A woman can define herself by her luxurious locks, glowing skin and a perfectly manicured nails. But its not just the way we style our exterior that can have an impact on these beauty assets. The environment we live in, the food we put in our body, hormonal changes and our age can all have a direct impact on the health of our skin, hair and nails. Wondering what you can do to look your best everyday? Here are seven beauty-boosting tips for skin, hair and nails.
Beauty Boosting Tips:
Tip #1: Feed Your Skin, Hair and Nails
Want to have beautiful skin, hair and nails; what you put in your body is what you get out! Diets that are high in sugar can cause inflammation and breakdown keratin, collagen and elastin – key structural proteins that make up the hair, skin and nails. Resulting in brittle nails, sagging skin and wrinkles! High sugar diets can even reduce key antioxidants that protect against damage brought on the environment including sun damage.
Improve the health of your hair, skin and nails by eating a diet that is high in protein and collagen. This will ensure you provide the aminos or building blocks your hair, skin and nails need to keep them strong. Reduce starchy carbohydrates and opt for a diet rich in antioxidant providing vegetables and fruits that are high in vitamin C, E and A. And don’t forget the essential fats that can help keep skin and hair soft! Load up on natural nuts and nut butters, avocado and fatty fish like salmon.
Tip #2: Give Your Skin, Hair and Nails A Workout
You may think working out only equates to your muscle and fat loss, but exercise helps improve blood flow and circulation, which in turn helps deliver nutrients and oxygen to the skin. This action can help stimulate collagen development. Improving blood flow also helps remove waste products and free radicals, flushing them away from new cells. This can help cleanse the skin. Of course regular exercise also helps build muscle – which in turn tones, tightens and improves the condition of the skin and its overall appearance.
In addition to a good workout, include vegetables that are rich in nitrates, such as beets and other root vegetables. Nitrates can increase vasodilation, allowing for better blood flow throughout the body. Include beets on your salad, or even your pre or post-workout smoothies!
Tip #3: Get Your Beauty Rest
Sleep has a huge impact on many aspects that affect our health and well-being. Not getting enough sleep can result in a cascade of hormonal imbalances that can affect our ability to make a full recovery to our ability to lose weight, or even process sugar! Reduced recovery time, leads to inflammation causing breakdown of the important proteins like collagen and hyaluronic acid, which keep our skin looking its best!
Lack of sleep can also result in water imbalances since the skin is unable to rebalance during sleep, this can result in drying, puffiness and dark circles around the eyes. How you sleep can also have an impact, sleeping on your face can actually increase wrinkles and reduce volume, causing an imbalance in your facial appearance. Using a pillow designed for beauty sleep can also help! Try the sleep & glow pillow, which is designed to cushion the face and reduce puffiness and fine lines and sleep wrinkles. Be sure to get at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep every night, and if possible sleep on your back!
Tip #4: Avoid Sun Exposure
You are probably already well aware of the dangers of the sun. UV damage can cause wrinkles, drying out of the skin and hair, age spots and increase your risk of skin cancer. The best defense against the sun is reducing your exposure. Always protect your skin by applying a broad-spectrum sun block of at least 30 SPF or higher.
Wear a hat, sunglasses and stay in the shade whenever possible. Avoid being in the sun during its peak between 10 am and 2 pm. Up your antioxidant intake by ensuring your diet is loaded in antioxidant rich foods including vegetables, fruits and even plenty of brewed green tea, which can block UV exposure damage.
Tip #5: Deal With Hormone Changes
Our skin, hair, and nails are constantly changing, as we age and go through hormonal changes, such as during puberty, menstruation, menopause and post-menopause. Keeping hormones in check and in balance can help keep the skin, hair and nails healthy. Estrogen has a direct effect on your skin thickness, wrinkle formation and the moisture in your skin.
Estrogen can increase hyaluronic acid to maintain structural integrity, and fluid balance while also increasing production of collagen, keeping the hair, skin and nails strong. Estrogen balance can also have an impact on hair and nail growth. Supplementing with estrogen balancing supplements can help to regulate estrogen levels which in turn can help keep the skin, hair and nails remain youthful and beautiful.
Tip #6: Quit Bad Habits
There is nothing good about too much of anything that is bad for you, this includes alcohol, bad food, or even smoking for that matter. Alcohol can reduce water in the skin, causing dehydration of the skin; it can also cause dilation of blood vessels causing red skin. Over time, blood vessel damage can cause the skin to stay red permanently. As for smoking, the chemicals in cigarettes can lead to wrinkles and dry skin.
Smoking reduces blood flow, which can lead to less nutrient and oxygen delivery, and greater free radical damage to the skin resulting in breakdown of the structural integrity including collagen. Lastly, as mentioned previously high sugar diets, can also have an impact on structural integrity of the skin. If you want to have beautiful skin, hair and nails for the long run, stop the bad habits and start eating better!
Tip #7: Protect Against the Environment
The skin acts as a barrier protecting us from the environment we are surround by. Every day we are bombarded with chemicals in the air, UV rays from the sun, and the elements of nature! Chemical pollutants from the environment from everything such as pesticides on our foods to the soap we use on our skin can impact the exterior skin, but can also disrupt estrogen balance in the body, leading to other problems including hormone imbalances. This can also have an impact on our reproductive health, our ability to lose weight and our emotional well-being. Protect your skin by only using organic made products, and eating organic foods whenever possible.
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Until Next Time,
Be Fierce & Rule the World,
Lauren Jacobsen
