Thursday, April 26, 2012

Lemon Brownie Bars

I love lemon! Lemon is one of my favorite flavors and I have been so excited to find so many recipes on Pinterest. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to try many of them, but this is the first of more to come I'm sure.

This recipe is really delicious! I call them brownie bars because they look like cake, but are thick like brownies or desert bars. I hope that you like this recipe as much as the people who came to my mom's open house loved them!


Ingredients
3/4 cup of flour
3/4 cup of sugar
1 stick of butter, softened
2 eggs
3 Tablespoons of lemon juice
 
Directions
Put flour and sugar in a bowl and add soft butter. In another bowl mix eggs and lemon juice. Pour into dry mixture and mix well. Pour into a greased 8x11.5x2 (or 8x8) pan. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Let it cool before adding glaze.

Icing Ingredients
1/2 cup of powdered sugar
3 Tablespoons of lemon juice
1 drop of yellow food coloring
 
Icing Directions
In a small bowl place ingredients and mix until smooth. Glaze on cooled brownies.
 
Notes
Original recipe: Lemon Brownies

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Tangy Frozen Yogurt

I was craving something with lots of Vitamin C and had lemon juice, peaches and orange juice concentrate on hand. I decided to blend them together and create a new flavor of frozen yogurt. My second frozen yogurt experiment turned out so good, Berry Frozen Yogurt, that I decided to try a new recipe. The only thing in this that isn't necessarily healthy would be the orange juice concentrate, but since I am using plain yogurt this gives just enough sweetness to it that you don't have to add sugar.

When you get ready to take a bite of this be prepared for a lot of tang. It gets better on the second bite though so don't decide not to like it until you've tried a few bites! :)


Ingredients
1/4 cup of lemon juice
12-15 slices (1 cup) peach slices, frozen
1 32 oz. container of plain yogurt, frozen for 2 hours in freezer
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/2 cup or 6 Tablespoons of orange juice concentrate, frozen
Directions
Blend all ingredients, stir if/when necessary. Pour back into yogurt container and another container and place in freezer. Freeze until the mixture reaches the thickness you want. I usually freeze mine 4-5 hours.

How I know Lemon's and Peaches have Vitamin C:
Information on Lemon's from WHFoods (World's Healthiest Foods).
Information on Peaches from Livestrong.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

My Weight Loss

For the past year I have been really focused on getting my weight back under control. In March 2011 I was on medicine to help with my brain injury. Unfortunately a huge side effect of this medicine was weight gain. I gained over 30 pounds, which caused me much depression and a lot of agony. My old clothes no longer fit, and if I could get them on they did not look good on me.


I spent 5 months working out, choosing what I ate carefully, drinking lots of water and walking a ton to even begin seeing any progress towards my original weight. I actually weigh 160 now which is 10 pounds (give or take) less than I weighed before the weight gain! I am very excited about this.

My current goal is to continue to tone my body and the focus is no longer weight gain. I am happy with my size and how I look for the most part. There are some areas such as my stomach/legs which I feel need more work, but that will take more time and lots of dedication.

I have an encouragement group which I have created on Facebook for the purpose of encouraging others towards their goals in weight loss and healthier living. I created this after discovering that there really wasn't anything out there (on Facebook) which was an encouragement base for these types of goals.

With Exercise Encouragement Group, on Facebook, I am able to post encouraging and motivating statements for fellow exercisers to read and be motivated to continue towards their individual goals. Recently I have been posting a motivational picture each day as I am able. This seems to be very popular and I will continue to do this.

My latest project for the Exercise Encouragement Group is to post before and after pictures such as the one I made above. I want to have a collection of these to show people who go to this page and/or "like" this page that it is possible to reach their goals.

I would like to write many more posts on how I was able to lose weight and how I have been able to keep it off with simple maintenance. This will take a lot more thought and writing before it is ready, but I will go ahead and start a draft to hopefully post as soon as I can.

I hope that you will be able to find encouragement from this post. If you are working towards goals in exercise, fitness, healthy eating, or healthy living and have a Facebook I would love for you to "like" the page so that you will be able to get updates and be encouraged. Also, if you do like the page feel free to write posts as often as you want on how things are going towards reaching the goals you have set for yourself.

