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Beauty Tip: Lemons

Monday, January 4, 2010

I'm still marinating on my New Years Goals (in lieu of resolutions), but one of them at the forefront is to be more "pretty." I want to fully embrace my inner lovely and the best way for me to do that is baby steps. For Christmas, my mother gifte me with a Chi flat iron. I've been coveting one of these babies since 2003, and I've never broken down and purchased one. Actually, I bought a Chi blow dryer, but never sprang for the flat iron. Anyway, I gave my new toy a whirl and boy was I hooked. I knew I would be. Every time I've borrowed a friend's or my sister's I wanted one even more. Honestly, I don't know why I never got around to purchasing one. I can only presume it has something to do with the fact of always wanting something with pizazz, but never giving in to that desire. (I'm sorry Christian Louboutin, I know there's a shoe with my name on it, but I still can't bring myself to dropping the equivalent of a month's daycare on a pair of foot candy. Just not gonna happen.)

That was a total sidetrack, huh? Man, ok add focus on being less ADD to that list. What was I saying? Oh yeah, embrace the lovely...

Ok. So here we are. Yeah, a couple of months ago I went on a date with my dh and we had the queen's dinner, complete with the tableside handwashing. In lieu of soap, we were each handed a large halved lemon. I scrubbed my hands with that lemon and they'd never felt more rejuvenated! Oh-so-soft and delicate, much like Disney's creations at Ruffles & Stuff. (Oh and enter her giveway for some yummy romantic baubles!)

While we were off in the Kansasland (as I like to dreamily call it...say it your best Glinda voice from The Wizard of Oz), my aunt had a book about home remedies. Some of these things were those duh-smak-yourself-on-the-forehead hints and others, I'd never considered. One such thing was the use of lemons as a shampoo. Ancient Egyptians used lemons to eliminate sebum buildup. (hey, what's this sebum mess you are talking about? You know, sebum! sea-bum: fatty secretion/keratin; that stuff that's a hot greasy mess on your scalp!) I have an oily scalp. It's outta control. It was under control BM, but after becoming a momma, it along with other parts of me, is out of whack. I hate it. bleh! nasty, yucky fattiness on my head. Sebum's only salvation is that it shares the shiny quality with the rest of my hair when I do like Marsha Brady and brush it 100 times. Talk about super shine (not to mention va-va-va-volume!)!

Anyway, I just so happened to have some lemons leftover from NYE celebration and opted to try out this lemon remedy while I showered. I took 1/2 of a lemon and used it like a shampoo bar against my scalp. I scrubbed pretty hard, actually and I also discovered that my scalp's pH is far different than the acidity of a lemon because it burned, IT BURNED, oh it burned so good!! Not like alcohol on a fresh cut burn, but that kind of prickly burn when you use astringent on a dirty face. You know what I mean. I didn't blow dry my hair, nor did I put any product in it. I just let it air dry, then later pulled it back in a pony tail. 15 hours later and holy cow! I'm not going to gross you out with the gory details of my experiment, but man! My scalp declared sebum-jihad (no offense to my arab friends, hi Anwar!) and went in there like a slum lord the day rent is due. Whoa, so fresh and so clean. It was utterly nauseating and yet, refreshing at the same time. I hurriedly jumped in the shower to use the 2nd half of my lemon and this time it didn't burn. Not one bit. It actually, get this, SQUEAKED! Interesting, 'eh?

Now, once a week, in addition to giving myself an at-home microdermabrasion treatment, I'll be doing this lemon treatment on my scalp. When I imagine the hundreds of dollars I've spent on glazes and other clarifying shampoos, it makes me sick. I could've just gone the 3 for $1 route on the ginormous lemons and been done with it. Live and learn, I suppose. Now I know. And knowing that, I'm inspired to look for more all-natural remedies. I'm in the beginning stages of creating my own dry shampoo when I discovered a $20 1.4 oz. bottle of it at the store. I read the ingredients and the first two were talc powder and corn starch. I know those two ingredients alone are FAR less than $20. I also plan to add a bit of ground oatmeal for sass. I'll let you know how that goes.

Anyway, cheers to being lovely! What are somethings you do to release your inner lovely?

Lemons=1
Ugly=0

p.s. the above image is from Natalie Dee. Check her out, she cracks me up!

3 comments:

Kristen, pajama mama said...

oh my goodness-you crack me up Bianca! Awesome discovery. I will have to try it with a leftover lemon!

Happy New Year!

chae said...

Now, I know your beauty secret, beautiful! I love au naturale! Next, I'd love a post about olive oil. I live on that stuff. :)

Jacki said...

Terah got a chi flat iron, too, for Christmas!! Your blog is funny, btw.

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