Coconut Oil Makes Your Hair Worse...Really?!!!



More time to play instead of fretting about hair

 

I started to post over 500 words on hair care today because some women have complained online that coconut oil makes their hair’s condition worse. Come on!  Both You and I got better things to read and write about.

Just Remember, three-quarters of the world’s women use coconut oil in their hair care routines.  There is no reason why you can’t get the same long, lovely, lush, soft and touchable hair.

 

Quick Tips for Using Coconut Oil on Your Hair

Here is the short version of my origin treatise, if you are not getting the hair results you desire from using coconut oil. Look, see if you need to change how you are actually using coconut oil on your hair.

• Only use Extra Virgin Organic Coconut Oil (EVOC) manufactured by a reliable company.

• Use Coconut Oil sparingly…don’t use globs…too much is not a good thing and it’s a waste.  You will never need more than 1/2 teaspoon of EVOC for medium length hair.
• Rarely use traditional shampoos , if at all, to cleanse hair.

• Avoid all petroleum and silicones products and their derivatives, they are not compatible with human hair and scalps and create the very dryness they were purported to remedy. Don’t use Coconut Oil hair products that have petroleum on the ingredients list.

• Upgrade your blow dryer and other styling tools to ionic technology…this produces a dramatic improvement in hair softness and manageability.

I was one of those women that stylists always said 'you have to relax your hair - it's so coarse'.  My regrowth  was like a brillo pad.

Well, I'm going afro now and thanks to coconut oil, I won't be going back to relaxers. My hair is not straighter, just softer and easier to comb.

 

I’ll say it again: three-quarters of the world’s women use coconut or other palm oils in their hair care rituals. They have done so in many, many cultures - for hundreds of years in Africa, Asia, Pacifica, the Middle East, South America and the Caribbean.

 

Thai Food Recipe Ingredients: DA LIST

Run Out and Get Some Pad Thai...Now!

Do you love  tasty Thai food sooo… much that you tried to cook it at home?  But after all that cooking, you were left pondering ‘What’s missing from MY Pad Thai?”  I know I have!  

 

Thai Recipe Ingredients List

Well here’s an online link to the most comprehensive and straightforward list of Thai food recipe ingredients that I’ve ever seen:  Thai Food thetowntalk.com.



Hot Peppery Tum Yum Soup

Where to Find Thai Food Ingredients

Most of the essential Thai recipes ingredients like Galangal ginger and Thai Bird Eye Chilies can be found at organic grocery stores. Some ingredients like canned coconut milk and lemongrass stalks are available at most big grocery stores.  

You might have to order other critical ingredients like Kaffir lime leaves from an online Thai grocery website.

  

Kaffir lime fruit and leaves

 

And, nooo… I haven’t bought any of those $60 Thai food recipe books…. Yet.

 

Learn About and Experience Thai Culture

Years ago I was lucky enough to work for a Thai couple.  Our office pot luck lunches and parties always featured sumptuous tasting Thai dishes. 

Flowers carved out of food - A Thai cultural specialty

 

So your best bet to learn authentic Thai cooking might be to make some Thai friends.

Use Coconut Oil For Sweater Weather Skincare



Use Coconut Oil Skincare To Fight Dry Indoor Air

I’ve powered-on the furnace because it’s October, there’s a north wind a blowin’ off Lake Michigan in Chicago, frost advisories in nearby counties and the living room is just too darn chilly. All this also means that I got to now start using a bit more coconut oil après showering to keep winter dry skin at bay.

 Then I'm ready for 'sweater weather.'

Best Amounts of Coconut Oil for Skincare

Lakefront Chicago's  Aon Tower in Autumn

There’s  simply no better product to stop itchy, flaky dry skin from occurring than coconut oil.

I simply massage in a teaspoon or two all over my body, with or without my favorite skin cream.  I also add  exactly 1 drop to my daytime face cream.

 

Best Oil  for Dry Skin

 
Forced  dry air from the furnace, icy winds, scratchy woolens and drafty rooms all cause the problem of severely dry and irritated skin in fall and winter.   




Coconut Oil can soothe itchy skin caused by scratchy woolens

Solution: Use extra virgin, organic coconut oil in your skincare rituals during fall and winter.