UPDATE: I now run most of my posting via the Exercise Encouragement Group blog, but they are linked with the facebook page so it is still active!

Oreo Cake

This recipe is not my own. I 'stole' it from my friend Kali. She made it for a party I went to and I loved it! Everyone that has tried it since has loved it. This is a very easy to make, no bake recipe. I hope you enjoy it!


Ingredients
1 (20 ounce) package chocolate sandwich cookies (Oreo's)
1/2 cup butter
1 (16 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 cups milk
1 (3.5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix

Directions
Crush cookies into bite size pieces. Reserve 1 cup for top. Melt butter and mix with rest of cookies. Press into 9x13 pan. Put in freezer for 5 minutes.
Blend 1/2 of the whipped topping, all of the cream cheese and confectioners' sugar. Spread over crust and place cake back in freezer.
Prepare instant pudding with the milk according to package directions then spread over top of cake. Spread the remaining whipped topping on top of the pudding then sprinkle with the remaining cookies. Keep cake refrigerated.

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Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Snacking Healthy | Berry Frozen Yogurt


I love Frozen Yogurt! I recently decided to try and make my own. I looked up a lot of recipes, but the main one I used for reference was from Poor Girl Eats Well. The first attempt was peppermint flavor because I love peppermint. Unfortunately, that attempt flopped. Peppermint and honey do not taste good together! My second attempt was the berry flavor. Let me just say it is amazing!


Ingredients
4-5 Tablespoons of lemon juice
1 16 oz. container of plain yogurt, which has been in the freezer 2 hours
1 cup of frozen blueberries
1 cup of frozen strawberries
2 Tablespoons of water
1/2 cup of sugar

Directions
1. In a blender place the yogurt and lemon juice. Blend.
2. Add in the blueberries and strawberries.
3. In a microwave safe bowl put the water and sugar. Microwave for 30 seconds. Stir until sugar is melted.
4. Once the sugar is melted pour it into the blender with the yogurt mix. Blend again.
5. Pour the yogurt mix into two separate fairly shallow containers and freeze. I put my mix in the freezer for three hours and then stirred it up and served myself a bowl because I couldn't wait any longer.

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Hair | Build-Up Remover

Okay girls listen up! For those of you who use hair gel or mouse or another hair product this recipe is definitely one you want knowledge of! You will mix up this mixture and work it into your scalp to remove product build up and give your hair a great sense of feeling clean. I suggest using this about once a week, but it can be used daily with no bad effects.

Recipe
2 Tablespoons of brown sugar
1 Tablespoon of your conditioner.

Mix these two ingredients up in a small cup or bowl. Take to the shower with you. Once you have washed your hair with your shampoo (if you use shampoo) then apply this directly to your scalp and scrub in.

~Notes: The length of your hair does not matter because this recipe is only for your scalp. Also, you do not want to make a bunch of this up at once seeing as the sugar will dissolve into the conditioner and be useless after it sits for more than a day (or two).

~Curly Hair: In the book Curly Girl by Lorraine Massey she suggests using this mix as a cleaner for your scalp in place of shampoo since it is less harsh on your curls.

DIY Shaving Cream

Girls prepare to have soft legs due to this amazing shaving cream! Do keep in mind this isn't like what you buy at the store, but in my opinion it is much better! I found this recipe on A New Leaf via Pinterest and tried it myself. I loved how it made my legs feel! I didn't have to put on lotion afterwards which was even more amazing and a time saver.


Ingredients
1 1/2 cups of conditioner
1 cup of shampoo
1/2 cup of body lotion
2-3 tablespoons of olive oil (this is what makes your legs soft, but it also makes this mixture runny)

Put all ingredients into a bottle, and shake very well until everything is all mixed up. This mix will be really runny. You can let it sit before you use it or you can use it right away. I used mine right away. From the original recipe this should take about a month to use up, but that depends on how much you use of the mix when shaving. Shake each day you use it to mix the ingredients up.

Notes
By the way... mine is brown because I used some leftover conditioner with brown sugar mix in it... It didn't seem to effect the over all turn out though.

