Makeup pro

How to Maintain Healthy Hair: A Few Basic Tips

1. It's normal to lose 100 to 150 strands of hair a day so don't panic when you see a small bunch crawling across your tiled floor.

2. Comb wet hair with extreme care because they're fragile and prone to breakage. Take a broad toothed comb and run it from the roots to the ends of your hair as gently as possible.

3. Trim your hair every few weeks to get rid of those brown and rough split ends. Cut about 1/4th an inch of your hair every 6 to 8 weeks to avoid the split ends to grow out again.

4. Don't wash your hair everyday and whenever you do, apply some conditioner on the ends. Try and use the same brand of shampoo and conditioner.

5. Rinse the conditioner off with cold water as it is good for both strength and shine.

6. Unlike the labels on the back of our food items, the labels on the back of our shampoos are mostly left unread. In the last few years, there has been a lot of focus on sulfate in shampoos. What are sulfates? They're the reason your shampoo lathers the way it does. They clean your scalp and hair, departing the dirt from it. But some researchers also suggest that they strip your hair of essential oils. They're also why your eye stings when shampoo runs down the side of your face. If you feel any kind of irritation on the scalp or find your hair drying up over time then try and buy a shampoo that's sulfate-free.

7. If you've got dry hair then it's best to avoid colouring. However, if you can't resist that gorgeous shade of brown, especially under the winter sun then follow this clever advise shared on the blog Free People. Use lemon, chamomile tea or honey as they work as great hair lighteners. You can add lemon juice to water and spray it over your hair when you're heading out. You can rinse your hair with brewed chamomile tea after you wash them with shampoo or add honey to the water you use to wash your hair.

Besides these basic tips, here are few home-remedies that'll take you a long way. From home-made masks to heat protecting serums, we've got it all.

Deep Conditioning

Even though you condition your hair after every wash, nothing quite works as good as deep conditioning. Every once in a while wash your hair with shampoo, squeeze out the extra water and towel dry it. Then take generous amounts of conditioner and apply it right to the root of your hair. Use a broad toothed comb and run it through your hair to make sure the conditioner reaches everywhere. Now, pull them up and clip them together. Leave the conditioner in for anywhere between 10 minutes to an hour. Pull them down, rinse thoroughly and enjoy silky smooth hair.

Keep Away the Heat

If you're stepping out and want gorgeous curls or perfect waves, then there are a few ways you can get those without taking the help of a dryer, straightener or curler. Like this for example:

If you must use your iron or curler then buy a serum of your choice or if you've got some time on your hands, make one at home.

1. Take some almond oil, coconut oil, hair conditioner, 250 ml water and a small empty spray bottle. Pour 200 ml of water in the spray bottle and add 2-3 drops of coconut and 4 to 5 almond oil to it. Add two really tiny drops of conditioner. Don't use too much of it because it will lather. You can add lavender or some nice smelling oil if you'd like. Add the remaining water and shake well. Let the lather settle and it's ready for use.

2. It's all about butter with this one. Take 4 ounces of shea butter, 4 ounces of cocoa butter and 20 drops of any essential oil of your choice. Heat the butter till it's all liquid and let it cool. Add the essential oil to an empty, sterilized jar and pour the butter. Let the jar cool down till the butter takes a solid form again.

Home-Made Hair Masks

Some might be delicious enough to eat but the rest are just downright smelly! But the great thing is that you'll easily find all of the ingredients in your pantry.

1. Egg, curd and mustard oil - If you've got hay-like dry hair then here's the answer to all of your problems. Eggs are rich in vitamin A, B12, D and E, fatty acids and protein. The protein helps strengthen the roots, the fatty acids make it a natural hair conditioner and B12 helps add volume.

2. Avocado and peppermint oil (as suggested by hellonatural.co) - Also referred to as the butter pear, avocados are creamy, rich and the only fruit combines the protein of meat, fat of butter, vitamins and minerals of green vegetables and a nutty flavour. Mash some avocado, add a drop or two of peppermint oil and apply this mask on your hair. Leave it in for 15-20 minutes and wash off.

