I recharged my Hair and fell in love with myself

If you have great hair and flaunt a good hairstyle, it is half the battle won when you are beginning your day. Battle, did I say? Yes, of course. For us women, each day is a battle with our hair. There are days when they look dull, days when they look all oily and chipku and times when you want to pull all of them out they do not get tamed at all!

I have had my fair share of bad hair days, so much that they lasted all through the year. The tresses were long but lacked volume, not allowing me to style them as I pleased. They lacked the bounce and natural shine. I was sentimental about chopping off the length and ended up with a plait every single day. It was convenient, hid my hair issues, was the best solution when in a hurry. I ride a two wheeler, so loose hair under the helmet means working overtime on your hair to ensure it looks right. So the easiest way to deal with my hair was to braid the hair and walk out. After a point, I stopped caring about my hair and because of it my overall style quotient took a nosedive every single day. 

Add to that all the noise I was hearing about parabens and the scare about the effect on my health from all the accumulated parabens in my body wash, body lotion, sunscreen, shampoo and conditioner. I swore off  all the cosmetics that had parabens and started looking for natural alternatives. The natural alternatives meant an inconvenient half hour of hair washing and yet the hair oil would show no signs of going off. Hair washing, which is supposed to be a happy and rejuvenating experience turned out to be something I was not really looking forward to, since I knew very well that one wash was not going to be sufficient with the hair wash powder. It was also leaving my hair brittle and dry. Not just me, the husband also became a victim of my paraben-free product obsession. He'd dutifully scrub his hair with the hair wash powder but I could tell that he was not really happy about it. It got me praying for some new product that was filled with the goodness of nature that would come to my rescue and be life altering. 

So here I was, stuck with hair that was dull and lifeless, an excuse in the name of a hairstyle, pictures from trips that did not radiate the same happiness that I was feeling from travelling and a grumpy faced husband on his hair wash days. Adding insult to injury, imagine my horror when a neighborhood kid referred to me as "Aunty"!! That was the last straw! I wanted to bury myself somewhere deep and never be visible again. 

Enter my neighbor who is also an owner of a salon. She took a look at me at the corridor one day and said, "That's a nice dress you are wearing, but you should do something about your hair. It certainly doesn't go well with the clothes you are wearing, you need more volume on your head and need to trim those split ends. Your hair looks dull and needs more nourishment ma". I knew that in her mind she had written me off as a lazy person who did not care one bit about my hair. She asked me to pay her a visit at the salon one of the days.  

I thought about it and said to myself that I could give her suggestion a try and go in for a haircut. It will grow back anyway, if I did not like it. And I paid her a visit. She asked me how far I was willing to go with regards to how much hair she could chop off. I showed her and submitted myself to her able hands. Chop chop she went and lo and behold, transformed me in half an hour from someone who was called "Aunty" to a younger looking and a more buoyant me. My hair suddenly started looking fuller and bouncy. I did a small twirl in front of the mirror and could not stop feeling smug!

The lady then understood my problem with hair products and told me about many paraben-free shampoos available in the market, the newest among them being Sunsilk Natural Recharge, which comes with the Ginseng Root Extract that helps control hairfall and naturally recharges your hair. She told me that I could stop worrying about hair going awry or getting clumped a day after washing it. That this one product with its conditioner would be enough to take care of all my hair needs. That I did not have to spend hours together anymore trying to get oil off my hair. And after shampooing, I can just stop worrying about my hair and go ahead and do what I want with my hair.

I can now happily go and lather up my hair without worrying about parabens in the shampoo and also tell the  husband that he can go back to using shampoo. And I can let my hair frame my face and fall on my shoulders cause they look healthy and look like they are being taken care of. Hair care has become so much more easy. It is not hair washing anymore but is shampooing. My hair feels much more stronger and shinier.

Not just my hair, I myself have regained the bounce in my step. I am now more confident and feel much better when I dress up, cause a change in the hairdo has totally changed the way I look. This is what I had needed for the longest time. A different hair cut and some tender loving care for the hair and its a new ME altogether. I did not know that such a small change would make me so happy. My pictures now look so much better. I look younger than my years. I smile more when I look at myself in the mirror, cause I like what I see. That smile stems from the confidence that you are looking really good.  And isn't that what all of us want at the end of the day - Another reason to be happy? I now know that all it took to recharge my life was to recharge my hair!

This post is written for the Recharge your Hair contest conducted by Indiblogger in association with Sunsilk. 

Those smells and scents that i miss!

It has been close to three months since i moved to Mumbai. Setting up a new home, familiarizing myself with the surroundings, taking in the sights and smells of the place, and of course, battling with the incessant rains has taken up almost all of that time. I am not against the rains, but not when it pours bucket fulls, day in and out ; not like how it is back home - a bout of rain doesn't last longer than an hour. And what you get after that are the beautiful rain washed roads of Mysore, the smell of mud and a really cool breeze! How I miss that now!
In stark contrast, it gets all gloomy here, no sign of the sun and there is no escaping the feeling of the dampness in the air. So much, that i have resorted to boiling used limes with cinnamon and letting the vapors waft around the house.

And using potpourri and scented candles and aroma oils and what not!

Had it been back home, Amma would have opened up the windows, not given a damn about the neighbors and burnt a good amount of sambrani to get rid of any damp odors. And would have proceeded to make hot rice with vatha kozhambu to be served with a big dollop of ghee. While the roti-sabji-dal-curd rice drill is something that i am used to now, i really miss those days when i could smell the tangy gravy simmering away in the kitchen, or the jeera-pepper tadka on the rasam, promising a hot filling meal after which ek small nap toh banta hi hai! I miss secretly opening the fridge to eat the chakkai varetti ( jackfruit jam) made by my grandmother and invariably getting caught because of the strong smell of the fruit lingering near the fridge! 

I miss the fragrance of the Champa and Sugandraj flowers that would adorn the gods for the puja. I really miss the floral-girlie-happy fragrance that comes from having three ladies in the household, especially the sister, whose doesn't just spray but drowns herself in deodorant.
While i was at home, i remember being vehemently against the overdose of the jasmine fragrance - in the agarbatti, the soap, the perfume and not to forget in the floor cleaner that the maid would be ever so generous with. Now it is that same fragrance that i crave for the most. Cause Amma smells of jasmine. I crave for that hug and sleeping on her lap and her lovingly applying that strong smelling brahmi oil, much to my olfactory revulsion. Cause my hair is not what it used to be under her TLC. Now that i am away, i long for all those smells that i had taken for granted-  the elaichi in the sweets, the flowers in the urli, Amma's freshly starched sarees that we would fold up together, the smell of the blooms on the terrace, the smell of sunshine, the smell of the place that is home. I may have moved but the fragrances and the memories still linger in my mind!

P.S. This post is written for the Smelly to Smiley contest run by AmbiPurIndia about the memories associated with the smells at home. As an afterthought, i think that AmbiPur might just be what i need to freshen up the home until the sun starts looking up nice and bright!