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Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Beauty Tips | Dealing With Acne

For most of my teenage years I hardly ever had any breakouts or problems with acne/bumps on my face. But lately, with college stress and life stress, I seem to always have a ton of bumps all over my forehead. Because of this problem (and it looking unsightly) I have been trying lots of home remedies to make the bumps less obvious and/or go away. Here are the things I tried:

Mouthwash
Yes, weird I know, but it works! One day I had canker sores and was using mouthwash. As I was rinsing my mouth out with the strong stuff I looked in the mirror and saw my terrible broken out forehead. The idea to try mouth wash on my forehead didn't come until later, but I thought: if this removes sores due to bacteria in the mouth wouldn't it do the same for the forehead? So, I decided to give it a try. It took me about 3 days before most of the bumps were gone.




~What I Did: I would put a little mouthwash in the cap and then tilt my left ear towards the sink. Then I would very carefully pour the mouthwash out on my forehead, then turn my forehead down towards the sink and rub it in. I would let it sit there for about 30 seconds and then wash it off and dry my face. I did not use any soap before doing this and I didn't use any lotions after doing this. If you don't want to pour it like I did then just put some in your hand and rub it on your face, same result. Make sure to keep your hands off your face after you wash the mouthwash off! Your skin may feel different (softer in my case) but oils from your hands can make breakout's worse.

Dove Soap
White Dove soap is good for you skin. In regular cleaning of your skin this is the best soap to use in my opinion. However, I don't think it helps with acne/bumps on the face. I do recommend using this regular to keep your skin clean.

Aspirin Mask
Another trick I tried was rubbing aspirin on my face. I tried this a few times but nothing ever really seemed to improve. Lots of sites I have visited when looking for information on this mask have said that it does not work, or that to work properly it is supposed to be applied to the actual spot and not the whole face.

~My thoughts: don't try it unless you just want to. I didn't like it and it didn't help me.

To read some information on the Aspirin Mask for yourself, check out these links:

Acne Treatments - Aspirin Mask
Aspirin Mask Reviews

Where I originally discovered the Aspirin Mask:
Painted Ladies Blog: Breaking Down Beauty: The Aspirin Mask

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Baking Soda Shampoo/Vinegar Rinse

I use old Bath and Body Work's bottles. One full bottle lasts me a week, sometimes more, sometimes less depending on how much I wash my hair during the week and how much of the mix I use.

This is how my Baking Soda Shampoo and Vinegar Rinse look. I use the red cap bottle for the rinse and silver for the shampoo. You can tell in the shampoo that the baking soda settles at the bottom of the bottle. I just made this mix up and about 10 minutes later it was seperated. Also, I use a ton of baking soda so when you make yours it won't have this much baking soda.


Baking Soda Shampoo
1 Bath and Body Work bottle, rinsed out to where there is no soap in it!
2-4 Tablespoons of Baking Soda
Lots of water

I use a funnel to get the baking soda into the bottle, then I fill it with the faucet until it reaches the bottom of where the lid screws down.

To Use: Shake it about 3 good shakes to get the baking soda off the bottom of the bottle and out into the water part. You only need to apply this to your scalp area. I sprinkle VERY generously onto my scalp and then tilt my head under the water a few seconds, pull away from the water and use my finger tips to massage the mix into my scalp in a fairly circular motion. But if something works better for you then go for it! Make sure to rinse out very well. Also, if you feel like you need to clean the ends of your hair just collect your hair into a side pony tail and pour some stuff on it and rub it in. I practically never do this.

Vinegar Rinse
1 Bath and Body Work bottle, rinsed out to where there is no soap in it!
1/4 cup White or Apple Cider Vinegar (I use white)
Lots of water

Again, I use a funnel to get the vinegar in if I'm measuring it. If I'm not measuring it then I just hold the bottle over a sink (or the washer, since the white vinegar is in my laundry room) and pour however much in it as I want. Then fill the rest of the bottle with water.
I mentioned above that I do half vinegar and half water. I don't suggest you start off with this much unless you just like the smell of vinegar. I think you have to give yourself time to adjust to how strong of a smell it has before using so much.

To Use: Pour very generously on scalp. I put my hair in a side pony tail to be able to pour the vinegar on the ends easier. Let it sit in your hair for as long as you want. Most of the time I will wash my hair before I shave so that I can let the vinegar sit there longer. That's just me though. I go through the Vinegar Rinse a lot faster than the Baking Soda Shampoo. I usually use two bottles of this on a week where I wash my hair a lot, otherwise this will last me a week.