3. Olive oil, coconut oil and egg - Suggested by Bella Fitness blog, this one's the ultimate mask for speedy hair growth. Warm 2 tablespoons of coconut oil, let it cool, add one or two eggs and two tablespoons of olive oil and apply.

Oil is the Answer

A conditioner might work wonders for your hair but oil gives it certain minerals, vitamins and essential fatty acids that don't just strengthen your roots but also boost overall health of your hair. Coconut oil comes most recommended by hair experts and mothers! It can protect your hair from sun damage, dandruff and removes sebum build-up from hair follicles accelerating hair growth. You could also boil some curry leaves in coconut oil, strain the oil and apply. You could also use Chinese hibiscus flowers instead of curry leaves.

If you're suffering from hair fall then olive oil would be a better bet. You can combine it with a host of other ingredients.

1. Olive oil with honey and cinnamon powder (as suggested by the American Athletic Institute) - Massage this paste into your scalp, leave for 15 minutes and wash.

2. The LOC method - Suggested by Nicole Charnel on Charnels world.com, this one's a real winner. It's a three part method: leave in, oil and cream. First you use some water and then use a light weight oil like coconut, olive or almond. Follow this with shea butter or any creamy conditioner of your choice. Leave it in for a while and then wash thoroughly.

Makeup can contribute to success.

5 Makeup Tips That’ll Make Doing Your Makeup Infinitely Easier

Makeup Tip #1: Melt Your Pencil Liner to Help It Glide
Fact: Creamy makeup products blend better when they’re warmed up. So if your kohl eyeliner pencil skips or tugs on your eyelid or takes multiple coats for a decent color payoff, melt it down slightly before you start lining. To do so, hold the tip of your kohl liner under the flame of a lighter for a second or until it gets tacky, let it cool slightly (swatch it on your hand to make sure it’s not too hot or melted), then watch the consistency change right before your eyes.

Makeup Tip #2: Use White Eyeliner to Make Your Eyeshadow Pop
To make a sheer or less pigmented eyeshadow appear more vibrant on your eyelid, blend a white eyeliner pencil over your entire eyelid first. Then, put your eyeshadow right on top. The opaque coverage of the white liner will intensify any eyeshadow shade and make it pop.

Makeup Tip #3: Outline Your Cat Eye First
If you’re struggling with nailing your winged eyeliner look (also, hi, same, I feel you), try drawing the outline of the shape first and then filling it in. Extend a line beyond your lower lash line to create the bottom of your cat eye first. Then, decide on the thickness you want for your wing, and trace the top line from the end point of your flick to your upper lash line. Once you have the shape mapped out on both sides and everything looks symmetrical, fill in the open space.

Makeup Tip #4: Use a Spoon as a Stencil Winged Liner
If freehand drawing your cat eye just isn’t gonna happen for you, grab a spoon and use it as a stencil. Holding the stem of a spoon against the outer corner of your eye, use a liquid eyeliner to draw a straight line as the first step for your cat eye. Then, flip the spoon so it’s hugging your eyelid, and use the rounded outer edge to create a perfectly curved winged effect.

Makeup Tip #5: Hack a Smoky Eye With a Hashtag
A smoky eye can go from sultry to sloppy real fast if you don’t know what you’re doing. To keep it simple, use a creamy eyeliner to draw a slanted hashtag symbol on the outer third of your eyelid, then blend it out with the sponge or a smudging brush. This will not only ensure that both eyes are symmetrical, but also prevent you from getting a little too crazy with the eyeliner.

Eyes😱😍

8 Mistakes You’re Making When You Fill in Your Eyebrows

1. You’re using the wrong type of product to fill in your brows.
Looking in the brow section of the beauty aisle, there are many different options for filling in: powders, pomades, pencils, waxes, gels. You have to find the product that fits your look and skill level best.

Giselle Soto of Giselle Soto Brows in Los Angeles typically recommends that her clients use a powder if they have sparse areas, or are new to filling in their brows. “Powder helps give brows a softer, more natural look as opposed to pencils or pomades, which can sometimes look too heavy or leave harsher lines,” she tells SELF.

