How to Have Healthy and Beautiful Hair
Hair is one of the most important parts of our appearance. But having great hair is not just a matter of looking good. Proper hair care is an essential part of maintaining your overall health and well-being. And it is a habit that is worth cultivating—especially as autumn approaches when cold, dry air can cause hair and scalp problems. Here are a few things you can do to ensure that your hair is healthy and looks its best.
Do: Know Your Hair Type
Knowing your hair type can help you make smarter choices when it comes to caring for your hair. There are many hair types from the 2a hair type to the 3c hair type. If you have curly hair, you need to be careful when choosing shampoos and conditioners as some products can make your hair more frizzy and dry. On the other hand, if you have straight hair, you should be careful not to overdo heat styling as this may damage your hair and cause excessive dryness and brittleness.
Do: Have a Healthy Diet
Shiny hair is a sign of good health. Eating a nutritious diet with lots of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants can help your hair be healthy. Hair thinning has been linked to a lack of minerals such vitamins B12 and D, biotin, riboflavin, and iron. Low amounts of protein in your diet can also lead to dull-looking hair and hair loss. This is because protein is crucial for maintaining a healthy balance of amino acids in your hair which is essential for the growth and repair of damaged hair cells.
Do: Drink Plenty of Water
Water helps to keep your scalp moisturized and healthy. It can also prevent dandruff and other dry skin conditions. Hydration promotes circulation, which carries nutrients to your hair follicles. It nourishes your hair from its roots to its tips and stops split ends and breakage. In addition to keeping your hair and scalp supple, drinking plenty of water will help you to eliminate toxins from your body that could otherwise harm your hair and health.
Do: Get Adequate Sleep
Many people do not know that the amount of sleep they get can affect the health of their hair. If you do not get enough sleep on a regular basis, your body will not have a chance to rest and recover from the daily stress you face. This can lead to an accumulation of stress hormones in your body—which in turn can increase the risk of hair loss and thinning. Try to get at least eight hours of quality sleep every night.
Do: Brush Your Hair Everyday
Brushing your hair regularly can improve its texture and shine. You should try to brush your hair at least once a day. This will help to distribute the natural oils produced by your scalp throughout your hair and help to eliminate dirt and oil that can clog hair follicles and cause dandruff and hair loss. If you have a hard time brushing your hair, you can use a special hairbrush designed to massage the scalp and encourage blood flow.
Do: Get Regular Haircuts
Getting regular haircuts is an important way to maintain the health of your hair. It eliminates split ends and helps prevent further breakage of hair strands. It also helps you keep your hairstyle looking neat and consistent by removing any hair that may be out of place. When getting a trim, be sure to tell your hairstylist if you have any issues with your natural hair so that they can make the necessary adjustments.
Don’t: Over-Shampoo
Contrary to what most people think, you should not shampoo everyday. Over-shampooing can strip the hair of its natural oils and lead to dryness and brittleness. It may also cause the scalp to become itchy and flaky. Over-shampooing can also inadvertently cause damage to the hair follicle which will prevent it from growing back properly. This can cause even more damage to the hair and scalp, resulting in hair thinning and premature hair loss.
Don’t: Use Harsh Styling Products
Some styling products such as include hairsprays, gels, mousses, and permanent waves can damage your hair by making it dry, brittle, and prone to breakage. In addition, they can build up on your hair and scalp and cause irritation and greasiness. Try to limit your use of these styling products to no more than twice a week and instead use products that nourish and strengthen your hair such as leave-in conditioners and hair oils.
Don’t: Use Excessive Heat
Use heat styling tools in moderation. If you use blow dryers and curling irons regularly, avoid those that are too hot as they can cause extensive damage. Also, consider using a heat protectant spray to protect your hair. If you have colored hair, avoid using hot tools such as straighteners or curling irons until your hair has had time to dry. This will help to prevent the heat from damaging your hair and causing breakage.
Whether you have flowing locks or short, tight curls, hair is a big part of your personal image. Healthy hair is the product of a healthy lifestyle. By practicing the dos and don’ts of hair care, you can have beautiful hair that will make you the envy of everyone around. As a bonus, you will feel better too!