Donatella Versace’s Coconut Visions

Who can ever forget a coy Jennifer Lopez on stage at the 2000 Grammys in a flowing green palm print Versace couture designer dress?

The Versace green silk chiffon dress at the 2000 Grammys was a stellar moment in television broadcasting.  I know I will never forget it.

Coconut is for Sensuous Women

That’s why I was surprised that the ‘Green Dress’ wasn’t mentioned in the Lifetime Channel’s recent well done biopic on the Versace family,  "House of Versace".  I was really looking forward to a dramatization of the Grammys moment.

 It’s clear that Donatella Versace has her finger (or fist)  on the pulse of sensuous femininity for ALL women.

Coconut Fragrance Notes

Nothing reveals that more, than the coconut perfume note of Versace Crystal Noir. It’s a subdued yet lush fragrance combination of coconut and gardenia.  It’s a posh scent for daytime wear and coy with some spice for evening.

Globally, three-quarters of the world’s women use coconut products in their beauty rituals, mostly those living in tropical latitudes.

 I think that Versace understands the woman who knows what coconut can do for a woman.  We can all learn a lot from Donatella Versace. Learn more here online about the Versace type of woman

Sylvia’s Coconut Cakes

Sylvia giving Lil' Loren the inside scoop on  coconut cake baking

Sylvia, my Mom, often told us about cracking open coconuts and grating off flakes as a young girl along side her Grandma during the 1930s and 1940s in rural Mississippi.  Mom told us how lucky we were that we could just go to the store and buy bags of coconut already grated.

But the bagged coconut was always and still is too, too sweet…pure cane sugar that always obscures the coconut flavor.

My Mom had the magic touch when it came to making coconut cakes.  Somehow she tamed the bagged flakes and made moist flavorful cakes with true coconut flavor, that were never too sugary.

Frankly, the frosting and coconut toppings on my own cakes always seem to be a disappointing sugar overload even though everyone tells me that  they love  eating them.

Sylvia…we love you and your coconut cakes…forever. God is love, God is forever and love is forever.

 

Please support Easter Seals' efforts to help physicians recognize  elderly US citizens with symptoms of Post Polio Syndrome.  Please support Bill and Melissa Gates' efforts to eradicate poliomyelitis in improvished nations.

Everybody Likes Coconut

Even doggies like coconut... see here:

This is sort of relaxing to watch, isn't it?

Taste-Test Infuser Mango Coconut Water



Ok, here are the results of my second try with the fruit infuser-this time with mangoes and coconut water.  After 4 hours, I got  a rich mango liqueur-like flavored beverage with very little coconut water taste.

 It’s so syrupy and fruity sweet, I only imbibe a little at a time.

Fruit Infuser Recipe

For this taste test, I filled the infuser core with 3 sliced mangoes plus the pits (to extract all the flavor) and a short stalk of spearmint leaves. Then I filled the pitcher with 2-one liter containers of coconut water. Next, I placed the pitcher in the refrigerator for the fruit and herb flavors to infuse into the coconut water.

A Coconut Cocktail Of Flavors

What I got is a flavored drink so heavenly sweet  with the essence of mango, I wondered  if I should I add it to  a shot of rum or vodka for a cocktail.

Wait a minute!  That should be an oxymoron: coconut water and vodka? Hmmm….

Taste-Test Of Fruit Infuser Lemon Water

The lemon drink I made with my new fruit infuser pitcher has a liqueur-like refreshing flavor. The infuser pleasantly flavored the water: The lemon drink was not tart or sour like lemonade made with juiced lemons. My next homemade beverage try will be coconut water flavored with fresh mangoes.

Lemon Water Fruit Infuser Recipe

For the lemon beverage I added a couple of chopped spearmint leaves in the pitcher’s core along with sliced lemons. First, I washed the lemons to remove any petroleum-based coating. Next, I added ¾ cup of sugar to 4 cups of water in the pitcher. 

Then, I put the jug in the refrigerator and let it sit overnight while the fruit and herb flavors were infused into the water.

The result was exotically flavored water, slightly sweet with the very refreshing taste of lemons.

No More Wasted Fruit – More Flavors To Be Made

I’m in nooooo hurry to make the mango coconut water. I can wait until we finish-up the lemon water. The fruit infuser pitcher makes a huge, tasty difference.

