contraception?
Yes to all for me. Not at once, sure, but I’ve experienced these symptoms to varying degrees at different times of my life. This is why, when I came across Dr. Claudia Welch’s book Balance Your Hormones, Balance Your Life, I felt like—excuse the drama—the clouds had parted. Dr. Welch is an Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioner, and she’s one of the few people (Dr. Christiane Northrup, we’re looking at you) who speaks about women’s hormones in a way that really hits home. So it’s with great joy that I share some of her wisdom here on the site. Onto the interview!
In western medicine, hormone imbalances are often said to be unexplainable—or at least that’s been my personal experience. You shift this perception by bucketing hormones into two categories: yin and yang. Can you briefly expand on this for readers?
Eastern medicine is not reductionist medicine. We don’t usually look for the individual substances or things going on or going wrong. We tend to look more at patterns. Even though the ancient Eastern medical classics never name or discuss hormones per se, they do give us—both in the Chinese and Ayurvedic systems—fundamental ways of looking at phenomena and explaining them. One of these fundamental views is that of duality: how opposite forces tend to relate to each other. In TCM, they call these forces “yin” and “yang.” In Ayurveda the names are more complicated, but they are there and describe these forces in the same way.
Like moisturizing and mani-pedis, hair dyeing is a standard beauty ritual for many women. Yet, while natural skin-care and non-toxic nail polish brands have flourished, the world of hair color clings to its chemical roots.
Concerns about the contents of hair color date back to the ’70s, when news outlets alerted consumers to the dangers of widely-used ingredients like coal tar and benzidine, which are known carcinogens. Most manufacturers took these out and replaced them with less toxic chemicals.
But that didn’t silence the alarms. Many of the substitute ingredients still used in today’s hair dyes, like ammonia and parabens, have been linked to cancer in several research studies. The most prevalent, p-phenylenediamine (PPD) is a known allergen and has been linked to various cancers.
But, according to the American Cancer Society, evidence of hair dye’s carcinogenic effect on people is still lacking. One highly-publicized study concluded that hairstylists “probably are exposed to cancer causing substances.” But it didn’t look at whether they actually developed cancer. Nor did the study address the risk to customers who come into contact with or inhale the noxious fumes (albeit less regularly than the stylists). Still, a lack of consensus about risk doesn’t keep us from worrying.
So what are the natural choices available? Aveda, the face of natural hair color, seems to be the best of the traditional brands. Their plant-based dyes are “97% natural.”
Yesterday, I covered some general information about henna. Today I’m sharing my recipe and some techniques that work well for me. For more info, check out Henna For Hair. If you start with a kit, like one of these, it comes with dyes, instructions, a funnel-shaped plastic bag for applying the henna, and gloves (definitely use gloves!). Each kit covers collar length hair.
These days I’m using 2:1 henna to indigo. My grey ends up quite red, so my naturally medium brown hair ends up a rich auburn with redder highlights. This is my current process for doing my roots (more hair to cover needs more mix):
1. In a pyrex measuring cup, mix ½ cup henna with a half and half mix of lemon juice and filtered water, stirring with a silicone spatula (don’t use metal). The liquid can be anything acidic, but don’t use vinegar – I made that mistake the first time and it’s horribly stinky. I don’t measure the liquid, just pour a bit at a time and mix, adding more liquid as needed, until it’s mashed potato consistency. Cover with plastic wrap, touching the plastic wrap to the surface to keep air out. I leave it for about 12 hours for the dye to release, but if you keep it somewhere warm, say 95 degrees, it would only take a couple of hours.
2. When the henna is ready, mix ¼ cup indigo with a tiny scoop (~ 1/8 tsp) of salt, add filtered water and stir until it’s a yogurt consistency. Then scoop the indigo in with the henna, and mix well. I use the funnel from a kit to get the henna/indigo mix into a plastic hair dye bottle from the beauty supply store. I cut the tip to make a 6mm opening, perfect for root application. You can also put the henna on with the funnel or your fingers.
3. I part my hair in the middle and start there, squeezing a line of henna mix down to my scalp, as far back on my head as I can. Then I use a comb to make the next part about ¼ inch away and squeeze another line. With my gloved fingers I make sure the hair is pushed into the line of henna. I can get most of my head done like this, then flip my head over to get the rest of the back. That part is not perfect, I just let the tip of my applicator part the hair for me and it’s fine, though not as precise as using a comb. I check to make sure I’m covered, especially at the hairline. If I were going to do all of my hair, at this point I’d keep adding henna in sections and massaging it into my hair.
The last dirty product I ditched was hair dye. I loved the fun of coloring, but more than that I am very emotional about covering my grey. One day I hope to rock an edgy silver bob, but that’s a decade or two off still.
If you are one of those who embrace your natural aging process—and your grays—more power to you. But if, like me, you want to cover them and stay clean, henna is a great way to do it. It’s also a fun way to play with color, and easy too.