How to Support Someone Recovering From Addiction
Addiction and the path to recovery are long, bumpy, and difficult. You want to support and protect your struggling loved one, but you may not be sure how. You are also feeling anxious about what is to come, and excited to have them feeling better. Whether your loved one is coming home from luxury drug rehab or has been attending treatment at a local center, you may be wondering what comes next.
When your loved one is nearing the end of their treatment you may feel like everything is going to go back to the way it was before the addiction. You are excited to have your loved one back and you may be overly optimistic. On the other hand, you may be feeling fear of the unknown and be unsure of where the path leads next. Regardless of your concerns or excitements, it is important to put your feelings to the side and learn how to support and help your loved one in the ways they need at this difficult time.
Encourage Therapy Attendance
Your family member may be in recovery from their addiction, but that doesn’t mean they no longer need the support of a group or therapist. It is important that they feel acceptance and encouragement from their close friends and family to continue this as long as they feel the need. Relapse is less likely with ongoing mental health support.
Support Other Health Concerns
Most people struggling with addiction also have other mental health concerns, such as anxiety and depression. Supporting your loved one in these struggles can help prevent relapse, as well as help them with their health in general.
Educate Yourself
It is important for family and friends to become educated about addiction. You cannot support your friend in their struggle if you do not understand it or if you have a faulty view of it. Addiction is a disease, not a choice, and understanding the factors that go into the disease can help you be less judgemental and more supportive.
Manage Expectations
Addiction is a lifelong struggle. Friends and family must understand that and view addiction as a manageable but chronic disease. Relapse is common, as in any chronic disease, and accepting this fact from the outset can help you manage your disappointment and frustration if it happens to your loved one. Roughly half of the people who go through rehab will relapse at some point, and this is similar to the rate of recurrence with other chronic illnesses.
Check in Frequently
Don’t leave your friend to feel lonely and abandoned. Check in with them often- not to oversee them or make them feel smothered, but to let them know that they aren’t alone and that you care about them. Invite them to join in with your hobbies and activities, and join them in theirs. Treat them as you do any of your other friends, not as a pariah.
Encourage Healthy Habits
When your friend or family member mentions an interest in a healthy hobby or habit, such as getting a gym membership or taking up knitting, encourage them. Show interest in their activities and, if it’s something you also might enjoy, consider joining them in their new hobby. Also encourage them in other habits, such as therapy sessions, attending classes at a local college, joining friends for yoga in the park, or getting a new pet.
Set Healthy Boundaries
While you want to be there when you are needed, you must also learn how to set healthy boundaries. Many family members accidentally contribute to their loved ones’ health concerns by enabling them instead of supporting them. This may mean you need to learn more about the process of addiction or attend a family therapy class to learn how to set boundaries and which boundaries you should be setting.
Don’t Criticize
Try to be supportive and encouraging as much as possible. Many factors in a struggling person’s life may concern us, but being overly critical of minor issues can contribute to the low self-esteem most addicted people already struggle with. Shame and guilt are two of the motivating factors that contribute to keeping people in the cycle of addiction, so avoid adding to that stress if possible.
Support Yourself, Too
It is vitally important that you support yourself, as well. If you have been living with a person struggling with addiction and going through treatment, you may be dealing with mental health struggles of your own. The addiction cycle often negatively affects family members in many ways, from financial and legal problems to low self-esteem, stress, and anxiety.
Most family members of recovering people benefit from family therapy, private therapy sessions, and self-care. Self-care can include taking time for yourself to do something important to you such as volunteer or attend religious services. It could mean starting a new healthy habit, such as taking a meditation class or learning a new hobby. It could meet setting aside time each week to be alone and refresh, whether it’s a walk in the park or a visit to the library to read.
Easy Ways to Improve Your Online Company’s Customer Service
Customer service is important for any business, but for online or tech companies, it is vital. Not only do your services or products require more troubleshooting, but customer service may also be the main human face that you show the world. This may be the only situation in which your customers actually see or talk to a real human, making it much more important to create a welcoming, helpful, kind tone. You have no storefront or salesmen in a shop to present a human touch to your customers. Support sets the tone for what kind of company you are and how well you care for your clients.
