In the Swim?

This morning a client emailed me about swimming and her hair and how to swim in chlorinated pools without hair damage. When I was writing back it occurred to me that you my ellenoire-ites might benefit from this tip too.
This tip is for all hair types, but especially important if your hair is dry, damaged, curly or artificially coloured.
N.B. Lots of salt pools are still chlorinated, just to a smaller degree. Step 1 is key for all sun and swim time to prevent damage. Step 2 is key for chlorinated pools.

 To prevent chlorine damage takes 2 simple things.
1) Prevent chlorine from getting into the hair.
2) Neutralize what may have got in.

When you go to the pool prepare two bottles of conditioner. One plain, One with a tbsp or two of lemon juice in it.
Almost any kind od condtioner will do, but we always suggest you avoid conditioners with sulfates, petroleum & silicones.
Here are the Steps:

1) Before you enter the pool put plain conditioner in the dry or wet hair (avoid the skin if you wear a bathing cap or it will sling shot across the room. I kid you not)  

2) When you get out of the pool, rinse the hair well (don't wash the hair, it's pointless. You cannot wash chlorine out, you have to neutralize it) then apply the lemon conditioner and run in through the hair well then rinse well.

3) Apply a little of the plain conditioner, rinse and style as usual.
That's it!
 Play Safe!

Cheers, Noelle

O Blinding Light, O Light that Blinds

Ok, so I started this post a few weeks ago. can you read it and pretend it's June 23rd or so? I had some complications with some surgery so a lot of things got put on hold.... but I'm back....


So here we are.. Summer. Sunny, Sunny Summer..a few more days and all the kids will be finished with school. I just saw four young scoundrels of the local graduating class of eighth graders racing by on bikes and skateboards giving me a tiny taste of the how the neighbourhood will transform over the next weeks. I wonder though, were they wearing sunscreen? Certainly back in my time of carefree summer days sunscreen was never discussed. It was always said back then that if you didn't burn in the sun you didn't have to worry about wearing sunscreen. My medium shade or "olive coloured" (really, I don't look like an olive, but that's what people call my skin tone for some unknown reason) mixed race skin has only had two or three sunburns ever. I think I only got them when I was swimming for hours. I certainly never shyed away from the sun. I still don't.

The myth of the base tan & dark skinned people being safe in the sun was perpetuated by my mother who was quite a sun worshipper herself. I have fond scent memories of the Coppertone creaminess that she smeared on herself while lying at the beach watching us swim at our beloved campground in the Rideau Canal area. I discovered my own favourite suntan oil in my teens in the 80's with another powerful scent memory of "Tropical Blend" noted for its awesome marketing campaign about giving you a "Savage Tan"

Savage is right.

Those were the days before we knew what we know now about skin cancer.The myths about tanning still prevail.
As you likely know, cancer in all it's forms resound personally with me. My mom, my grandmother, my stepdad and I all had it. I'm sitting at home right now recovering from my final reconstructive surgery after having breast cancer and all it's joys in 2008.

Skin Cancer doesn't kill people all that often, I guess that's good news, but skin cancer has a lot of bad news too! I know a few people who have had it, and the stories are not pretty. I have one client who got a very bad case of advanced skin cancer on her leg. The cancer had spread to her lymph nodes before she knew she had it and once they removed the cancer and the nodes she was left with a compromised lymphatic system. What does that mean? The lymph system is like the sewer on your street. It drains crappy toxins out of the body. Just like a sewer that's been blocked, a lymph system that has been taken apart just won't drain things right. What happens when the lymph system gets backed up? Like with the sewer, you get a large amount of fluid that has nowhere to go. SO, she gets to wear these really attractive compression tights everyday ....

Nope, so not kidding. How would you like to try and wear a sundress with that?

So! Get 20 minutes a day of sun for your Vitamin D intake (in the summer, in winter take supps) After that???

Don't be an idiot and wear sunscreen and remind your Olive-like friends to do it too!

On top of the sunscreen issue we at ellënoire would prefer you chose clean products that don't mess you up in other ways. There are about 1000 bad chemicals in many large company sunscreens I could go crazy boring you to tears about why they may put you at risk of cancer, endoctrine disruption, icky skin rashes and such but I won't. If you have ingredient questions than always feel free to ask. If you read the links below you will see the names of many of the sunscreen ingredients that are on the bad list....

I only sell one brand of sunscreen and it's the only one I trust: Badger. You may have seen the Badger Balm line around my store over the years and hopefully for the sake of your skin, your sleep and your sanity you've tried some of the amazing products from the brand name. Ellënoire is one of the few places in Canada that stocks the entire line of Badger Balm products.

Badger Sunscreen is AaAAAAAamazing! They have everything from Sunscreen Lotion, to Baby sunscreen, to Sports sunscreen, Unscented and on and on. Here are the buzz words you need to know about Badger Sunscreens: 100% Natural & Chemical-free Protection, Certified Organic Base, UVA/ UVB Full Spectrum Sun Protection Cruelty Free, Non- Nano, Paba Free, Vegetarians/Vegan (some have  Beeswax, some don't), mineral protection, non-comedogenic I could just talk forever about how great this product is!!

We trust Badger so much that everyone on staff uses it daily, and in order to get you in the store to try it we offer the best price in town on the whole line. The last time I checked we offered the best price of any major retailers/ updated websites in the country.

 So! Get your butt in here (or to our website) and get your butt and face and legs covered in the best sunscreen on the market (in my opinion, but this is my blog so my opinion is the only one that matters no? ;p)

Me and my opinion are always here to answer your skin care & sunscreen questions.... Happy Summer!!