Related Posts

Crockpot Potatoes

This is a family favorite recipe and is perfect for holidays or other events where you want to prepare a main food ahead of time!


Ingredients
20 potatoes; peeled, chopped, cooked, and drained
16 oz. sour cream
16 oz. marble jack cheese, shredded (we like to shred the block ourselves because it has a better flavor than pre-packaged shredded cheese)
1 stick of Butter
Salt and Pepper

Directions
1. Place all ingredients in a greased, large crockpot. You can layer potatoes, sour cream, cheese, butter, salt/pepper two times if you like. It is better this way.
2. Cook on low for 2-3 hours, or until it is hot and cheese is melted.
3. Serve warm.

Beauty Tips | Hair!

This is one subject I certainly know a lot about! I have spent huge amounts of time taking care of my hair and figuring out what works best for me. I hope that some of these tips are helpful for you as well. And, as always, if you have any questions about something not discussed, or posted here, feel free to post in the comments!

I have SUPER curly hair which is semi-thick and getting long. I have been trying to grow it out since September of 2011. I have not cut it since about July of 2011. I am very anxious for my hair to get down to my waist, and even longer I hope! Right now it is mid back length.


                                                            My hair. :)

Check out my Pinterest board: Mess of Curls for hairstyle ideas.

Topics
In order of appearance.

~To Cut Or Not To Cut
~Using Heat vs. Not
~Store Bought Shampoo vs. Homemade Shampoo
             (Baking Soda Shampoo and Vinegar Rinse Recipes)
~Use Of Hair Products
~To Tease Or Not To Tease
~Hair Treatments and Moisturizers
~Pulling Your Hair Up vs. Leaving It Down
~Curly Hair Tips
~Dandruff
~Lice Prevention
~When Swimming
~Hair Recipes

To Cut Or Not To Cut
I personally do not cut my hair. There are mixed reasons for this. First, I am Pentecostal and do not believe in cutting my hair. Hair is a woman's glory and she shouldn't cut it off. I am a new Pentecostal so I have not been letting my hair grow since I was born... but I have had very long hair (aka to my waist) more than a few times in my life. Second, I think that by not cutting my hair it seems to have grown a lot faster since when you go to get your hair cut a few inches are removed each visit. This means that all the new hair you have grown out is still at the roots, but the ends are cut off and therefore you're really not growing your hair very fast. So, my opinion on cutting hair is: don't cut it!


However, if you are okay with cutting your hair occasionally then go ahead. I would suggest that if you are trying to grow it out don't cut your hair very often. Try to cut it about every 3 months at the most and less if you can. The main reason for cutting it this many times is if you straighten your hair regularly, or blow dry it, and you have split ends you need to keep them trimmed off. There are many ways to help prevent as strong heat damage, but still, if you constantly use these heat tools on your hair you will have split ends and you will want to keep them trimmed to help prevent your hair from looking gross at the ends.

Using Heat vs. Not
First off: Using anything that is very hot (aka curling iron, flat iron, hair dryer) IS GOING TO DAMAGE YOUR HAIR!!! If you want to straighten your hair or use one of the other mentioned things, make sure you take care of your hair or you will end up with horrible spit ends... you will have split ends anyway, but taking care of your hair before this happens will help them not be near as bad. I straightened my hair constantly 3 years ago and I am still suffering from spit ends, though now it's possibly from other things such as stress and not so much just from having used heat on my hair so much.


~Products to Use: Condition your hair! Any conditioner that you want to use will probably be fine, just USE IT religiously! Also, once you get out of the shower put a leave in heat protector in your hair so that when you go to blow dry (if you don't air dry) your hair it will be protected. And if you plan to straighten your hair later even if you don't blow dry, then still add a leave in heat protector. This will seal your hair and protect it from the enormous amounts of heat it will experience and will also help protect against split ends. Also, if you feel like your hair is really dry get a leave in conditioner to use as well. I personally like Infusium 23: 3 Leave-In Treatment: Repair and Renew. (Later I discuss how I use this product.)