Answer the Phone
If your customers can reach someone during business hours, they will feel heard and appreciated. This may mean you need a triage system to filter and screen calls. Only the most important customer service calls should be directed to your or your tech staff. Other calls can be answered by a well-trained answering service or customer support team.
Answering Service
Providing an answering service for your clients shows that you care about their problems and questions, no matter what time of day or in which country they’re located. Answering services ensure your customers can always reach a human when they need to, even if that human is not able to answer their difficult questions or provide complicated tech support. By providing an answering service you ensure that your customers can reach a human and either get an answer or be moved down the path toward an answer by having an appointment set for more complex support.
Stay Social
Social media is not just an advertising opportunity. Customers will use social media to ask questions, seek out support, and connect with your company. If you treat social media as an advertising platform and ignore the social aspect, your customers will feel unseen and unheard.
Social Media Manager
By hiring a social media manager, you can become better at customer service. While managers are specialists at marketing, that’s not all they can do. A manager can help you develop and implement a social media plan that includes customer service. Whether the manager herself helps customers, by answering questions and pointing them in the right direction, or whether she hires someone for that job, she can make a big difference in customer satisfaction with your business.
Revamp Your FAQ Page
Your FAQ page is an important part of customer service. People don’t want to bother you with simple questions any more than you want to be bothered. Make sure your FAQ page is as helpful as possible by frequently updating it to be sure it includes the questions people really are asking. In addition, if you don’t feel like the question has been answered clearly, consider hiring a technical writer to design well-worded and helpful answers.
For many situations and companies, a FAQ page is a better service if you include a video with explanations. For tech support, basic product how-to questions, and complicated instructions, video explanations can be helpful. If you provide a video showing how to do something, it can often take less time and be more clear than writing a multi-step instruction page. Many product companies are now offering most of their instruction manual information in video format and finding it very useful for their customers.
Helpful Website
If you find you are getting a large number of repetitive calls, you may need to consider updating your websites and social media to better serve your customers. Most people (although not all people) would rather have their questions answered online using the FAQ page, a helpful video channel, and a basic “about us” page. If you are getting a lot of phone calls asking questions that should already be answered online, such as your operating hours, location, and basic FAQ, your website may not be user-friendly.
Train Employees
Provide your employees with a lot of training. Your phone triage staff need basic training in manners and your company’s culture. They are the first voice your customers hear and one of the most important fronts in your public image. They need to know how to answer all the most basic questions for your business, and you should provide them with a cheat sheet with answers to these questions.
They also need training in specific situations and clear directions on how to help people with more complicated problems. Provide step-by-step instructions or a flowchart leading them to possible solutions and how to get from the initial issue to a final answer- whether that answer is a solved problem, a transfer to tech support, an appointment with a manager or superior, or a refund or replacement.
Implement Policies
Customer support staff need to know what they are allowed to do for each situation, and what they are not allowed to do. In which situations can your staff refund a customer? When do they need to provide a transfer to your tech support or another support team? In which situations can they rely on a manager to rescue them from a toxic customer?
If your customer service support people are well-trained and know exactly which things they can and cannot do for your customers, and how to go through possible solutions from easiest to most difficult, your customers will be happier, and your business will lose less money.
How to Choose the Right Pair of Shoes
Shoes are some of the most important pieces of clothing we wear. They are not only functional but also an extension of our personality and style. That said, choosing the right pair of shoes can be a challenge. There are so many styles and colors available, and it can be hard to know which pair will give you the support that you need. Here are some tips that may help the next time you go shoe shopping.
Level of Activity
Choose shoes that are appropriate for your level of activity. Sites such as Learn About Shoes have numerous reviews of different types and brands of shoes. Sneakers are usually designed for light activity while athletic shoes are made for sports such as basketball. For office workers, loafers are more comfortable and durable than sneakers. They are also easy to slip on and off so you can let your feet breathe when you are sitting at your desk.
