Food for your face

Ome Tricks And Tips

I been told by models, friends, aunts etc. over the years that really do work!

Coconut oil and soapnuts

For those of you who grew up in India, many of you might have had grandmothers who bathed you when you were a child. Well, my naani used to wash my hair for me till I was about eight. She had a simple but effective ritual for really soft hair.

On Friday nights, she would oil my hair with coconut oil and then gently massage it in. Saturday mornings would see her boil a few soapnuts to make a shikakai solution. This natural soap would rinse out the oil and leave my hair

An edible scrub

baby soft. Unfortunately, these days, with our over-dependence on shampoos and conditioners, no one really follows this old method of washing hair. But, if you have the time and patience, and can find soapnuts or a natural solution made from them, try washing your hair with them and you won’t need conditioners.

Shampoo and conditioner

“When you wash your hair, massage the roots with shampoo to clean the scalp,” the model Mehr Jessia, now the wife of Arjun Rampal the actor, once told me during an interview.

“When you condition it, make sure you condition the ends. The scalp needs to be kept clean and the ends of the hair need the conditioning the most”. It is a tip I practice to this day and make sure I condition the ends of my hair more liberally than I do the rest of the strands. This prevents knotting and my hair doesn’t develop split ends.

Moisturise, moisturise, moisturise

When it comes to skincare, you will find that everyone has a tip to give you. Not all are effective. A very kind lady, who made her own skincare products and ran a beauty salon offering specialised treatments once told me that to have good looking skin in your forties, you should start looking after it in your twenties. I happened to interview her when I was in my twenties, luckily for me. I started a ritual of moisturising my face and neck back then and now it is a habit. Just as one uses deodorant after a shower, similarly I use a skincare cream. The brands have changed over the years, but the ritual hasn’t.

Milky mask

Another skincare tip a friend gave me which also works is a simple face pack you can make at home. Take a teaspoon of dairy whitener and mix it with water to form a thick paste. Apply all over face and neck and leave till it dries. You will feel your facial skin begin to tighten as the pack dries up. Then splash your face with water or stand under the shower to rinse it off. Do not scrub it off with your hands. Used daily, this face pack, along with a weekly exfoliator, will remove blemishes from your skin. It will also leave your skin soft and moisturised, as milk is a natural moisturiser. If you don’t believe me, just try it for two weeks and see for yourself. It is the one skincare tip I follow religiously. And it saves me the bother of going to a parlour for a facial.

A natural scrub we used as kids for our face was a mixture of besan (gram flour), a pinch of turmeric and a tablespoon of milk. The besan is a natural exfoliator, the turmeric is an antiseptic and the milk is a moisturiser. You can clear your skin of dead cells without drying it of its natural softness, and the turmeric keeps blemishes at bay. For any of you wanting to go back to the natural way of life, this is one of the best scrubs you can find. Make it fresh everyday five minutes before you shower. Beats anything that comes out of a bottle or a tube.

Too much sun

If you have ever been sun burned with too much time under the sun on the beach, then you know how painful it is when the skin starts to heal. You don’t want even the lightest of fabrics to touch your skin. But a couple of remedies that help relieve sunburn can be found in your kitchen.

The first one is milk. Yes, just take half a cup of cold milk and dab a piece of cotton in it. Apply this milk all over the sunburnt portions of your body. Wait till the milk dries, then reapply. A shower with lukewarm water after a few doses of this treatment will make your skin feel better.

Another tip is to take kokum (the souring agent we use in dals) and soak it in a cup of water. When the water turns a dark pink, apply onto the skin like the milk. It is a great remedy for sun burn as well, I’ve discovered from personal experience, but I prefer the cold milk treatment. It works much faster.

If any of you wish to start using skin and haircare products that are natural and chemical free, there are solutions available all around. Just start with asking the oldest female member of your family and you will find your answers.

Well, my naani used to wash my hair for me till I was about eight. She had a simple but effective ritual for really soft hair

A natural scrub we used as kids for our face was a mixture of besan (gram flour), a pinch of turmeric and a tablespoon of milk