Almost everything I know about henna I learned from Henna For Hair and from experimenting on my own. I highly recommend checking out that site for recipes, techniques, and the chemistry of henna. They cover everything. And they sell the body art quality henna I have used for over a year.
Here are seven things you should know.
1. Henna, in combination with other plants known as cassia and indigo, can do any color from strawberry blonde, through the reds/auburns and browns to black. It cannot do a true blonde, and it cannot make your hair lighter.
2. High quality henna covers grey beautifully, and is permanent. You will need to do your roots as often as you would if you were using conventional dyes. Every so often you will probably want to pull the color throughout your hair, since, just like your natural color, exposure to the elements can fade color.
3. Real, pure henna will not damage your hair and is non-toxic. Sometimes there are boxes at the store that say henna on them, and it might be some version of henna mixed with other chemicals. I’ve never seen pure henna at any store.
4. Transitioning from conventional dye to henna is not as hard or scary as it seems. You can henna over conventional dye. There is a learning curve with henna, but once you get your routine down it is easy. Gorgeous, healthy hair is well worth it to me.
We’re firm believers over here that, if you’re listening, these bodies of ours may actually communicate what they need. And because I’ve done the exact opposite for some time—ignoring all the signs that my body is totally fed up with me—she’s been a bit of a loud b*tch lately, pardon my French.
See, even though I’m a healthy eater, and I put really nice stuff on my skin, and I exercise regularly—and despite what I sometimes preach—my stress levels have probably been way off the charts for way too many years. I think about fifteen. (My stress is sneaky too because people who don’t know me well think that I’m totally chill, as I quietly churn. Sometimes I even trick myself!) But from aches and pains to hiding periods, my body isn’t really playing ball anymore.
Which is why not too long ago, when I came face to face with a mountain of fresh ginger at the small grocer on my corner, and almost involuntarily reached for one of the gnarled stubs—it gave me pause.
Sure, I knew ginger was healthy, and that ginger tea was good for digestion. But I was unprepared for the barrage of health benefits this strange and spicy root has to offer, some supported by science and others anecdotally.
Just a few that I came across: Ginger does contain powerful digestive enzymes;
Excuse the small digression, but I thought this was a topic worth tabling. New research done by the Center for Environmental Health has found significant levels of lead in many mainstream handbags, most certainly available at a store near you.
The Center for Environmental Health pulled purses from 100 top retailers to test—everyone from Target to Neiman Marcus and H&M—and found that out of 300 tested, 43 bags contained significant levels of lead.
Some purses, like one from Tory Burch, contained as much as 580 times the amount of lead allowed in children’s toys, which we can only hope is basically none.
According to California law—prop. 65, the same law that busted the Brazilian Blowout—these purses should come with a big fat warning sign.
Burch, who at least had the decency to comment, unlike Guess and others in the hot seat, said that she’s “appalled” and launching a full investigation. Given how disconnected companies are from the far-away factories that make their products, it’s not surprising that brands don’t always know what they’re putting out on the retail floor. But that’s no excuse, since according to this ABC report “hundreds of manufacturers” had already signed an agreement saying they’d limit lead in their products. In other words: They know it’s a problem.
Dihydroxyacetone—that’s DHA to you— which is the active ingredient in self-tanners (even clean ones) and spray tans (none of which are clean) “has the potential to cause genetic alterations and DNA damage,” according to a panel of scientists in an investigation done by ABC News.
Now before you run to the bathroom and ditch your Chocolate Sun, let’s take a closer look at what we know so far.
What are the news reports saying?
That DHA has the potential to cause genetic alterations, DNA damage, and cancer.
What’s DHA anyway?
DHA is a sugar that interacts with amino acids in the top layer of your skin to produce pigment called melanoidins; that’s the brownish tanned look these products achieve. DHA can be manufactured synthetically, or it can be derived from natural things, like beet sugar or cane sugar. It was approved by the FDA for topical use in 1977 (and many orange tans ensued!) and is widely accepted as nontoxic when applied to the skin.
So is it toxic?
Some research showed that when it’s applied in the form of a lotion, DHA does not migrate past the stratum corneum, the outermost layer of skin that’s also sometimes called the “dead skin layer.” Which sounds gross, but it’s good news, we thought, for your organs and your blood if you’re applying it in a cream as opposed inhaling it in the form of a spray tan or a spray-on self tanner.
Up until now, there’s been the most concern about spray tans, because the application method means you might inhale the stuff. Even the FDA, which is typically mum about all things cosmetics-related, has a warning on its website about them. Which means that for the love of all things good (and good looking) you should not be getting a spray tan!
Fine. But I’m good to go with a self tanner, right?
Not so fast.
FDA reports dating back to the 1990s, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, cited research that some DHA can migrate to the living layers of the skin after all. How much of it—and where it goes from there—is anybody’s guess.
