100 Beauty Techniques

Preface

Looking after the body is a natural phenomenon in everyone’s life. To keep a healthy and fit body, you need to look after your skin and hair, follow balanced diet, practice regular exercises including yoga and do body treatments like massage and spa etc.

Shaping up your body and maintaining a slim and trim figure requires to follow a specific schedule with balanced diet, yoga, massage, regular exercises and following a very tight body control. All this helps you make your body healthy and beautiful and simultaneously helps in building your personality.

This book discusses the methods to look after complete body from head to toe in a professional manner. The book has been written to provide useful informationregarding various skin problems and skin diseases and the ways to look after the skin. The other important aspect of beauty is hair. All important aspects of taking care of the hair has been explained in detail.

The book has been written in a simple language and supported by illustrations where necessary. The book will serve as a home reference guide for all those who want to keep their body healthy and beautiful and will appeal to people from every age group. However, caution must be taken to take professional advice from qualified doctors where ever required.

Parvesh Handa

1

Ways to Look After Your Skin

Balancing a Dry Skin

If your skin is dry – if it feels tight, looks dull and perhaps is flaking – if it lacks moisture and oil – you should know the basics of self-care. The following care must be taken:

Don’t wash with hot water.

Don’t clean with soap.

Use a moisturizer for a couple of times a day.

Do not use artificial fragrances - which can hurt dry, sensitive skin.

Guide to Professional Care:

Misting: Spray your face with a fine mist of water – it is the best treatment for dry skin. For maximum benefits, you should always apply a moisturizer that contains humectants before misting through a bottle with a pump sprayer that emits a very fine that won’t disturb make-up. You can also mix 10 drops of essential oil or a blend of oils in water. Some excellent oils to use are lavender, rose, chamomile, ylang-ylang and rose geranium. You should mist at least three times a day: morning, noon and evening.

Aromatherapy: Daily use of warm facial compress using aromatherapy essential oils will greatly benefit dry skin by hydrating the skin and stimulating the water and oil glands. Essential oils such as lavender, rose and neroli are very gentle, harmonizing and balancing for the skin.

Nutritional supplements: Skin supporting nutritional supplements can also help heal dry skin. Here are few recommendations by the experts:

1.   Black currant oil (1,000-2,000 mg daily) is a rich source of omega-6 fatty acids, which are crucial for normal skin.

2.   Beta-carotine (15 mg a day taken twice in two parts each with lunch and dinner) is crucial for soft, smooth and disease-free skin.

3.   Zinc (15 mg daily with a meal) is important for repair of damaged skin tissue and its deficiency can cause dry skin.

4.   B-complex vitamin (100 mg a day after a meal) fulfils the deficiencies of thiamin, riboflavin, pantotheinic acid or biotin can lead to dry skin.

5.   Vitamin C (1,000 mg two to three times a day after meals) helps bolster the immune system, which leads to healthier skin.

6.   Vitamin E (400 international units once or twice a day after meals) helps replace cells on the skin’s outer layer.

Normalizing an Oily Skin

If you have oily skin with medium to large pores, a shiny appearance and a tendency to have blackheads and blemishes – you may actually need more oil in your diet, the kind that contains fatty acids. There are two ways to deal with oily skin – externally and internally. Here are some treatments that alternative healers recommend.

Flaxseed oil: Include 1 to 3 teaspoons a day of flaxseed oil – oil rich in fatty acids. These fatty acids are found in vegetable oils and seed oils are must for healthy skin cells no matter what type of skin you have.

Food: Cut down on saturated fats. People who eat a lot of red meat and dairy products, which are loaded with saturated fat can end up with oilier skin, clogged pores and more blemishes. So for healthier skin maximize fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, seeds and fish. Minimize foods with saturated fat.

Aromatherapy: Adding a drop of the essential oil of neroli to lavender floral water and spraying the mixture on your skin several times a day is an excellent treatment for oily and overactive skin. Lavender tones and cleanses the skin. Neroli is considered a skin tonic. It penetrates the skin and helps regulate the production of the sebum or oil.

Herbs: Herbal tea such yarrow, sage and peppermint removes leftover cleanser and dirt from the oily skin.

Steaming the face: Steaming helps to deep-clean oily skin. Steam the face for 5 to 8 minutes once or twice a week. After steaming rinse with warm water., then splash with cool water and pat dry. Warm water activates the oil glands, while cooler water slows them down.

Physiological Effects of Massage

To obtain best results from a facial or scalp massage one must have a thorough knowledge of all the structures involved e.g. the muscles, the nerves and the blood vessels. Every muscle or a nerve has a motor point. The position of motor points will vary in individuals due to difference in body structure. The massage activates, circulation, secretion, nutrition and excretion of the skin. There are several beneficial results such as nourishment of skin at all structures reduction of fat cells in subcutaneous tissues flexibility and softness of skin, increase in circulation of blood, stimulation of activity of skin glands, strengthening of the skin’s fiber muscles, soothing and refreshing of nerves of skin and pain. The frequency of the facial or scalp massage depends upon the age and condition of the skin to be treated. If the skin is in excellent condition a weekly massage is sufficient.

Remember, when indulging in a facial massage try to relax, speak softly or as far as possible keep silent and massage in a quiet environment, maintain utmost cleanliness, make sure your hands are not very cold or warm before touching the skin and the nails of your fingers should not be too long or pointed. All self-massage movements must be made in the direction of the lymphatic circulation e.g. towards the heart. When you massage arms or legs, movements must go upwards from extremities towards the trunk. Do not massage yourself if you are suffering from fever, heart ailments, disorder of the blood vessels, a skin disease, varicose veins, vascular lesions and passing through seventh month of pregnancy.