If you are going to engage in a sport that requires a lot of jumping and running, opt for shoes that have shock absorbers to absorb the impact and prevent injuries. People who spend most of the day on their feet should shoes that are cushioned to reduce pressure on their feet. Should you do a lot of walking, look for shoes with good arch support and enough space to keep your feet from developing calluses and blisters.
Comfort and Fit
Comfort and fit are top priorities when choosing a pair of shoes. Shoes that are too tight or too loose can cause blisters and sprains. Check the length and width of the shoe. A shoe should fit snugly but not painfully tight. The toe box should be wide enough to accommodate all your toes without being too roomy. The tips of the toes should not rub against the front of the shoe and you should be able to wiggle your toes easily.
Make sure that the back of the shoe does not slip as you walk. You should be able to bend the shoe easily at the heel and the ball of your foot. Walk around in the shoes for a few minutes to see how they feel. Bounce and jog around briefly to check that you have sufficient support. The best time to try on new shoes is at the end of the day when your feet are at their largest. This will give you an accurate idea of how they will fit when you wear them all day.
Specific Needs
Choose shoes that fit your foot conditions. If you have a bunion or hammertoe, choose shoes with a roomier toe box. People with flat feet should look for shoes with raised heels or arches for extra support. If your foot pronates (rolls inward), you should look for a supportive shoe with an evenly cushioned sole to prevent the insides of your shoes from wearing out too quickly.
Women who are pregnant should make sure they wear comfortable shoes to reduce the risk of developing problems such as plantar fasciitis. For people with diabetes, it is important to wear properly fitting shoes to prevent complications such as blisters, ulcers, and infections on the feet. If you have poor circulation, ask your doctor to recommend the best shoes to wear and how to care for your feet.
Fashion and Style
The footwear you wear should suit your lifestyle and help you feel confident and comfortable at all times. You should also consider the current trends when choosing your shoes so that you can stay in fashion. However, you do not have to sacrifice quality for style. There are plenty of well-made, fashionable shoes that can look nice while protecting you from potential injuries and discomfort.
Some classic shoes like the gender-neutral Chuck Taylor All-Star are ideal for casual wear and can go well with a wide range of outfits. Similarly, Oxfords are suitable for a variety of business occasions and can be paired easily with blazers or formal attire. Always have at least one pair of versatile and stylish shoes that you can pair with different outfits so you do not have to keep changing your footwear each time you go out.
Material
Look for a shoe made of breathable fabrics that allow air to circulate. Cotton and polyester are good materials for warmer weather while wool is a good choice for cooler weather. Leather and synthetic materials are durable but can also be hot and uncomfortable in the summer. Materials such as leather or suede may also stain more easily than cotton or wool.
Shoes made from natural or recycled materials like cork are comfortable and great for the environment. However, they can be less hardy. Materials like rubber and plastic are durable and affordable but are generally not as comfortable as natural fabrics. If you work in wet or outdoor conditions, you may also benefit from shoes with waterproof uppers.
Sole and Grip
The soles of your shoes have a huge impact on your safety. The soles of athletic shoes are typically made from hard materials such as rubber or polyurethane that offer good traction and protect you from slipping and sliding. Some indoor running shoes have special treads that enable them to provide additional traction on slippery surfaces. Outdoor running shoes tend to have wider soles to provide greater stability and avoid injury.
Walking shoes usually have thinner soles that provide less cushioning and support than athletic shoes. They also tend to be less durable than their athletic counterparts. Women’s dress shoes such as high heels generally have very minimal grip. When buying them, try to find a pair that comes with traction pads on the soles. If that is not a possibility, you can purchase additional adhesive traction pads from a footwear store.
Workmanship
Finally, when choosing your shoes, pay attention to the craftsmanship and construction. The upper part of the shoe should be made of strong and flexible material that will keep your foot firmly in place and provide ample padding. The heel should be well cushioned to prevent you from incurring any aches and pains after prolonged use. This is particularly important in high heels. Check that the sole of the shoe is properly fitted and constructed to prevent slippage. Also, make sure that the seams are reinforced and do not show any signs of fraying.
Shoes are essential for everyday life. By choosing the right pair of shoes, you can go about your business with a bounce in your step.