Pencil is great for filling in a few hairs that might be missing. Pomades are good if you're looking to create a bold brow look or darken brows. Waxes and gels are best for women with full brows because they have a light tint and are more for keeping unruly brow hairs in place.

2. Your brow product isn’t the right shade.
Our experts suggest using brow products that are a shade lighter than your hair color. Using a tone that’s too dark may cause your makeup to look harsh or obvious, instead of natural and effortless. “Lighter tones look more natural and are more forgiving,” celebrity makeup artist Kimara Ahnert tells SELF.

“If you have dark brown hair, choose a light or medium brown powder—I feel that brows should complement the face, not overpower your features,” says Soto. For blondes and redheads, Soto uses a taupe or dark blonde color.

3. You’re applying too much highlighter under your brows.
Adding a highlight under the arch of the brow is an easy way to add lift to the eye area, but using the wrong color or formula can take attention away from your eyebrows. “If you’re going to highlight underneath the brow, it needs to be a gentle highlight,” Mally Roncal, celebrity makeup artist and founder of Mally Beauty, tells SELF. “If you are doing a highlight with concealer, it can’t be too white. My general rule is that the concealer should be one shade lighter than your skin tone. Especially if you’re doing a strong highlight on the cheekbone, you don’t want that to compete with the brow bone.”

4. You’re using too much product on your brush.
“One of the most common mistakes that people make is using way too much product when they don’t need to. I always like to say that less is more, and a little bit goes a long way with any product that you use,” says Soto. Even if you’re dealing with minimal eyebrow hair, you probably don’t need to use as much product to get flawless eyebrows as you think you do. Instead of covering the entire brow in product, concentrate your strokes on sparse areas only. To make sure your work doesn't look too heavy-handed, Ahnert suggests brushing through the brow with a toothbrush, brow brush, or spoolie to soften any obvious brush strokes.

5. You’re filling in your brows before they’re properly groomed.
“Sometimes people try to fill in their brows when they’re grown out which is really hard, even for me, because you don’t have that guideline,” says Soto. If it's been months since you got your brows groomed, getting them waxed or threaded can make the entire filling in process so much easier—and faster—because the shape will be obvious. The exception: If there are just a few stray hairs, it's actually easier to see which ones to pluck once product is already on the brow. That way you can don't accidentally pluck a hair that helps the overall shape of the brow.

6. You’re creating a new brow shape instead of just following your own.
Many of us are guilty of filling in our eyebrows in shapes that aren’t exactly natural— aka the boxy brow. “Some of us have a more boxy brow, but none of us really have rectangle brows. You want to be able to see space between the hairs, you want to be able to see skin between the hairs,” celebrity makeup artist, Tatiana Ward tells SELF. “Some girls really do have such dense brows, but with even some of the most dense eyebrows you can still see skin in between. By trying to fill in every little space, you’ll most likely get the look of an overwhelming brow.”

Ward recommends revisiting how your eyebrows looked in baby pictures (pre-plucking/waxing/threading, etc.) to figure out what they’re really supposed to look like, and staying within those unique parameters. In other words, work with what you already have!

7. You’re trying to make your brows look too perfect.
Your brows don’t have to be perfect all the time. “I like brows when they’re a little unruly,” says Roncal. “They don’t have to be perfect—while I love makeup and I love the art of it, I think there’s something really great to be said about natural brows as well.” For quick, natural brows on the go, Roncal suggests brushing eyebrows upward with a light coat of gel to get as full of a brow as possible.

8. You expect your brows to turn out right every time.
Filling in eyebrows is not necessarily a skill that is learned in a day. It took me a few YouTube tutorials and some trial and error to finally achieve a brow look that I felt comfortable wearing on a regular basis. Sometimes I still have days when I think, "That did not turn out like I planned." But the more you use the beauty tools you’ve acquired, the easier it will be to master your own unique brow look. “Definitely practice makes perfect,” Roncal agrees. “The more you do it, the better you’ll get.”