Brazilian Hair Weave Suggestions for Winter Time

The shift from warm weather to cooler temperatures is enjoyable for many people. You get to dig out those sweaters and jackets, walk through fall foliage, and wake up to brisk air streaming through the still open windows. But the flip side of crisp, cool autumn – and the approaching winter – is that something else needs to change: the way you take care of yourself.

Cold air, central heat, increasing winds, and less humidity means that your once luscious skin and hair will begin to dry out, leading to dull skin, an itchy scalp, and cracked feet and hands. While these conditions are uncomfortable, having dry skin also affects your self-esteem. If you don’t think you look your best, you’re not going to feel your best. And as skin is designed to protect us from infection, illness, and allergens, it’s essential to tend to it.

Caring for Skin and Brazilian Hair Weave in Fall and Winter

Good news: There’s plenty you can to do to insulate yourself from the drying climate, and the best time to start is now.

1. Moisturize Frequently

As the outdoor humidity drops, so too does the water content of your skin. In essence, this means it needs better protection – aka a heavier moisturizer. The type you choose depends largely on your skin type. If you have dry or combination skin, pick a moisturizer that’s oil-based rather than water-based, which is what many use in the summer. Thicker, greasier night creams are usually oil based so they can work their magic all night long.

If you have oily skin, your skin may actually relish the loss of moisture in the air, and you might not need to make any transition until winter fully arrives. However, if it starts to feel tight or itchy or looks as if it’s drying out, it’s time for the big guns. Either way, natural moisturizers work best. Olive oil and coconut oil are my saviors, though shea butter, cocoa butter, avocado oil, sweet almond oil, and vitamin E oil also work well.

Lest we not forget, thorough skincare means moisturizing from the inside, too. Taking vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids – either as supplements or through increased intake of nutritious foods, such as fish, nuts and leafy greens – helps to improve your skin’s elasticity.

And don’t forget a critical rule of skincare in any season: Use sunscreen. Even in fall and winter, especially with snow glare, the sun shines damaging rays. This is the fastest way to age your epidermis. If possible, find moisturizers that contain sunscreen. Otherwise, make sure you apply a good quality SPF 30 simultaneously. If you are concerned about the efficacy of your sunscreen, consult the Environmental Working Group’s Sunscreen Guide for a list of the best sunscreens on the market.

Always moisturize head to toe right after a shower, when your pores are open wide. However, if your skin is prone to acne, this could clog your pores and cause a breakout – so experiment to see how your skin responds best. When you find something that works, stick with it.

If your skin is super dry during the height of winter, consider doing your hands, face, and neck hourly with a natural moisturizer sans any irritating chemicals. You need to be careful because some commercial products actually contain ingredients linked to cancer. If you’re unsure if your current moisturizer or other beauty product is safe, look it up on the Cosmetic Safety Database.

2. Protect Your Brazilian Hair Weave

Just as your skin takes a seasonal beating, your locks get dry and frizzy as well. Flyaway hair and split ends are often reported from the lack of humidity, so hair needs a thick moisturizer to coat each strand and protect it from blow drying on top of the outside air.

Coconut Oil
This is my personal favorite, a miracle product many people don’t know about. I use it in my hair, on my skin (even my face), and even as an additive in food and coffee. It’s so multipurpose I actually buy it in bulk.

What’s so great about it, you ask? Well, besides smelling great, it is loaded with vitamin E, helps control dandruff, contains lauric acid (an antimicrobial that can slow hair loss), and coats the Brazilian hair weave shaft with proteins to build strength, repair damage, and improve shine.

Coconut oil becomes a liquid at 76 degrees. Simply melt a couple tablespoons in the microwave for a couple of seconds (don’t overheat!), or use warm water to melt it down, then massage into your hair and scalp. Let it sit a few minutes, then rinse thoroughly. You can also use solidified coconut oil to tame frizz and add shine. Simply rub your fingers on the coconut oil and massage it into your hair and scalp. If your hair is thin, you might find coconut oil weighs it down, so use less and smear it on the hair but not the scalp.