Flushed Complexion

Deep in the skin are nerves, blood vessels, sweat glands giving off waste matter and sebaceous glands, which supply oil for lubricating the skin (and the hair). Sebaceous glands almost always lead directly into hair follicles, which is why hair has a natural grease of its own. The material for making all these and for the new cells which make up the skin are supplied from the food we eat. Diet essential for a lovely skin include eggs, milk, butter, cream and cheese, lean meat, fish, fresh fruit and leafy green vegetables.

Blood cells carry nourishment and oxygen to every part of the body and of course, to the skin. If your diet is lacking in vitamins and minerals, the nourishment will be poor. If you are breathing in stale, stuffy air, the quality of oxygen reaching your skin will be poor. Each time you fill your lungs with pure fresh air you are giving yourself a free beauty treatment. That wonderful glow you have when you come in from a brisk walk and your skin is tingling is more than just a marvelous feeling of vitality, bringing nourishing supplies to every inch of your body and carrying away waste.

Your skin is sensitive and as finely tuned as a barometer, which records facts about you in much the same way. Poor diet, lack of sleep, nervous upsets – all these react on your complexion as spots, shadows under your eyes and lines. If you become very tired, you cannot prevent your face showing it and your skin will droop into folds of weariness and you eyes become dull and heavy. Some faces have a tendency to be red and flushed complexion. Consult a doctor. If there is no underlying medical problem to explain the red, flushing appearance, it is probably that you simply have a ruddy complexion. It cannot be permanently altered. Over exposure to sun, steam baths, hot foods and alcohol should be avoided since they may exaggerate the redness. If regular cosmetics may prove ineffective, you may want to try one of the under make-up toners, which can be applied as a film under regular make-up for they help to even out skin color tones.

Red, Broken Veins

Red veins on cheeks usually indicate a sensitive skin that has been neglected or badly treated. The skin is very thin and the blood vessels are near the surface and are affected readily by poor circulation or by extremes of temperature. Washing the face with very hot water or splashing it with icy cold water usually causes this condition and sometimes makes it even worse.

If you suffer from broken veins, protect the skin from weather conditions by using a moisturizer. You may buy from your chemist special lotions and waxy creams to be used in high altitudes to give the skin an added protection. Avoid going from one extreme of temperature to another. It is admirable to wait a few minutes in a place with intermediate temperature. Avoid rich spicy foods, hot drinks and alcohol when you suffer from this condition. It is also possible to have treatment with an electrical process, which drains the blocked blood vessels and seals them. Moisturizers are very useful for this skin disorder. Moisturizers, hand creams, body lotions etc. all work on the same principle. Skin looks its best when containing maximum amount of water. Moisturizers do this either by applying a water holding substance e.g. urea or polyethylene glycol or by using an oil or grease to prevent water evaporating from the skin. The greasy water-in-oil emulsions are more satisfactory that lighter oil-in-water ones. These are best applied to the skin with high water content after bathing, washing or steaming the face or body. The choice of moisturizer depends on skin to skin. For face, eyes, lips, neck, hands and body a single moisturizer is enough. Night creams are greasier than day creams. Most moisturizers also make the skin feel smoother by lubricating it with oil, and make it look even smoother by sticking down the fine scales.

Here is an easy-to-make home made moisturizing cream. Collect the following ingredients:

Melt beeswax and liquid wax in a china bowl. Mix to it almond oil. In a separate container, heat water at the same temperature and mix to waxes and oil stirring continuously till it cools and becomes thick. During the cooling process add scent to it.

Improve Complexion?

The physical assets are most important for every woman, especially for working women. However, just a fair complexion is not as important as the overall personality, height, figure and communication ability. If you have a pleasing manner and smart figure there is no reason why you will not be successful in your career. Be sure that the color of your skin will be no reason in your getting a position.

Discoloration of skin is common among women. It is often mistaken for scarring. Initially, all scars are red, pink or purple. This color fades over the next year. The blood vessels in a scarred area may be very noticeable. All color changes can be camouflaged with make-up or special covering cream and many scars become temporarily lumpy during healing and later flatten. The skin may darken because of pigment deposited in the skin, which are iron and melanin. Color cells (melanocytes) are studded in millions throughout the skin and they produce a brown pigment called melanin. All races have the same number of color cells in the skin but they produce different amounts of pigments and the color production increases by sunshine.

The color of the skin also depends on he blood supply to the skin. An extensive network of blood vessels runs underneath the epidermis and they react to heat and cold. The skin too reacts to heat and cold in many ways. Most of the reactions are to the body’s advantages, but some are troublesome and a few are dangerous. The body needs a constant internal temperature for all its processes to function properly. The skin regulates the body temperature by reducing loss of heat when the outside is cold or losing extra heat when the body is too hot. We too assist the skin in doing this by altering our clothing. In hot weather, warm clothes or a fever cause the body temperature to rise and set off the heat losing mechanism of the skin, such as reddening of the skin due to enlarging of the blood vessels, swelling of the ski8n and sweating. The body cools itself by evaporating the sweat from the skin. This is the most important way of losing heat.

Many skin diseases especially eczema provoke the color cells of the skin to overproduce pigments, which drop down into the dermis of the skin and leave brown marks when the skin trouble disappears. This is called post-inflammatory hyper-pigmentation. Fortunately, the body can slowly remove this pigment and most darkening, fades over 1 to 2 years. The darkening is worst in black skin and may occur even after acne. Once this type of color change has developed only with passage of time, it can be removed. The early treatment of the disease will also help prevent the