Category: Beauty

Blogging about all things beauty: makeup, skincare and hair.

Sharing makeup tutorials & tips, the best beauty products & all my beauty secrets. And probably getting excited about an eyeshadow palette.

 

2020-04-20 Hair 12 Comments

Scalp problems, seborrheic dermatitis & the curly girl method

curly hair scalp problems

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For the longest of time, I struggled with scalp problems. That also caused me to struggle with my curls, which I didn’t even realize until now. Suddenly my waves were not as curly as they used to be and my usually dry hair seemed to be waxy and shiny. Nothing was working and I was struggling with dry, oily, itchy scalp. And bad hair days. I feel like I was also losing more hair than usual.

I felt like a failure and a fraud with my horrible hair. Especially since my post about curly girl method and curly hair routine is still one of the most read post on this site. I couldn’t understand why suddenly the things I used to do for my hair didn’t work anymore.

After quietly suffering with it for several months, I finally realized something. I remembered hearing about this scalp eczema called seborrheic dermatitis and after reading about it online, everything made sense.

Seborrheic dermatitis & how I fixed my scalp and curl problems

[Note: I have not been diagnosed by a doctor and this is all based on my own research and experience.]

Seborrheic dermatitis is a very common skin condition that causes dandruff and over production of sebum. It might also have a little something to do with the curly girl method, since you’re not washing your hair regularly. That might allow the oils and natural yeasts to prolifirate in your scalp. (Source.)

Seborrheic eczema is also linked to acne, which I’m all too familiar with. Luckily right now my skin otherwise is in a pretty good shape.

Here you can see how my scalp and hair looked like at its worst. This was after my first wash with the ketoconazole shampoo. Hadn’t had that fresh and airy hair in months!

In my case, it’s like having all the scalp problems at once. I had dry scalp and dry dandruff. I also had oily scalp with this weird sebum-dandruff. A shampoo did nothing to it and even right after washing my hair my scalp felt flaky and oily. If I touched my scalp, my fingertips felt oily. I just couldn’t clean my scalp with a regular shampoo. I realized that it also affected my hair and curls, since the sebum got built up in my hair. No wonder my hair felt alien to me. Hair loss is not common with seborrheic eczema, but I’ve also had hair loss. It could also be hormonal in my case, though.

The best treatment for seborrheic eczema on your scalp is simple: wash your hair every day. UV-light also apparently helps, so all the more reason to love summer. Depending on the severity of your problem, you also need a special shampoo. I read that *shampoos containing ketoconazole are pretty effective, because they get rid of yeast, so I bought that.

And you know what? I felt like my problem went away with one wash! Already I felt the itching ease and my hair felt airy and voluminous again.

seborrheic dermatitis curly hair

My new hair routine

I’ve now been on my new hair wash routine for about a month and I can say that the problem is pretty much gone. I mean, I understand the condition is probably gonna stay with me, but I have it under control. It feels amazing. (IT FEELS AMAZING!)

I have used my ketoconazole shampoo 1-2 times per week as instructed. Other than that, I can use my normal shampoos. I try to wash my hair every day, but sometimes, if my scalp feels okay, I can get away with skipping one wash.

Besides the shampoo, nothing has really changed. I use my curly hair approved conditioners and gels. So if you have scalp problems, you can still take care of your curls! It just means washing your hair hair more often, which is a bit more work. That is why I don’t always feel like applying gel and I might just use shampoo and conditioner and call it a day. Currently just having clean hair feels amazing.

I’m so happy that I managed to find help for my hair problems. I’m so happy that I got my curls back too! It honestly felt like it did when I first started the curly girl method. I had curly hair! I had curls! It was the same excitement all over again.

I’m sure I’m not alone with my scalp and curl problems, so it felt important to share. Have you experienced something similar?

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2020-04-13 Tutorial 2 Comments

Orange spring makeup – tutorial

 

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Spring doesn’t know about all the craziness going around the whole world. Spring doesn’t know things are cancelled. It doesn’t start its mornings by worrying and checking out the news. No, no, no. It wakes up excited to see how many new flower buds have risen today. Or better yet, maybe it never goes asleep and just tirelessly works to bring us the next best spring and summer.

Because when has spring ever let us down? Or summer? Maybe we’re not looking at the best time of our lives, but we can still make the most of it.

Just like spring does.

Orange spring makeup tutorial

Today I’m sharing with you this simple look inspired by spring. Orange is possibly my favorite color for eyeshadow, because it just suits me so well. If you have warm undertone and blue or green in your eyes, I really recommend trying orange.

orange spring makeup tutorial

You can do this look with just two colors – orange and yellow. Instead of yellow you can also use some other light shimmery shade in the center of the lid and in the inner corner. However, if you’re having trouble blending the orange nicely, you can use a transition color as well, to help blend the orange to your skin. In that case I would choose a warm peach or a lighter orange shade.

  1. Apply orange eyeshadow in the shape that you want your eyeshadow to be. Nothing new here really – I keep my eye open to see how high I want to lift the shadow. Pretty high on my eye, as you know. I went for a halo eye kind of look. That means I applied the orange all over the lid except the center, which I saved for the yellow shade.
  2. Blend the orange well. I wanted the blend to be really hazy.
  3. Apply yellow in the center of the lid and a touch on the center of your lower lashline as well (optional).
  4. Apply inner corner highlight, liner, mascara and lashes. All done!

My lashes are Eylure Enchanted Heartbreaker lashes. I had worn them a couple of times already so this was their last trip. You’ll find similar ones from *Eylure . I really like their lashes, because in most of their lashes the lashband is very thin, making it comfortable. They also have natural looking lashes, that are not too crazy (though there are obviously big lashes available too).

I’ve used Vita Liberata’s beauty blur a lot lately and I really like it. It’s a tinted primer that evens out the skin tone and gives a subtle glow. I’ve even used it just by itself a lot lately (and skipped foundation!). It just makes my skin look really nice and I love to have a light base that feels like I’m not really wearing anything.

Products

*Vita Liberata Beauty Blur, Latte Light
Madara Skin Equal foundation (review)
Kjaer Weis Above and Beyond Blush
*Bareminerals Highlighter, Joy
Madara Brow Pomade, Smoky Blonde
Urban Decay Primer Potion, Eden
Morphe 3502 Palette
*Eylure Heartbreaker lashes

What do you think of this look?

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