smartskin101

A few chapters back in my life, I had relocated to a new city where the water was frustratingly hard.  In fact, months after I complained about how dry my hair and skin were from it, TotalBeauty.com reported that this particular city was rated one of the worst hair cities in the United States; one major factor was the hard water (along with decade confusion… you girls with the crunchy curls and teased bangs, you know who you are).  Despite feeling like I was living in a Twisted Sister or Whitesnake video, my hair remained in the 2000s, but it was brittle and lifeless, and furthermore, my skin felt like the Sahara.  I pulled out all my tricks, but the frustration continued.  I had to come up with something new.

Sinta, a college friend of mine, had oozed on about how baby oil was the best moisturizer ever.  And so back in my dorm room, I rubbed baby oil all over myself and waited forever for it to dry before going to bed.  I woke up the next morning to an oil stain the exact shape of my body on my sheets.  So I scrapped that and resumed my old routine.  Many years later, I figured out what had gone wrong with the baby oil technique, and was able to put a slightly different twist of my own on it.

I spent a fortune on different products and a hard water filter.  To no avail!  And then I remembered… Sinta.  Already a fan of using oils in my beauty regimen, I thought, “Eureka!  I’ll use oil!”  But, this time, I had an ever more savvy Google search engine to help me find the right way to use oil as a moisturizer.  Apparently, I was supposed to put the baby oil on at the end of my shower while still wet, rinse any excess oil off gently and then pat my skin dry.

Instead of baby oil, I thought a better solution would be olive oil.  Olive oil is packed with ingredients that are great for the skin, including antioxidants, squalene, and vitamin E, amongst others.  It is also a natural humectant which attracts moisture to your skin.  I put some olive oil in a spray bottle (like the ones often used for misting plants), and at the end of my shower, I sprayed my body with enough oil to massage every inch of my dry skin.  I was careful not to overdo it to avoid being one serious grease ball, and while the bottle did not “mist” the oil, it made its application much easier. I rinsed my body with a little more water (but minded not to wash it all off), and then patted my skin dry with a towel.  I used no additional moisturizers, and all day long, my skin felt like heaven, and was not at all greasy.  I kept up this moisturizing regimen and never complained about dry skin again.  I also experimented with other oils (cold-pressed, otherwise the nutrients are lost), like avocado oil and grape seed oil—oils which I will post about later.  And if you’re a bath person, you can get the same great benefits by dropping a few tablespoons of this liquid gold in your tub (but, just to forewarn you, things are going to get a bit greasy and slippery).

If DIY home beauty remedies aren’t for you (yet), LUSH has wonderful massage bars made predominantly of natural oils, often with delicious scents.  Along with the other recommended uses of the bars, they are a suitable alternative to olive oil in this process.  You can rub your skin at the end of your shower with one of the bars (the combined heat of the shower and your body will melt the bar) and then proceed as instructed above.  For a truly luxurious bath, cut off a good size piece of the bar, and toss it into the tub while the water is running.  This turns a simple bath into a relaxing aromatherapy experience, along with moisturizing your skin.  (You’re going to need that Zen spirit later on when you have to clean the tub of the residual grease.)

Since olive oil worked for my skin, I decided to try it on that brittle coif of mine.  Olive oil hair masks are wonderful treats for your dry hair, but for those of us who haven’t the time, I find putting about a tablespoon of olive oil in my conditioner also has great moisturizing and shining results.  Just be sure to really shake up that bottle of conditioner prior to each use.  Your hair will be thanking you later by looking oh-so-luscious!

Keep an eye out for the follow-up to this article.  I will give you some other great tips using oils in your regimen.

Photo c/o Brian Caldwell.