Experts say a few small changes to your diet and beauty care routine can give your hair and skin a refreshing boost.
Every day, your body battles with environmental pollutants and toxins – and your skin and hair are the ultimate losers. Minerals in tap water can make your hair dull, pollutants tend to dry out skin and carbon monoxide and ozone can damage your skin’s protective barrier. This, in turn, leads to pimples, irritation and signs of ageing. It’s enough to make you want to crawl inside a BPA free plastic bottles.
Tweak your lifestyle and beauty care routine. Here’s how:
1.Detoxify Your Diet
Although no one has any substantial proof that fasting or detox pills and drinks can improve your skin and looks, your diet does affect the way you look. New evidence shows that the way you eat can actually make a big difference in clearing your acne, keeping your skin firm and supple, even improving your smile. Eating a diet that is meant to cleanse your body helps in clearing toxins that come either from your diet, use of drugs or environmental exposure. Internally oxidised fats and free radicals act as toxins. These are aggravated by issues like poor digestion, reduced liver functions and sluggish elimination of toxins from your body.
Eliminating toxins from the body involves dietary and lifestyle changes. A detox diet is rich in antioxidants, which are good for your skin as they protect it from environmental damage and premature ageing. Detox plans include exercise since when you sweat, excess toxins are flushed out through the skin. If you want to heal your skin, you have to heal your gut.
So what does a detox diet do for you?
It helps your body’s natural cleansing process by resting the organs, stimulates the liver to eliminate body toxins, promotes it through the intestine and kidneys, improves blood circulation, and refuels your body with healthy nutrients.
Start by cutting back on sugar
Refined sugar causes a process known as glycation, which can damage collagen and elastin that keeps skin firm and youthful. Try honey or jaggery as sweeteners
Give your diet a mini makeover
Eliminate alcohol, sugar, artificial sweeteners, packed and canned foods and fast foods altogether. Stock up on healthy foods and buy organic or farm fresh items without going off your budget. Add ingredients like flaxseeds, wheat germ, broccoli and garlic to start the detox process in your body.
Eat for alkalinity
Cleansing your body from the inside out isn’t all about what you can’t have. Research proves that when you eat more alkaline-forming foods, such as parsley, almonds, kale, pears, lemons and apples, your skin and hair tend to improve. If your diet is off-balance, it leaches alkaline minerals, such as calcium, potassium and magnesium that allow us to have strong healthy bones, teeth and hair. Other factors that improve your skin’s condition include drinking plenty of fluids: water, clear soups, vegetable juices and rich fruits; eliminating stress through yoga and meditation, and getting enough sleep.
2. Clarify your complexion
Once you have things running smoothly on the inside, it’s time to focus on revitalising your skin from the outside. As the weather starts getting warmer in summer, the dead skin build-up that happened during winter becomes more apparent, there is also more oil production which makes the skin appear dull. So you should start your skin’s spring cleaning by deep cleaning it and follow up with washing your face at least 2 to 3 times a day.
Start your at-home deep cleansing process by removing make-up
Use a creamy make-up remover or cleanser to wipe away waterproof make-up from your lips, eyes and the rest of your face. Use a face wash and then apply a refreshing clay mask – as the mask sets, it pulls out the impurities which gets removed as you wipe it away. Experts recommend that you use a mask to tone up dull skin.
Scrub daily with a mild exfoliator
If you have acne prone skin you can try an exfoliating face wash with salicylic acid. But sensitive skin should not be exfoliated too often. That said, there are some very gentle exfoliants that can be used by every skin type, almost daily.
The granules in your scrub should be small, so small that you can’t see them, but you can feel them. It is better to seek professional help for deep cleaning as you cannot remove blackheads or whiteheads on your own.
Keep your skin pure. Maintain your skin by applying a moisturiser with sunscreens and antioxidants. You can get the really supple skin if you use a rich night cream that also tackles some skin issues like fine lines or pigmentation.
There is no point in taking anti-ageing measures if you continue to step out without sunscreen because sun is the biggest source of inflammation, premature ageing, and free-radical formation.
Add these to your diet for the perfect summer beauty detox
Vitamin D3 – Present in fish, walnuts, flaxseeds and olive oil. D3 reduces dryness and inflammation which is responsible for early ageing.
Seafood – Rich in D3 and zinc. Zinc helps in fighting acne and aids production of new cells which leave the skin glowing.
Red and Green Vegetables – They contain Vitamin E which tends to hold skin moisture. Almonds and walnuts are rich in this vitamin.
Citrus Foods – Found in oranges, grapefruits and lemons, Vitamin C is a prime skin care ingredient that aids in the body’s production of collagen; a protein that forms the basic structure of the skin. It fights inflammation and has anti-oxidant properties.
Whole Grains – Whole wheat bread/ buckwheat/ brand products are good sources of antioxidants. Wheat germ provides Vitamin B which helps keep the skin smooth.
Following a summer detox diet that not only cleanses the body from the inside but also treats it from the outside is the best form of a lifestyle change you can indulge in this summer. Get ready as the sun scorches and feels new and fresh despite the dull and dreary weather.