Coconut oil is available in most large grocery stores or in natural food stores like Whole Foods. Some health and beauty chains, such as The Body Shop, sell coconut oil specifically for hair and skin, but it’s quite expensive. You can save far more buying a tub of it from a market or from Amazon.

Apple Cider Vinegar and Baking Soda
Shampooing in general tends to strip hair of natural oils, and that’s why many people choose natural shampoos. Some use baking soda and apple cider vinegar exclusively to wash their hair. If you search online for “baking soda hair” or “baking soda shampoo,” you’ll find countless stories of people who say their Brazilian hair weave is fuller, healthier, and stronger using these two natural ingredients. My husband uses apple cider vinegar several times a week for his dandruff, and it works far better than any expensive shampoo. So making this switch is clearly a cost cutter as well.

Use the baking soda as a wash by mixing one tablespoon in one cup of water. It’s easier if you put it in a squeeze bottle. Let it sit a couple of minutes, then rinse with the vinegar by mixing one tablespoon with one cup of water as well.

Once you first start using this regularly, your hair weave might actually react by producing more oil – but this is normal. Your Brazilian hair is used to having all the oils stripped out by shampoo and then replaced with conditioner, so it might take several days, or even a few weeks, until it adjusts. Then it will balance out – and look amazing and much healthier.

3. Exercise and Stay Hydrated

Ever notice how much healthier people look during the summer? That’s due to several factors: We spend a lot of time outdoors absorbing vitamin D; we are more active; and, partly because of the heat, we drink a lot more water. Then the seasons change, and we slowly move into hibernation mode. And quite simply, stagnation and sitting isn’t good for any part of your body.

In the chillier months, it’s essential to keep up your level of exercise. It not only makes you feel great, but it helps remove toxins from your system and gives your skin a healthy glow. There are plenty of ways to work out at home, so a gym membership isn’t a necessary purchase. I gave up mine years ago in favor of doing yoga at home, and I’d never go back to slogging on a treadmill!

Because you also need to keep drinking water when the temperatures dip, try to develop a routine at work where you sip throughout the day and aim for a full eight glasses by the time you go home. Once you’re in a good groove, try to extend the routine to the weekends. And use a small cup so you have to walk more to fill it up. Every step counts.

4. Don’t Turn Up the Hot Water

When the weather gets cold, it’s tempting to turn up the hot-water heater to make those showers extra toasty. However, hot water actually dehydrates your skin and Brazilian hair weave, especially in drier air. Soaking yourself in a too-hot tub is like cooking the moisture out of your skin, stripping it of natural protective oils – and you actually risk surface burns. By contrast, a comfortably warm bath can help seal in skin’s moisture, especially if you add oatmeal, dry or liquid milk, and even honey to the water.

To help temper your use of hot water, keep the water heater at the same position all year round – or better yet, see if you can edge it down in the fall and winter.

5. Exfoliate Naturally

Skin cells are constantly dying. As sad as that sounds, it’s actually a healthy thing, because they’re always being replaced with fresh new cells. When you exfoliate – scrub away the dry, dead cells – you accelerate that process and prevent your skin from looking dull and pasty. I use oatmeal as a natural exfoliant, as it’s great on dry skin, especially when blended with milk and honey. If you have oily skin, use baking soda and water. Both work wonders and are far cheaper than commercial masks.

Scrub your skin with a quality exfoliant at least twice weekly during the cooler months. If your skin is especially dry, you might want to opt for three or four times.

6. Use a Humidifier

During the winter, chances are your heat runs constantly. In my home, the moisture level indoors can be as low as 25% without a humidifier. To put that in perspective, the Mojave Desert often has a humidity level of 20%. A humidifier running quietly in the rooms you use most keeps a necessary level of dampness in the air. There are single-room units and even whole-house humidifiers that connect to your HVAC system. Consider it money well spent.

It’s especially important to use a humidifier overnight. In addition to keeping your skin and Brazilian hair weave moist, this keeps your sinus passages clear and better equipped to fight off germs. Plus, you no longer wake up with gunk in your eyes.

