Day 17: The secret to beautiful healthy hair will surprise you

Between You, Me and the Lamp Post

Day 17: The secret to beautiful healthy hair will surprise you

Whenever inspiration is in short supply, I do what I always do … I take a walk. Today that walk took me to the Bloor Mall and more specifically to Drug Market.

Wandering along the aisles, I’m always surprised at the number of hair care products: shampoos, conditioners, mousses, oils, etc. Over the years I have used a great number of them, and I can tell you with absolute certainty … none of them delivered on their promises.

Next, I looked at the magazines. One of them also focused on hair. How to get longer hair, stronger hair, straighter hair, curlier hair. Out of curiosity I paged through the magazine, found the hair advise section and looked at the recommended products for hair problems.

One thing immediately became clear, whoever wanted his or her hair longer, stronger, straighter or curlier better be prepared to pay a hefty price for it.

I couldn’t help but smile. I doubted that these products were any different than those on the shelves of Drug Market, promising a lot but delivering very little.

Now it so happens that I have a hair problem myself. After a lengthy illness, I have a lot less hair than I used to have. It’s not surprising really, during my illness I suffered pain, stress, lack of appetite and weight loss 10 kilos (20 lbs), all factors that impact hair, especially lack of appetite.

When someone is not eating right, or not eating enough, hair is one of the things that get affected. The hair no longer receives the vitamins and minerals it needs and more importantly, it no longer gets proteins. The result, hair breaks and/or falls out.

When I went looking for a remedy to whip my hair back into shape, I didn’t look at any pills or creams, or any beauty product that promised me miracles, I consulted Mother Nature. Or rather, I turned to Google and researched what Mother Nature had to offer.

As it turns out, the best thing for hair was right in my fridge and costs only a few cents … an onion. According to experts, red onion juice is the best thing for hair.

First-time users are advised to peel and chop one or two onions into pieces and boil them in water for twenty minutes. Remove the onion pieces and let the water cool. Put the water in a bottle and sprints all over the scalp, apply the water with a soft brush, or pour the water all over the scalp.

If the smell doesn’t bother you, you can also use pure onion juice. For this method put on or two onions in a blender. Pour the mixture through a cheesecloth or other fine material and sprits the juice over the scalp or apply with a brush.

Whichever method you prefer, you can leave the onion juice (pure or diluted) on your hair for twenty minutes (if you’re in a hurry) or two hours if you have the time. Afterward shampoo and condition as usual.

There you have it. According to the experts, you don’t need expensive concoctions to prevent hair breakage, to regrow hair, or to just keep your hair in top condition. An onion will do better than anything you buy in the store.

Personally, I’m going to try it tomorrow and I’ll keep you updated on my hair’s progress. Don’t expect miracles though. All the articles I’ve read state if you use onion juice twice or three times a week, it may take four to six weeks to give results.

My Mother's Secret

For months I awaited Sheila O’Flanagan’s new book “My Mother’s Secret”. 

Once I had it in my hands I almost licked my fingers in eager anticipation, but almost from the first chapter it turned out to be a disappointment. 

Meet Jenny and Pascal Sheehan. The couple is about to celebrate their ruby anniversary (40 years), but as it turns out they’re not even married. They faked it all these years.

As young lovers they went to Rome, where Jenny found out she was pregnant, and so they decided to marry to escape the wrath of Jenny’s family.

Of course, marrying on the spur of the moment was impossible and so they forged a wedding certificate, shoved a ring on each other’s finger, posed for a few pictures, and pretended to the whole world that they were legally married.

When their three children find out about this, they flip. 

Personally I wouldn’t have a problem with this. I’m not in favor of marriage to begin with, so if these two managed to stay together for forty years, who cares whether their union was legal or not.

That’s not all though. After a few years and two kids, Pascal leaves for a month on a business conference and Jenny has an affair. An affair with consequences as it turns out, because she’s pregnant with this man’s child. 

You would have thought that after her first unplanned pregnancy she would have learned her lesson, but apparently she didn’t. What’s more, not only does her husband forgives her little slip, he agrees to bring up the child as his own.

When the lovechild (Steffie) learns of this little tidbit, she goes off the rails. Suddenly her father is no longer her father, her brother and sister are now half-siblings, she can’t forgive her mother for cheating and she doesn’t know who she is anymore.

If Steffie had been a teenager I would have said, okay, she has reason to be upset, but she’s a twenty-seven-year-old woman for heaven sake, a time when most adults know their identity.

If I had to choose between being a lovechild and an accident, I know what I would prefer.

Then there’s Roisin, Steffie’s sister, a character so nasty I would have loved to slap this woman around. She’s selfish with a capital “S” and a control freak beyond belief. She’s of the opinion that her sister should get married and have kids, for no other reason than that her two kids have nieces and nephews to play with. Nothing her family does is good enough, she knows everything better and does everything better. She is the queen and everyone must bow to her.

The rest of the characters aren’t much better. They are devious, jealous and conniving and whine non-stop. If it isn’t about their mother, it’s about their sister, or their marriage, or the kids, or just that things don’t go their way.

In the end all is well. The fake married couple marry for real (heaven knows why), the lovechild finds love and the rest of the cast finds happiness too.

All in all not Sheila O’Flanagan’s best work. Perhaps it was ghost written.

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