~Air drying is amazing! If you have long hair it can take hours and be a pain, but it's worth it if you have the time. If you blow dry often, give your hair a break one day when you will be home for awhile. If you air dry but plan to use heat later still had in a heat protector or leave-in conditioner, or both!

~What I Do: I always air dry my hair after I wash it. I never curl it with a curling iron (except maybe once a year when one of my friends wants to do a fancy hair style on me) and I don't straighten it because A. I don't like my hair when it's not curly; B. It takes forever to straighten; C. I don't want to make any split ends I do have worse.

Store Bought Shampoo vs. Home Made Shampoo
Between my mom and sister and I there is a constant dispute going over whether or not my baking soda wash and vinegar rinse cleans my hair enough. This idea is probably new to some of you, but just hang on and let me explain. All store bought shampoo's have lots of chemicals. These chemicals strip your hair of its natural oils and, in some cases, can dry your hair out and damage it. I am a huge fan of Pinterst and one day I ran across home made recipes for shampoo. As I looked into them I because discouraged because the recipes required ingredients I didn't have and would be difficult to find if I wanted to buy them... and then I came across baking soda shampoo (I don't remember the original name). After looking over several recipes I finally decided to give it a shot.
However, if you don't want to be brave and attempt this new baking soda shampoo idea that is okay! There are plenty of products out there to use in cleaning your hair. When I did use shampoo I loved Herbal Essences Shampoo & Conditioner both Long Term Relationship, which is specifically for long hair, and Color Me Happy, which is for color treated hair. Garnier Sleek & Shine is good also. Another one I love, and would possibly use again, is John Frieda Root Awakening Normal Hair Shampoo & Conditioner. That stuff is amazing and it has mint in it which makes your hair smell amazing! All of these products can be found at Wal-Mart.

~If you decide to give the Baking Soda Shampoo a try: One key note to remember is you will have to give your hair about two months to adjust to not being stripped of its natural oils. Baking soda and water do not create a foamy mixture which is also another change you will notice right away. The first few times you wash your hair you will feel like you didn't get it clean. Don't worry, this will eventually go away as your body stops producing so much oil. Your body has to readjust to making less oils since they are not being constantly stripped away. Depending on if you have a water softener or not your hair may feel fine with just this, or it may feel dry. Either way I do suggest following this hair wash with the Vinegar Rinse since it will give your hair a soft feeling (BTW white vinegar is used in home made fabric softeners!). This combination will require you letting your hair and body re-adjust. For me this took about 2 months.

~Changes I've seen in my hair since using the Baking Soda Shampoo and Vinegar Rinse: My hair feels so much cleaner! I love it. My hair also smells really nice...which is surprising since I just use baking soda, water, and vinegar to clean it. No, it does not smell/reek of vinegar. I was surprised when I figured this out. Even now with using half vinegar/half water in my bottle it doesn't smell. I have had several friends (who don't know how I clean my hair) say that it 'always smells sweet'. One huge bonus for me is my curls are SO curly! This is my favorite part about using these 'products'. (For other tips/notes on curly hair see below.)

~One final note: If you use this recipe I suggest NOT putting essential oils in either mix. I have discovered this will give your hair a super greasy look, especially during the transition period. I haven't tried any oils since my hair has passed this period but I like the way it smells without it so that works fine for me.

~Recipe for these:
I use old Bath and Body Work's bottles. One full bottle lasts me a week, sometimes more, sometimes less depending on how much I wash my hair during the week and how much of the mix I use.

Baking Soda Shampoo
1 Bath and Body Work bottle, rinsed out to where there is no soap in it!
2-4 Tablespoons of Baking Soda
Lots of water

I use a funnel to get the baking soda into the bottle, then I fill it with the faucet until it reaches the bottom of where the lid screws down.

To Use: Shake it about 3 good shakes to get the baking soda off the bottom of the bottle and out into the water part. You only need to apply this to your scalp area. I sprinkle VERY generously onto my scalp and then tilt my head under the water a few seconds, pull away from the water and use my finger tips to massage the mix into my scalp in a fairly circular motion. But if something works better for you then go for it! Make sure to rinse out very well. Also, if you feel like you need to clean the ends of your hair just collect your hair into a side pony tail and pour some stuff on it and rub it in. I practically never do this.