Final Word

These are just some of the things you can try. Another strategy is not to walk outside without gloves on. Your hands have far fewer oil glands than other parts of your body, which is why they’re so vulnerable to harsh winter air and so much harder to keep moist. Keep them wrapped up when outside, and use a natural moisturizer like coconut or olive oil right when you come back in.

With proper tending, your skin and hair can thrive all year round. My skin used to get so dry and itchy starting every November, and I was in misery until the warm rains of April. But thanks to the natural products I use now, I look just as good in December as I do in June.

How do you keep your skin and hair healthy through fall and winter?

11

iRobot Roomba 880 review: This bot leaves the competition in the dust

The iRobot Roomba 880 is a new model for iRobot and the very first 800-series bot for the brand. At, it will replace the equally priced Roomba 790 that Katie Pilkington recently reviewed.

So what's different? At first glance, not a whole lot. But, flip the vacuum over and you'll see something entirely new: AeroForce technology. I'll go into that more later, but it's basically a design and feature upgrade that improves performance a lot.

Yes, I would recommend the Roomba 880 to anyone in the market for a luxury-priced robot vac. It performed better than the Roomba 790, and much better than the G Hom-Bot Square, as well as the Infinuvo CleanMate QQ5.

Overall, the 880 will be best for someone who appreciates gadgets and understands that a robot vacuum isn't designed to replace all other floor cleaning. It also isn't the best choice for someone only interested in vacuuming up pet hair. For that, Neato Robotics XV Signature Proholds steady in the lead.

Design
The 8.4-pound Roomba is a cute and capable robot vacuum. It has a height of 3.6 inches and a width of 13.9 inches. It's finished in black (unlike the 790's blue finish), and has a carrying handle so you can easily transport it.

Stylistically, the 880 doesn't stray too far from iRobot's existing design. It has the same rounded look, and that same large Clean/Power button in the middle. The company clearly wanted to maintain the Roomba's unassuming, minimalist design and sturdy construction.
The iRobot Roomba 790 (left) and the new iRobot Roomba 880Megan Wollerton/CNET

It comes with a removable dust bin with an easy-access release button, left and right side wheels, a removable caster wheel in the front, debris extractors, and a spinning side brush. Aside from the vacuum itself, you also get a Home Base, or dock, two Virtual Wall/Lighthouse sensors with four C batteries included, an extra HEPA filter, and a remote control with two AA batteries included.

Drobo 5Dt in-Depth Review

As our data needs grow, so will the need for faster, bigger and easier to configure storage systems. NAS (network attached storage) is one solution that has been around for quite some time, allowing users to store data over their LAN. However, for the more demanding user who does a lot of video editing or photoshop/3D rendering … a NAS device may not be the best solution. What they require is a DAS (direct attached storage) which is a large, super fast external storage, that they can use to edit the files directly. For that … you need SPEED, an external USB3.0 hard drives is just not capable of such a task.

Meet the DROBO 5DT (Turbo Editon). This unit is not a NAS as such, but actually a DAS (direct attached storage), which is just a external storage device. It features Thunderbolt 2 connectors and supports USB3.0. It’s perfect for users who want to store large files that they edit regularly. It features BeyondRAID technology which allows you mix and match drive brands, capacities and speeds. Excellent!

Here’s a little more about Drobo taken from their website …


Overview

Drobo makes award-winning data storage products for Small and Medium Businesses and Individual Professionals that provide an unprecedented combination of sophisticated data protection and management features, affordable capacity, and ease-of-use. With over 50 industry awards and hundreds of thousands of customers worldwide, Drobo has demonstrated success solving the three major storage challenges in one device – data protection, capacity adjustment, and application service-level optimization – through patented BeyondRAID™, Thin Provisioning / Reclamation, and the breakthrough Automated Data-Aware Tiering technology. WIRED Magazine recently named Drobo as one of The 10 Silicon Valley Companies You Wish You Worked for (or Started) so check out our job openings here. It’s not too late to join Drobo!



Innovative Storage Solutions

Unlike other storage options, Drobo lets users hot-swap drives, mix and match drives of different capacities, speeds, and types (SATA / SAS), and perform zero-support drive pack migration. This means that customers can optimize storage economies without worrying about drive order, data loss, downtime, or compatibility. They can swap in drives as needed, while the Drobo is running.



