How to take a good care of a Brazilian hair weave in winter

The shift from warm weather to cooler temperatures is enjoyable for many people. You get to dig out those sweaters and jackets, walk through fall foliage, and wake up to brisk air streaming through the still open windows. But the flip side of crisp, cool autumn – and the approaching winter – is that something else needs to change: the way you take care of yourself.

Cold air, central heat, increasing winds, and less humidity means that your once luscious skin and hair will begin to dry out, leading to dull skin, an itchy scalp, and cracked feet and hands. While these conditions are uncomfortable, having dry skin also affects your self-esteem. If you don’t think you look your best, you’re not going to feel your best. And as skin is designed to protect us from infection, illness, and allergens, it’s essential to tend to it.

Caring for Skin and Brazilian Hair Weave in Fall and Winter

Good news: There’s plenty you can to do to insulate yourself from the drying climate, and the best time to start is now.

1. Moisturize Frequently

As the outdoor humidity drops, so too does the water content of your skin. In essence, this means it needs better protection – aka a heavier moisturizer. The type you choose depends largely on your skin type. If you have dry or combination skin, pick a moisturizer that’s oil-based rather than water-based, which is what many use in the summer. Thicker, greasier night creams are usually oil based so they can work their magic all night long.

If you have oily skin, your skin may actually relish the loss of moisture in the air, and you might not need to make any transition until winter fully arrives. However, if it starts to feel tight or itchy or looks as if it’s drying out, it’s time for the big guns. Either way, natural moisturizers work best. Olive oil and coconut oil are my saviors, though shea butter, cocoa butter, avocado oil, sweet almond oil, and vitamin E oil also work well.

Lest we not forget, thorough skincare means moisturizing from the inside, too. Taking vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids – either as supplements or through increased intake of nutritious foods, such as fish, nuts and leafy greens – helps to improve your skin’s elasticity.

And don’t forget a critical rule of skincare in any season: Use sunscreen. Even in fall and winter, especially with snow glare, the sun shines damaging rays. This is the fastest way to age your epidermis. If possible, find moisturizers that contain sunscreen. Otherwise, make sure you apply a good quality SPF 30 simultaneously. If you are concerned about the efficacy of your sunscreen, consult the Environmental Working Group’s Sunscreen Guide for a list of the best sunscreens on the market.

Always moisturize head to toe right after a shower, when your pores are open wide. However, if your skin is prone to acne, this could clog your pores and cause a breakout – so experiment to see how your skin responds best. When you find something that works, stick with it.

If your skin is super dry during the height of winter, consider doing your hands, face, and neck hourly with a natural moisturizer sans any irritating chemicals. You need to be careful because some commercial products actually contain ingredients linked to cancer. If you’re unsure if your current moisturizer or other beauty product is safe, look it up on the Cosmetic Safety Database.

2. Protect Your Brazilian Hair Weave

Just as your skin takes a seasonal beating, your locks get dry and frizzy as well. Flyaway hair and split ends are often reported from the lack of humidity, so hair needs a thick moisturizer to coat each strand and protect it from blow drying on top of the outside air.

Coconut Oil
This is my personal favorite, a miracle product many people don’t know about. I use it in my hair, on my skin (even my face), and even as an additive in food and coffee. It’s so multipurpose I actually buy it in bulk.

What’s so great about it, you ask? Well, besides smelling great, it is loaded with vitamin E, helps control dandruff, contains lauric acid (an antimicrobial that can slow hair loss), and coats the Brazilian hair weave shaft with proteins to build strength, repair damage, and improve shine.

Coconut oil becomes a liquid at 76 degrees. Simply melt a couple tablespoons in the microwave for a couple of seconds (don’t overheat!), or use warm water to melt it down, then massage into your hair and scalp. Let it sit a few minutes, then rinse thoroughly. You can also use solidified coconut oil to tame frizz and add shine. Simply rub your fingers on the coconut oil and massage it into your hair and scalp. If your hair is thin, you might find coconut oil weighs it down, so use less and smear it on the hair but not the scalp.