Vinegar Rinse
1 Bath and Body Work bottle, rinsed out to where there is no soap in it!
1/4 cup White or Apple Cider Vinegar (I use white)
Lots of water

Again, I use a funnel to get the vinegar in if I'm measuring it. If I'm not measuring it then I just hold the bottle over a sink (or the washer, since the white vinegar is in my laundry room) and pour however much in it as I want. Then fill the rest of the bottle with water.
I mentioned above that I do half vinegar and half water. I don't suggest you start off with this much unless you just like the smell of vinegar. I think you have to give yourself time to adjust to how strong of a smell it has before using so much.

To Use: Pour very generously on scalp. I put my hair in a side pony tail to be able to pour the vinegar on the ends easier. Let it sit in your hair for as long as you want. Most of the time I will wash my hair before I shave so that I can let the vinegar sit there longer. That's just me though. I go through the Vinegar Rinse a lot faster than the Baking Soda Shampoo. I usually use two bottles of this on a week where I wash my hair a lot, otherwise this will last me a week.

Use of Hair Products
Thankfully I no longer have to use hair gel in my hair since the curls are staying together on their own and they are not frizzy very often. When they do get frizzy I just go wash my hair and pour LOTS of vinegar rinse (see above) on it to smooth them down. This does not mean that I don't use hair products though! I have recently started using Infusium 23: 3 Leave-In Treatment: Repair and Renew. I am using it because my hair needs something more than what my home made products are giving it. Another new product I am using is Regis DesignLine Pure Results: Moisture Conditioning Treatment. This is an apply, leave in 5 minutes and rinse out product. I have nothing to share on this for the time being other than the mixture feels really soft and smooth! (This was given to me, I almost never buy hair products.) If I use a store bought conditioner I use TRESemme Curl Moisturizing for curly or wavy hair. I also like Garnier Sleek & Shine Conditioner for dry, frizzy and unmanageable hair.

~How I use Infusium 23: Repair and Renew: After a shower I will split my hair into two halves. I don't use a comb on my hair ever! Then I take a little of the mix in the palm of my hand and rub my hands together then apply from my ear to the end of my hair then to the top part of my hair on one side then repeat for the other. Also, I apply this after I wake up in the morning if my hair is super frizzy from sleeping on it. This helps tame down my hair and make my curls look smooth, feel soft, and smell good throughout the day!

To Tease or Not To Tease
I've read many people's opinions on whether or not its a good idea to tease your hair if you want to grow it out. Honestly, I tease mine all the time. I have not noticed anything bad from doing this and I try to not tease my hair and then tease it again without washing it out first. This doesn't always happen thought, but my hair seems to be doing fine. I have no clue if this helps or not with regards to growing your hair out. Sorry for not having very much on this topic!

Hair Treatments and Moisturizers
There are a lot of things all over the Internet that you can do for you hair. I have tried a lot of them. I have lots of opinions in this area! For links to homemade hair treatments/moisturizers check out the *Beauty Tips* or the *Homemade Products* page.
First off let me say: putting honey in your hair is a dumb idea! It doesn't come out easy and your hair feels funky for days afterwards.

Second: Olive oil treatments probably don't need to be done more than three or four times a month. If you do an olive oil treatment then try and do it on a day you will be home so you can put the oil in your hair, pull it up in a big loose bun and wear it around for as long as you can. Wash it before you go to bed and then in the morning wash your hair again. The reason you should wash it twice is because all that oil wont come out in one wash!


Third: The mouthwash to make your hair grow is also dumb. There is so much alcohol in that stuff that your hair will be very brittle and dry by the time it does start getting long. I'm working on an experiment which gives the same basic effect but won't damage your hair. Nothing to share on that yet!

Fourth: Your hair does need moisture to stay soft. The Vinegar Rinse is one good thing that I love to use almost daily. I'm still in the experimental stage of several other tricks. I'll be posting the results as soon as I finish them up.

Pulling Your Hair Up vs. Leaving It Down
Another controversial topic is wearing your hair up to make your hair grow. This has no back up or proof, in my opinion. The only thing that could make people think that wearing your hair up will help it grow is: your hair is up all the time so when you do let it down you see how long it is and it seems long since you never wear it down. Do keep in mind if you do the same style, such as a high ponytail, all the time then your hair WILL begin to break around that point. You definitely don't want that! So change up your hairstyle. If you need cute alternatives try searching YouTube videos or on look Pinterest!

