Health and wellbeing

Health & Wellbeing

How to give your hair a helping hand

by Fiona Chapman

I MAY have studied to be a witch, but I don’t really need to look like one!

I have therefore booked to have my hair cut, something I detest. Every time I come out of the hairdresser I shy at myself in the mirror for days as I just do not look like me.

I have frizzy hair – let’s face it Fiona, your hair will always be frizzy said one hairdresser. I come back with it all straight and poofed and doing things I could never get it to do on my own!

After my last rather disastrous hair cut about eight months ago, I started to boil up a lovely tea, a cup of which I drank and then used the rest as a final rinse for my hair. I felt it made it grow incredibly fast and stronger.

Fresh nettle is the best. It is good for the colour, it helps to prevent hair loss and it thickens as well as softens and shines.

You need a large handful of nettles – picked with gloves and washed. Cover them with filtered water, bring them to the boil and then simmer for at least 20 minutes. Take them off the heat and leave them to steep overnight. Strain, warm it up, drink a cup and use the rest as a last rinse on the hair, massaging the rather muddy green-looking water into your scalp.

Do not rinse it off. It does not necessarily feel or smell great, like a conditioner does, but if you leave your hair to dry naturally, it will then start to feel wonderfully soft and healthy. It is probably the same with a hair dryer, but I don’t use one!

This basic recipe can be added to, depending on the condition of your hair and scalp. Equisetum arvense, the ancient horsetail plant, contains silicon and is used for thin, weak hair with split ends as well as for brittle nails. It can be used fresh – as long as the plant grows in the sun, not the shade – and it must be boiled. You can also add a pinch of capsicum into the mix to stimulate your scalp.

Lavender and/or rosemary

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Fresh nettle tea used as a last rinse is good for colour, helps to prevent hair loss, thickens, softens and shines PHOTO: Anastacia Cooper/Pixabay are good additions if you have a dry, itchy scalp without dandruff. They also make it smell nice! If you want extra shine, add chamomile. All make a good, healthy, tasty tea. They can be bought as dried herbs if necessary and will help with hair growth from both inside the body and used directly on the scalp. n Fiona Chapman is a Naturopathic Herbalist (Pellyfiona@gmail.com)

Spend time away from your smartphone at the start and the end of the day to help get restful and restorative sleep PHOTO: Firmbee/ Pixabay Why ‘the space in between’ brings clarity and progress

by Alice Johnsen

NOW is a favourite time of the year for many of us.

It is the calm between the rush and demands of summer and the dark of the coming winter months. The autumn sunlight is at its most noticeable as it shines through the gaps. The spaces in between. They are what highlight its strength.

The spaces in between, while in themselves amounting to nothing, bring the value. The sweet spot, not just in a garden but in our lives too, from relationships, to our output of effort – in whatever form that takes – and in learning – the space around all these things is what brings about clarity and progress. It is the pause around a conversation, a training session, a brainstorming session – that is where the magic happens.

We all need a lot of space. Space to think, to digest, to grow. To rest and recharge.

But it can be hard to find in our everyday lives. Sometimes we have to make space. We have to take a step off the treadmill in order to process what we are doing and let it all settle.

Photographers use negative space to work around their subject. They refer to the empty space around the subject and argue it is as important as the subject itself. I think that is a useful way to think of space in relation to our own lives.

Likewise, our brains need at night to process the events, traumas, memories and newly acquired knowledge that day.

That all happens in the pre-frontal cortex of our brains. The efficiency of that process is variable and one of the key factors is screens – phones, etc. The light from such screens prevents that part of our brains working to maximum efficiency so if we are looking at screens up to bedtime and even worse, in bed, our initial hours of sleep are not as restful and restorative as they should be. While I’m on my phone soapbox, there is also scientific evidence telling us we should not reach for those screens as soon as we wake up – ideally we should be aiming for 20-30 minutes of phonefree time at the start of the day and 60 minutes at the end.

So as we move through autumn towards winter, I offer a suggestion for us all to take decisive steps to create space around the different parts of our lives to allow the full experience of everything we do to really filter down. n Alice Johnsen is a life coach. Phone 07961 080513; visit alicejohnsen.co.uk.

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