In A Pinch

 As a certified beauty professional, I am always giving or being asked for my advice and recommendations on the latest greatest product on the market that will rid you of whatever problem you are having with your hair, skin and make-up. Keeping up with the latest technology and formulations can be a full time job when everyday more and more new products are released that can have miraculous effects when used correctly. But what do you do when you are in a pinch? You have a gathering tonight and your hair is a dull dry mess, and to make matters worse you woke up this morning to discover that you are having a pimple flashback from age 15. What can you do when you have no products to help and time is running out? Well, this was a topic of discussion at my salon the other day among the stylists and we all had some very clever solutions to everyday problems using everyday household items. I found it so fascinating that I went on-line and discovered several more I had never even heard of. So I thought I’d talk about a few of them here just in case you find yourself out of stock of your favorite products and need to know a few tricks of the beauty trade to get you by until you can get in to your beauty professional.

Let’s start with the face and skin. The first tip I have is something that most of us already know, or at least have heard about at some time…Preparation H. Now for those of you who haven’t heard about it and have no idea where I am going with this, its not where you think. Preparation H is a great way to get temporary relief from swollen eyes or dark circles. If you didn’t sleep well the night before and you have to look refreshed and attentive the next day, dab a little Preparation H on your fingertips and pat gently under your eyes and that swelling and those circles will diminish pretty quickly. And as long as you don’t poke it into your eye, it’s completely safe. Surprising as it may seem, this tool is used by men a lot. Especially business men who have to look alert and energetic the next day. Most men feel pretty uncomfortable going into a store to buy under-eye concealer but Preperation H is a product that they can buy and not feel self-conscious that the CVS checker is judging their masculinity. Another tool you can use to relieve the same problem is potato slices. Now on television you always see women using cucumbers, but I usually end up eating the cucumbers with a little balsamic vinaigrette, so I can’t really testify to their healing qualities. But the potato skins might do the trick. Just don’t fry them first. As for facial treatments, a personal favorite of mine is to take a tablespoon of honey and a teaspoon of brown sugar mixed together and applied as a facial masque. Let it sit for 10-20 minutes, remove with warm water using a gentle circular motion to exfoliate, followed by a cotton swabbing of fresh squeezed lemon juice as a toner. You’ll feel fresh and tingly. Another good tool, which I have to admit I didn’t know about, was told to me by one of my stylists. He said that you can combat red splotchy skin, especially around a blemish or pimple, by applying a drop of Visine to the area. He said it not only gets the red out of your eyes but it also removes the red from blemishes.

One of my own personal skin problems is my hands. My hands are always dry and rough. Keeping my hands in wet hair and chemical product all day every day plus years of hot blow dryer air has done a number on the softness of my hands. I have tried every lotion known to man and have had better results with some over others, but for me, nothing does the trick quite like dipping my hands into a can of Crisco and putting socks over them before bed. Of course the socks usually come off in the night and I awaken to ruined pillowcases, but my skin feels fabulous! You can also use Crisco to remove makeup and some people even use it to treat psoriasis and eczema.