Coconut oil is available in most large grocery stores or in natural food stores like Whole Foods. Some health and beauty chains, such as The Body Shop, sell coconut oil specifically for hair and skin, but it’s quite expensive. You can save far more buying a tub of it from a market or from Amazon.

Apple Cider Vinegar and Baking Soda
Shampooing in general tends to strip hair of natural oils, and that’s why many people choose natural shampoos. Some use baking soda and apple cider vinegar exclusively to wash their hair. If you search online for “baking soda hair” or “baking soda shampoo,” you’ll find countless stories of people who say their Brazilian hair weave is fuller, healthier, and stronger using these two natural ingredients. My husband uses apple cider vinegar several times a week for his dandruff, and it works far better than any expensive shampoo. So making this switch is clearly a cost cutter as well.

Use the baking soda as a wash by mixing one tablespoon in one cup of water. It’s easier if you put it in a squeeze bottle. Let it sit a couple of minutes, then rinse with the vinegar by mixing one tablespoon with one cup of water as well.

Once you first start using this regularly, your hair weave might actually react by producing more oil – but this is normal. Your Brazilian hair is used to having all the oils stripped out by shampoo and then replaced with conditioner, so it might take several days, or even a few weeks, until it adjusts. Then it will balance out – and look amazing and much healthier.

3. Exercise and Stay Hydrated

Ever notice how much healthier people look during the summer? That’s due to several factors: We spend a lot of time outdoors absorbing vitamin D; we are more active; and, partly because of the heat, we drink a lot more water. Then the seasons change, and we slowly move into hibernation mode. And quite simply, stagnation and sitting isn’t good for any part of your body.

In the chillier months, it’s essential to keep up your level of exercise. It not only makes you feel great, but it helps remove toxins from your system and gives your skin a healthy glow. There are plenty of ways to work out at home, so a gym membership isn’t a necessary purchase. I gave up mine years ago in favor of doing yoga at home, and I’d never go back to slogging on a treadmill!

Because you also need to keep drinking water when the temperatures dip, try to develop a routine at work where you sip throughout the day and aim for a full eight glasses by the time you go home. Once you’re in a good groove, try to extend the routine to the weekends. And use a small cup so you have to walk more to fill it up. Every step counts.

4. Don’t Turn Up the Hot Water

When the weather gets cold, it’s tempting to turn up the hot-water heater to make those showers extra toasty. However, hot water actually dehydrates your skin and Brazilian hair weave, especially in drier air. Soaking yourself in a too-hot tub is like cooking the moisture out of your skin, stripping it of natural protective oils – and you actually risk surface burns. By contrast, a comfortably warm bath can help seal in skin’s moisture, especially if you add oatmeal, dry or liquid milk, and even honey to the water.

To help temper your use of hot water, keep the water heater at the same position all year round – or better yet, see if you can edge it down in the fall and winter.

5. Exfoliate Naturally

Skin cells are constantly dying. As sad as that sounds, it’s actually a healthy thing, because they’re always being replaced with fresh new cells. When you exfoliate – scrub away the dry, dead cells – you accelerate that process and prevent your skin from looking dull and pasty. I use oatmeal as a natural exfoliant, as it’s great on dry skin, especially when blended with milk and honey. If you have oily skin, use baking soda and water. Both work wonders and are far cheaper than commercial masks.

Scrub your skin with a quality exfoliant at least twice weekly during the cooler months. If your skin is especially dry, you might want to opt for three or four times.

6. Use a Humidifier

During the winter, chances are your heat runs constantly. In my home, the moisture level indoors can be as low as 25% without a humidifier. To put that in perspective, the Mojave Desert often has a humidity level of 20%. A humidifier running quietly in the rooms you use most keeps a necessary level of dampness in the air. There are single-room units and even whole-house humidifiers that connect to your HVAC system. Consider it money well spent.

It’s especially important to use a humidifier overnight. In addition to keeping your skin and Brazilian hair weave moist, this keeps your sinus passages clear and better equipped to fight off germs. Plus, you no longer wake up with gunk in your eyes.