In terms of read/write speed, I’m expecting the Drobo 5Dt, with it’s built-in 128GB mSATA SSD, to give us very good results.

Nice Automatic Gate Opener Review

MIGHTY MULE MM360 openers are the highest quality gates in America. For more than three decades, the company has been leading in the provision of different kinds of automatic doors. The company has earned a reputation as the best makers of reliable and security doors. It is not surprising that they have achieved this feat. They use the most qualified and talented technicians. All their products lines are assembled in the country.

Nice  has diversified into different lines of production ranging from slide gate operators, swing gate operators, barrier arm operators, and so on. Nice slide gate operators include the following: MIGHTY MULE MM360, 8300 ETL, 7500 ETL.. The most prominent among them includes the Nice  3600, 3500, 1650, 1600, 1724, 1824 and several others. All these product lines are available for you at the lowest prices once you source it from the right dealers.

MIGHTY MULE MM360 relies on solar to power its products. This is why their automatic gate products are eco friendly. Moreover, you can save substantial amount of money when you use their products, because it will not be connected to home power source. Their solar panel is such efficient that, you will always enjoy quality services.

You can see that many people in the country and beyond are using Nice automatic gate opener, because of its high-end services. The products can be used for different kinds of services such as commercial and private purposes. Here are some of the reasons you will consider Nice  Gate opener, if you have not started using it.

Automatic Gate Opener Features

It provides improved security

If you use Nice  automatic gate products in your home, you are sure of enjoying maximum security. It is programmed such that you would be instantly alerted when an unauthorized persons attempt to get access to your house through your door.

Enhanced functionality

Nice products lock automatically. You are not going to have any problem using the product. You are not going to encounter any problem using the doors. This door remains the best because it opens the lock automatically.

Elevated safety

Perhaps, the greatest benefit that you can derive from the automatic gate opener is that you are sure of enjoying an elevated level of safety. This is because the gates have important sensitive sensors located in the gate openers and they are intended to offer you better security. It ensures security by not opening.

Ease of use

These automatic gate openers were designed that it will be simple and easy to use. The gates are even easier to use compared to the manual gates. Its convenience is perhaps the most important selling point. The functions you want the gate performed for you are contained in the remote control. This means that you are not going to find it hard to manage these gates.

There are different sizes of these automatic gates. Before you make your choice, you have to measure your home to ensure that you get the correct size. Try Nice  automatic gate openers and see the qualities that make it better.

“What’s one thing you’ve learned at Harvard Business School that blew your mind?”

I’ve gotten countless variations of this question over the past year. I can’t tell you everything I’ve learned at HBS, and no book would have prepared me for the experience. Instead, I’m going to give you a taste.

Some of these literally blew my mind. Some blew my mind because I never realized how important they were.

I’m going to give you the lesson I learned from each of the core classes — and the case that showed it most clearly for me. I won’t share any specific case details because that’s against HBS policy (some of the same cases are used over multiple years). Some of the lessons may sound obvious, but the conversations you have to get to them aren’t.

“Rules of Business”

Pretend like you’re a human being

With the possible exception of artists and architects, no one is more full of shit than designers. We can find a way to justify anything. Blah blah blah. That means no matter what you end up with, you can come up with some reason why it’s a good design. The best advice I have for designers is to practice being not-designers: stop what you’re doing, close your eyes, take a few deep breaths and then look again like you’re just a regular person encountering this product/service/user interface/object/page/poster for the first time. Where do your eyes go? What do you think it is at first? How do you figure out what you are supposed to do?

Today, there’s a complete disrespect for what it takes to build a business. Too many people think they can become an entrepreneur overnight and establish a real business in a 1–2 year window, but it’s just not realistic.

And I get it, because that’s what’s portrayed in the media we see every day. With Shark Tank, The Social Network, and all of these “unicorns” with quick exits and huge payouts, I can understand why the sentiment is skewed. There’s a misconception that just because a VC or “angel” throws cash your way, hoping that you’re the next Zucks, that your startup is going to be successful. But that’s not how it works. It’s the market that decides what works and what doesn’t.