~I personally go through stages of wearing my hair up a lot, wearing it down all time time, and a mix of both during a same period. Mostly if I am home my hair is down, when I go out (especially for church) I will fix my hair up.

Curly Hair Tips
Curly Girls please don't comb your curls!! Your hair can be so much curlier if you are not constantly messing up their natural form. I have found Vinegar Rinse to be very useful in making my curls come alive. I use it every time I wash my hair and it has literally worked miracles. One key to removing hair product from hair is a brown sugar and conditioner mix (Hair | Build-Up Remover). Since most girls with curly hair use a lot of hair products like mouse or gel build-up can be hard to get rid of and annoying, but this trick has been a lifesaver!

Rinse your hair with cool water on days you have time to sit and let your curls air dry. This gives them moisture and helps them not be as frizzy. If you don't want to use hair products, or as few as possible, this is a great trick to have knowledge of!

If you have curly hair you should also not brush it! This will make your hair frizzy and basically make you hate your hair. I have not brushed my hair in years. Now you're probably wondering how do I get knots out if I don't use a brush or comb? The easiest way is to use your fingers and work from the bottom of the knot (closest to the ends of your hair) and working up towards the top. I do this all of the time and then smooth the hair back together with my fingers or with some added conditioner or water. This has worked great for me since I was a young teenager.

Another tip is: don't use shampoo! I personally like to make up the Baking Soda Shampoo mix to clean my scalp, and to remove build up from hairspray or gel (or another hair product you might use) then you need to look at the recipe for Build-Up Remover Conditioner under *Beauty Tips*. This gets all that junk off without drying out your curls! And of course my favorite: Vinegar Rinse! :)

My first source for curly hair tips came from the book by Lorraine Massey: Curly Girl. It is so full of good information on how to better take care of your curls. It also has several good hair recipes, some of which I mentioned such as the Build-Up Remover Conditioner, which are amazing for your curls!

Dandruff
One of the best ways to remove dandruff is use Head and Shoulders (or the Walm-Mart off brand, it works just as good) every time you wash your hair until the dandruff is gone. Also, fill a spray bottle with water and add a few drops of Tea Tree Oil. Spray this mix on the roots of your hair and massage in. Tea Tree Oil is good for skin, and dandruff comes from your scalp.

Lice Prevention
My sister worked in a public school for awhile and the little girls/boys would always want to give her a hug whenever she came in. Unfortunately lice runs through schools quite often. And not only schools, but other public places too. The best prevention is to wash your hair with a shampoo that has lavender in it or you can add lavender essential oil to a favorite shampoo. If you do this shake the shampoo well to get it mixed around. I know I am constantly saying Vinegar Rinse, but seriously, it's good for everything hair related! Vinegar repels lice, and is therefore another good product to use in lice prevention. Finally, Tea Tree Oil. Put a few drops in a spray bottle and fill the rest with water. Spray in your hair before you go out the door.

When Swimming
Chlorine is terrible on hair, and most especially if you swim in a pool a lot. One good tip I have is to put about 2 Tablespoons worth of your conditioner into a spray bottle, fill the rest with water and shake well. If your hair already has moisture on it before you get in the water it will absorb much less chlorine. This is not to say you won't get chlorine in your hair, it will just be much less.

Hair Recipes
I want to post these separately so they can be found easier. Check the topic Hair Care for tips and recipes. You can also check out the page Health & Beauty for all the post related to hair care and recipes for hair care in one place without all the inbetween stuff from each post (this option is actually best if you just want to browse!).

Announcements!

Well, if you've not seen my blog lately I have made a huge amount of changes in the last few days. I feel like I'm getting some good layout going and I'm very excited to be working on new posts! I have several new recipes, and lots of posts on beauty tips soon to come!

I did want to let you know that I have also created a Facebook fan page for my blog. If you like my blog then feel free to join the page for another way to keep updated on new posts I make here on my blog, plus extra stuff!

Blue Eyed Beauty Facebook Fan Page!