Final Word

These are just some of the things you can try. Another strategy is not to walk outside without gloves on. Your hands have far fewer oil glands than other parts of your body, which is why they’re so vulnerable to harsh winter air and so much harder to keep moist. Keep them wrapped up when outside, and use a natural moisturizer like coconut or olive oil right when you come back in.

With proper tending, your skin and hair can thrive all year round. My skin used to get so dry and itchy starting every November, and I was in misery until the warm rains of April. But thanks to the natural products I use now, I look just as good in December as I do in June.

How do you keep your skin and hair healthy through fall and winter?

11

iRobot Roomba 650 Review

PROS / The iRobot Roomba 650 was able to get over a lot of obstacles that stopped competitors.

CONS / This one struggled quite a bit on pet hair, leaving some behind and getting a lot caught in its brushes rather than into the dustbin.

VERDICT / This is an older model that lacks newer innovations like a phone app, but it has good suction and almost never gets stuck.


The Roomba 650 is one of the older models in iRobot's product line, but it is of such high quality, so well-known and so well-regarded that it still earns a spot in our comparison of the best robot vacuum cleaners. There is only one competitor that had more suction than the Roomba 650, which also was among the best for its ability to maneuver around obstacles. It may not have all of the latest upgrades, like a mobile app, but this unit does a great job of cleaning – and for a very low price.

In our home tests the Roomba 650 got up and over an almost 2-inch transition from hardwood flooring to tile quickly. After watching a long line of competitors hesitate and even get stuck completely on the same threshold obstacle, it was refreshing to see this one glide right over it and keep on vacuuming. It did have problems on one transition from hardwood to a thicker carpet but for the most part it was a champ in terms of self-sufficiency. This is one of the ones you would be safe to leave unattended and expect to find it doing its job when you return rather than getting stuck.

In laboratory suction tests this vacuum robot was very impressive. It struggled on pet hair, on both carpeting and vinyl flooring, but for other test messes like kitty litter and Cheerios it was always among the best.

You do not get a mobile app or remote control for programming and changing your settings with this vacuum, which can make it more difficult to control. You have to control it just using the buttons on the top. Also, its screen offers less information than some of the others, so it was not the most intuitive to use. One thing that makes it easier to use is its rubber bumpers on every side, which ensure that it does not leave scuff marks on furniture and floorboards.

It weighs just under 8 pounds and measures approximately 13 inches around, which is average. That size proved to work just fine in home tests because it was able to clean around the legs of the dining room table and under couches, even though it was not particularly petite. A carrying handle would have been nice, but since the 650 needs repositioning so rarely it won't matter very often. It almost never gets stuck, and when the battery is running low the vacuum automatically returns to its base by itself.

How Do Eco Drive Watches Work

Developed and manufactured by the Citizen Watch Company, ECO DRIVE CHRONOGRAPH receive their power from any light source. Since the watches run on both solar or artificial light, their power supply is continuously being replenished. Eco Drive watches look like other watches and are made in a variety of styles and designs. This quality watches also contain the same type of quartz movement found in watches powered by other methods.

How They Work

The two main components of the power system of an Eco Drive watch is an energy cell and a solar conversion panel. Located under the watch dial, the microns thin solar panel is a disc made of amorphous Silicon. After capturing the energy from the light source that enters through the watch crystal and dial, the solar panel converts the energy into electrical power through a process called photovoltaic. The electrical energy is then stored in the energy cell providing the needed power supply for the watch to run. From then on, an Eco Drive watch operates in the same way as a regular quartz watch.

The energy cell of an Eco Drive watch is not like a regular watch battery. The following are the main differences:

• It is not affected by the normal cycle of charge and discharge.
• The energy cell is environmentally friendly as it does not contain the chemicals found in most other types of watch batteries.
• The energy cell never needs to be replaced when used properly.