The $30 I paid for the fruit infuser will be paid back numerous times. Hopefully, I will be able to reduce wasted fruit and money with my new infuser. 

I always have oranges on hand.  And, usually, I have about ½ a watermelon left-over. I also always have more than enough granny smith apples in my refrigerator’s crisper.  

 But next, I’ll slice up those mangoes.  For once, I hope to be able to get out ALL of the sweetness trapped around the mango pits.  I hope that my homemade mango coconut water will be tasty. I’ll keep you posted.

Get Sexy Puffy Lips With Coconut



Use coconut water plus coconut oil to get lush, fleshy lips for this summer. Your lips will look realistically larger but not like clown lips from bad plastic surgery.

Here’s how to get better looking lips for this summer:

First, drink coconut water throughout the day to stay hydrated and to avoid shrived-up lips.  “Shrived” is not sexy.

When you are fully hydrated, tissues like lips actually puff-out. The effect is more obvious when you drink coconut water, in my opinion.

Next, seal-out the drying effects of summer sun and hot winds with a little dab of coconut oil, especially around the edges.

Then use a little coconut oil under shimmery summer colored lipsticks and glosses to avoid the irritating and drying effects of mica and other makeup ingredients.

Lastly, moisturize your lips at bedtime with coconut oil for smooth lips the next morning. Use plain extra virgin organic coconut oil. Or use a dedicated lip product that's formulated with coconut oil.

Coconut’s benefits give big lip cosmetic effects that are dramatically natural-looking and very sexy.

Coconut For Less Watering Of Your Garden

If my watering can will only hold enough to water, say, 5 pots in my container garden, I CANNOT have more than 5 pots.  Whether I have bigger or smaller containers, they all have to be watered with only 1 trip with the water bucket. That’s my firm rule for container gardening.  I hope that I can bend my rule with promising new soil blends that have coconut coir mixed-in to hold more moisture.

Let’s face it, watering pots is the bane of maintaining a beautiful and bountiful container garden. 

There’s never enough rain.  The grass sprinkler is overkill and damages leaves. If the temperature spikes above 90 degrees, I wind-up having to water the pots 2 or 3 times a day.

I do all this to keep the basil, plus my other potted herbs, vegetables and flowers from wilting on summer’s scorching days.  Hopefully, soil blends with coconut coir will keep me from having to tote so much water.

Get Sexy Pretty Feet This Summer With Coconut Oil



Don’t cover-up your feet with tennis shoes in hot weather.  Coconut oil makes it easy to showcase sexy toes in golden sandals for summer.

Coconut oil makes it easy to keep your feet looking sexy pretty  without using drying soap or odor-causing moisturizers that contain petroleum products:

Here’s my coconut oil summer foot care pedicure ritual:

• Deep cleanse your feet with 2 tablespoons of coconut oil plus 2 drops of squeezed lime juice. Massage the mixture all over your feet.
• Then soak  your feet in a footbath that contains a tablespoon of bath salts or baking soda. Do not add soap.
• Remove calluses with a natural pumice rock
• Soak feet again in the footbath
• Rinse feet
• Next, massage each foot with plain coconut oil and a drop of spearmint essential oil (no lime).
• Lastly, spritz your feet with a lightweight moisturizer that contains caprylic/capric triglyceride, a coconut oil derivative.  This last important step helps to maintain a natural sheen on your feet’s skin. This ultra moisturizing derivative really helps to prevent dry flaking skin and calluses from forming.

Coco Water Now In Rural Schools' Vending Machines



Wade Bergner at a Wis. High School (Photo courtesy Fresh Healthy Vending)



Coconut water is now available to fitness conscious teen-agers at Chippewa Falls High School in rural northwest Wisconsin.  One Coconut Water brand is stocked in the school’s vending machines, thanks to Principal Becki Davis who accepted an offer from Fresh Healthy Vending to place machines in her school.

Protein shakes and other healthy snack and beverages  are also stocked in the machines.

There are no health food stores in the small town of Chippewa. Davis said the students were excited to have healthy snacks and beverages available.

 Wade Bergner, a local triathlete made it  his mission to supply healthful snacks to Wisconsin school students via the vending machines.

When Fresh Healthy Vending contacted Davis, she said she thought to herself ‘there’s no good reasons NOT to try this’.  She found that many of her students were already familiar with the health benefits of coconut water.