As for hair, there are always a hundred different tips someone knows or swears by. For decades it has been said that applying mayonnaise to your hair is supposed to be very nourishing. I even tried this once when I was just an adolescent young thing. Like any average 14 year old boy would be, I was devastated that my hair lacked luster and shine. I had read somewhere, I think in Reader’s Digest (again I, like so many other 14 year old boys, read Reader’s Digest), that a good at-home hair treatment of mayo would restore shine and moisture to my hair. The directions were rather vague, so I improvised by adding an egg yolk, (carefully saving the whites to use as a facial masque), whipped it all up and began warming it in the microwave. After a generous application of egg white facial, I returned to the microwave minutes later to discover my hair masque had started to rise like a souffle. Wasting no time, I retrieved my bowl of hair treatment and immediately began ladling what amounted to greasy runny scrambled eggs all over my head. Just as the egg whites had begun to draw my face into a taught Nancy Reagan-like purse and I’m beginning to think that this wasn’t such a good idea, guess who’s mother comes walking in the door with a couple of her friends from the PTA! (Oh, and did I happen to mention that I had previously slipped into Mother’s silk kimono-style bathrobe)? Well, of course my mother had long known by now that her only son was a complete nut and was not to be trusted at home alone, but I don’t think the two PTA ladies have ever recovered from the sight of an adolescent boy standing in the kitchen looking like a Kabuki Doll covered in scambled eggs. Suffice it to say, if you try the mayo, don’t add an egg, don’t heat it up, and for Heaven’s sake lock the door. But there are some real hair tips out there that will not leave you as messy and embarrassed as me. One of these authentic tips I have just discovered. Now I know you are thinking “Why should I trust the man who put eggs in his hair?”, but I am older now and serious about this next tip. I have a relatively new stylist from New York who discovered something interesting when in a pinch at work there. He was styling a client with a short edgy cut and ran out of pomade. He needed it to finish his style but the salon was completely out of stock. So he grabbed a jar of Watkins Vanilla Shea Butter from his station. Watkins Butter is a hand cream that he purchased at the local Wal-Mart for about $6.00. It had the same consistency as the pomade he needed and he had a theory that the two different products would operate in much the same way. To his surprise the hand lotion worked better. It gave a nice piecey-ness to the hair, allowing it to shine, yet separate into the different textures that he was hoping for. It gave the hair that much desired second-day look that is so urban-chic. So to this day he always has a jar of Watkins Butter at his station in case he runs out of pomade or his cuticles get a little dry.

Another hair tip can come in very handy this summer. All salons about this time are getting in their summer stock of hair products. These products are needed to protect hair from the sun and chlorine exposure that most of us will experience this year. You have to protect your hair from the damaging rays of the sun and if you are blonde or have hair color, you have to also protect your hair from the effects chlorine will have. I can’t tell you how many blondes I know who came back to me with greenish hair because they did not take proper care through the summer. So these products are needed. But what do you do if you are at the beach and you forgot to bring along any protective hair care? Simple. Pour out some SPF sunscreen from your bottle and brush it through your hair. Its that simple. It won’t moisturize as well as products formulated for this purpose, but it will protect and shield your hair from UV damage and fading and it just might save you a costly trip to the hairdresser while at the beach.

Even when you are not risking sun and pool damage, hair sometimes needs an extra boost and you can’t always find the time or money to get to a salon. One way to give yourself a much needed hair treatment (I haven’t tried this, just heard about it, so I am not necessarily suggesting it), is to take laundry fabric softener and dilute it with water. Preferably ½ cup softener and 1 cup of water and let it sit on your hair for several minutes, then rinse. A good dandruff relief method is to take a bottle of 30 Aspirin and add to a full bottle of your regular shampoo. Use the shampoo as you usually would and according to a few internet beauty sites, your dandruff will decrease or go away by the time you’ve finished the bottle. On the same note, if you have a dry or sensitive scalp try applying a few drops of castor oil to your scalp every other day. It is good to do this the day before your color appointment if you tend to develop an irritated scalp after hair color. Sensitive scalp can really limit you when it comes to using hair products too. If there is a favorite hair cream, pomade, gel or spray that you find works wonders for your hair but tends to have a drying effect on your hair and scalp, try adding a drop or two of your favorite soothing essential oil (lavender, jasmine, etc) to the product before you put it in your hair. You can also use these oils if you are out of perfume, or just dab a little vanilla extract behind your ears.

There is a bevy of things you can do in a pinch when you are out of time or without a specific product you need. We’ve all tried some while others sound strange to us. Not all will work on everyone, but some are bound to. Mascara may disguise a few gray hairs on a brunette but it’d look silly on a blonde, yet every woman can refresh her hardened bottle of nail polish by placing it in boiling water for a minute. Its tips like these that can sometimes save the day. If you have tried any of these or any other at-home beauty tips and would like to share you experience and results, I’d love to hear for you.

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