Friday, June 15, 2007

Caring your Hair

Over 5000 years old traditional healing system of medicine from India is shaping up as health spas and beauty salons globally due to its efficacy in skin care and hair care products majorly. Yes I am speaking about Ayurveda which recommends you to have a healthy lustrous and strong hair to steer you away from other chemical based hair care products.Here I come with some tips and ideas to enjoy healthy scalp with silky smooth hair.
As your eating habits affect whole body so as to hairs.Nutritious diet as well important to have healthy hairs which includes whole,fresh and organic foods.Vegetable rich diet including dark leafy greens, carrots,radish,broccoli, beets, fresh green herbs like cilantro, basil, mint and fruits like melons, berries and grapes.All foods rich in proteins, vitamin E,B and C are good for scalp.

Hair care Tips:
-It is good to massage your scalp with either coconut, almond or olive oil daily to improve the circulation before you wash you hairs.

-Using strong fragrant shampoos with rich lather might make you feel good for a while but it can damage your hair overtime.

-Dont ever brush your hair when it is wet.Allow the hair to dry by itself. Using hair dryers makes the scalp dry and causes dandruff and also damages the hair.Remover the tangles with your fingers slowly.Later brush your hairs with a comb in all direction to improve the circulation.

-Dont wash the hair in hot water. Its always good to wash the hair in cold water if you can not do so just use warm water.

-Clean you hair brush/comb once in a week and keep it clean out of dust,sweat, oil.
-Wash you pillow cover and bath towel often especially when you have dandruff problem.


Remedies for hair loss and dandruff:

Causes of hair loss can vary...some times due to some diseases or stress and sometimes due to hormonal imbalance. Other than that we all will have hair loss some time in our life without any major causes. Here is some of the things you can do at home to stop you hair loss.

-Make the decoction of tea and add 1 tsp of salt wash the hair

- Treating your hair with Amala (Indian gooseberry)/Nellikaayi is the best of all. Soak dried Amla during night in water and squeeze it well in the morning and wash the hair with that water. If you dont find dried Amla you can also use Amla powder which you can definitely get in any Ayurvedic pharmacy. This helps not only in hair loss but prevents hair from graying.

- Applying the Amla paste to scalp can also be done to get good results.

-Soak some methi in the night and grind it preferably with coconut water if not buttermilk and apply the paste all over the scalp. This will stop hair fall and dandruff. It helps the hair to grow thick.

- Egg yolk is the best conditioner for hair.

- Add 1/2 cup of fresh grated coconut to 1 cup of hot water and leave it for sometimes.then add one lemon juice to it and massage the scalp. Leave it for 1/2 hour and then wash. Do it once a week to stop hair fall.

-Applying paste of methi leaves to scalp and then washing also gives a silky soft long hair without dandruff.

-Sour curd is a very good remedy for dandruff. Apply sour curds with besan flour made into paste to scalp and leave it for 30 minutes and then wash the hair.

-Use sheeka powder to wash the hair if you can not get sheekakai powder use some herbal shampoo.

- Massage the scalp with olive oil and leave it over night to fight dandruff.

-Soak some neem leaves in water overnight and rinse the head in that water.

-Can apply fresh Aloe vera gel over the scalp and later rinse with water mixed with 1 tsp of lemon juice or vinegar.

-Heat coconut oil with 1-2 camphor and apply warm oil to scalp is efficient to fight dandruff.

-Applying green gram paste to scalp works good too.

-Hibiscus flowers as well as leaves are very good hair conditioners and also alleviates Pitta.

-Henna is a great conditioner for hair. Apply henna to your hair once in a while gives good color to hair, stops graying of hair naturally resulting in silky soft hair.
Wash you head the day before you plan to apply henna to remove oil from the hairs.Mix Henna powder either with tea decoction or buttermilk to make paste and keep it overnight.Next day mix the paste well and apply it to scalp evenly. For good results keep it for at least 4-5 hrs.If you are a person who catches cold very easily reduce the time.
Then rinse the hair only with water without shampooing. It regulates the heat of you body. You will definitely feel the difference the same day!

-In my native we use leaves of Arjuna(Terminalia Arjuna) tree for hairs. The fresh leaves of Arjuna soaked in cold water for sometimes and then squeezed. We can get a gel kind of solution which is used to hair during head bath.

Hair oil for your type:

If you are Vata predominant sesame oil (Tila Taila) and Almond oil are best choice as base oil.
Those who are Pitta predominant soothing oil like coconut oil is good.
For Kapha predominant persons olive oil and seseme oil will be good choice.

Herbal hair oils like Bringamalaka, Neelabhringadi, Brahmi etc. Herbs like Amla (Embelica officinalis), Bringaraja (Eclipta Alba), Brahmi (Bacopa monnieri),Hibiscus,Methi, Henna specially stand for healthy hair.

I think trying all these should definitely help you to have shiny, soft, silky, long healthy hair. This is all natural hence you dont have to be scared of damaging your hairs with harmulf chemicals.

Friday, June 1, 2007

Kapalabhati

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Importance of Kapalabhati

Kapalabhati is one among the Shat kriyas in Yoga according to Hatha Yoga.Similar to Panchakarmas in Ayurveda Shat kriyas are used to balance the three main doshas(vata-pitta-kapha) of the body. The word "Kapala" in sanskrit means 'skull' and 'Bhati' means 'shine' So kapalabhati is the action which cleanses and shines the brain by stimulating the brain cells. It is a heating form of Pranayama.Kapalabhati helps to make the movements of diaphragm very easy and controlled and helps to remove toxic air from the lungs and takes in the fresh air. This is rather be called as abdominal breathing since it majorly involves abdominal muscles.

Instructions:

- Kapalabhati can be practised during early morning in empty stomach or you can have fruit juice or water or tea 30 mins before practising the procedure.
- Bladder and bowel should be empty before practising.
- It should never be done when the stomach is full. One should wait for upto 3 hrs after food to perform this.
-It should not be done during pregnancy and menstruation. -It is contraindicated if you have had a surgery recently or inflammation of the lungs/emphysema and hypertension.

Procedure:

-Sit in Padmasana or Siddhasana with your spine/back and head erect.
-Take 2-3 deep breaths with inhalation and exhalation through the nose as a prerequisite.

-start with exhalation and then breath in to allow the air to fill in the belly to expand totally.

-Now do a forceful exhalation a little deeper than the ordinary breathing. At the same time contract the front abdominal muscles suddenly and with a little force. You are really pushing out the air here.

-Then inhale by simply relaxing the abdominal muscles.
In this procedure do not do any retention of the breath.
-The beginner should start with eleven expulsions in each round. You can do this for 10-15 mins daily with a break once in every five minutes.
-Dont strain or struggle. Just relax for a while if you feel tired or stressed.

Benefits of Kapalabhati :

-Kapalabhati in general helps the whole body.
-Each exhalation stimulates the center of abdomen and activates the prana.It clears harmful toxins from the body.
- It is useful to improve the bowel movements.
- Deep inhalation takes good amount of oxygen to the lungs and helps to purify the blood.
- Stimulates all the organs of the abdomen
-It clears all the drainage from sinuses and relieves sinusitis.
-Cleanses the central nervous system
-Kapalabhati increase the Agni and hence improves digestion.
-It decrease the vitiated vata dosha
-Kapalabhati counters parasites.