The technical platform that made the Eco-Drive concept possible was the Eco-Drive caliber 7878 movement. This movement was the first light powered movement where the solar cells could be mounted under the dial. Previous light powered watches from Citizen and other manufacturers had the solar cell(s) mounted directly on the dial. This innovation was enabled by marked improvements in thin film amorphous silicon solar cells, which, by the early 1990s had become significantly more efficient. By locating a sufficiently translucent dial material over the now more efficient solar cells, enough light could pass through the dial face to power the movement. Though the Eco-Drive caliber 7878 movement solar cells remained slightly visible through the dial, the physical styling of the light-powered watch was no longer constrained by visible solar cells.

To store electrical energy the first Eco-Drive movements employed titanium lithium-ion rechargeable or secondary batteries. This battery type became available in the early 1990s, enabling an Eco-Drive 7878 movement to run 180 days on secondary power before requiring recharging via light exposure — a marked improvement in energy storage over previous light-powered watches. The movement also featured an "insufficient recharging" indicator.

Top Best Electric Gate Opener Reviews

With the ever growing demand to keep you and your belongings safe, automatic gate openers are the best choice. No need of hiring security guards for 24/7 hours, just install MIGHTY MULE 560.

Depending on your desire or requirements, you can choose any high quality single or double opener MIGHTY MULE 560 for your swinging gates. You are not required to do any welding or asking the electrician for gate opener’s installation. You can do it yourself and manufacturers often provide the installation manuals and kits along with their products.

Gate openers are capable of producing high level of force and therefore, you must take all precautionary measures before, during and after the installation. Great deal of care is always requisite when your gate opener is operating. Let MIGHTY MULE 560 make it easy for you that how you can install gate opener of your choice.

Top 3 Best electric gate opener

It’s not an easy job to select a gate opener fulfilling your needs under your budget. This mainly because of two reasons, either you do not have enough information and understanding about these units or you are overwhelmed with the huge variety available on the market.

Electric gate opener reviews I read on and recommendations from my friends have helped me a lot in choosing the best fitting opener for my farm’s gate. However, you must determine your needs, significant factors like gate’s type/size/weight along with frequency of use and certainly the charging options available with your preferred gate opener.

I have picked three best models of the gate openers for you and you can see them on this website.

I know we all want to do important things. We all want to work on important products, start important companies and accomplish tasks that could change the world and have an enormous impact. I see this in entrepreneurs and the tech community more than anywhere else.

The question we ask, whenever we hear about a new business or idea, whether it’s renewable energy or a messaging app or a fucking hamster sled, is this:
Will it scale?

Designers shouldn’t code. They should study business.

Increasingly, more and more companies are looking for great design leadership these days. They are being told that their company needs a bigger focus on design thinking and are keen to adopt more design centric principles. But over and over, when these companies talk to designers, they hear about craftsmanship—about brand consistency, and polished design, designers who can code, and style guides, and prototyping, and testing — the designer’s craft.

All of those things are good — mandatory even. But for us to truly understand the best way to help a business we have to start focusing on what makes the business successful. We must first understand business in general. Then we will better understand where craft is important (and where it is excessive).

Instead, designers are often seen as someone that needs to have the important business goals explained to them in the most basic of ways. I think our suggestions about design would carry a lot more weight if we were able to have insightful conversations, and offer valuable suggestions about core business principles.

Video will not save your media business. Nor will bots, newsletters, a “morning briefing” app, a “lean back” iPad experience, Slack integration, a Snapchat channel, or a great partnership with Twitter. All of these things together might help, but even then, you will not be saved by the magical New Thing that everyone else in the media community is convinced will be the answer to The Problem.

I can tell you from personal experience over the last several months, having met with countless investors and leaders of media companies and editors and writers and technologists in the media world that there is a desperate belief that The Problem can be solved with the New Thing. And goddammit someone must have it in their pitch deck. A new kind of video app. The best news stories of the day, except all on video. Video, but with subtitles. Only 30 second videos, designed for vertical screens. A personalized Facebook bot that delivers only the video you want. Video on-demand, over-the-top, linear, succulent, meaningful, plentiful, attention-grabbing video!