Good Health for the New Term

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adults, advice, anxiety, back pain, backs, bedtimes, books, boost, bugs, chemical, children’s health, clean hair, clear sign, colds, combing conditioner, conversations, depression, dirty hair, emotional health, family, family life, fine-toothed comb, fruit and vegetables, gaps, good health, GP, hair, happy, head lice, healthy diet, heavy bags, help, homework, immune system, itching, kid’s multi-vitamin supplement, kit, laptops, long, mobile devices, natural, new school term, nits, open line of communication, pencil case, physical well-being, poor posture, rucksack, school children, self harm, shoes, short, shoulders, sleep, spines, sports kits, stress, stretching, suffer, sunglight, support, Tea Tree, top tips, under the duvet texting, uniform, Vitamin D, wet hair, withdrawal

The uniforms have been bought and labels have been stuck on, the shoes have been shined and the new pencil cases are the cleanest they will ever be. While we know it is important to get their kit ready when it comes to the new school term, it is also worth looking at your children’s health too.

While you can’t stop them catching colds and picking up bugs, you can give them the best start to good health and we have got some top tips so you can help them feel their best.

Immune System Boost
School children are constantly picking up colds and viruses, so it is really important to keep their immune systems strong. As well as a healthy diet, packed with fruit and vegetables, it might be worth giving them a kid’s multi-vitamin supplement to plug the gaps and keep them healthy. Do speak to your GP or pharmacist about which product is best for your child and remember that as well as those key vitamins we all know about, as the nights draw in and there is less sunlight, added Vitamin D could be a smart move too.

Treat Head Lice
Head lice are quickly spread by head-to-head contact and with children playing close together, it is no wonder they can become rife, fast when the new term starts. Clean hair, dirty hair, long or short – it really doesn’t matter, these little bugs simply want to get onto your child’s scalp so the best thing you can do is check hair on a regular basis and if there is a lot of itching going on, it might be a clear sign something is up. If you find your child does have head lice, you can start to combat the problem by combing conditioner through their wet hair using a special fine-toothed comb. This method can help to remove the head lice and nits (empty shells) but if this doesn’t work you can use a natural (often tea tree based) or chemical lotion instead to blast the bugs away.

Keep Backs Healthy
It isn’t just adults who suffer from back pain, thanks to heavy bags and poor posture, children are increasingly being plagued too. Yes, they need to take in books, laptops and sports kits, but using a rucksack and carrying their load on both shoulders is a back healthy way to go. Sitting up in class and stretching at the end of the day can also help even things out and keep spines happy.

Communicate
It isn’t just physical well-being that is important for children, but emotional health too. With almost a quarter of 14-year-old girls found to have used self-harm as a way to cope with stress, anxiety, and depression, it is really important to try to keep an open line of communication with your children. We know this isn’t always easy and that when there are problems opening up can be hard, but try to have those conversations and see where help is needed. Keep an eye on much time is being spent on screens, whether there is withdrawal from family life and if you are worried, speak to a teacher or your GP about getting more support and advice.

Bedtime
Every family has different rules when it comes to bedtime and screens. The reality is that mobile devices are often found in the bedroom late at night and these can impact sleep and overall health. Find a plan that works for you and your children, decide on a bedtime, ensure homework is done so there are no last-minute panics that impact stress and sleep, and ensure mobiles are turned off and there is no under the duvet texting which means getting up the next day is tough.

Good luck!

Team Pure Beauty

Hair Focus: Long or Short?

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crop, flowing, hair, long, pixie, short

Whether you like to wear your tresses long and flowing or short and pixie-like, there’s no denying that sometimes it’s nice to make a change to your overall look. If you’ve worn your hair the same way for years, it’s easy to feel like you simply couldn’t do anything drastic without affecting your whole identity, but we thought we’d look at some of the pros and cons of both long and short hair to help you make up your mind.

Washing

Short hair is often reliant on using a lot of product, which means that you need to wash it often so that you don’t end up with nasty build up and hair which looks like Lego snap-on hair! By the same token, many of us heat-style longer hair which encourages over-production of oils from the scalp, leaving us needing to wash hair just as often to keep it from looking lank and greasy. The only way to avoid needing to wash your hair all that often is by having either a crop or dreadlocks, two looks which can be VERY tricky to pull off!

Styling

It’s easy to think that short hair needs less styling, but unless your hair is cropped SUPER short, this very often isn’t the case. Short hair often needs a lot of faff to keep it looking presentable, whereas plenty of long hair dos require little more than brushing. It’s also worth remembering that you can stick long hair straight into a ponytail if you aren’t in the mood to mess around (or you don’t have the time).

Maintaining

The level of maintenance required for both long and short hair depends very much upon the actual style you opt for. If you go full Amber Rose and shave your head, you can maintain your own hair with a pair of clippers, however a neat little pixie cut will require regular chops by a hairdresser to keep it from looking untidy. Conversely, long hair can pretty much be left to its own devices, unless you opt for something like an asymmetric bob or layers, which will need to be trimmed every 6-8 weeks to maintain its shape. Make sure you think about all of this before deciding which style to go for.

Face Shape

The fact of the matter is, some of us simply don’t suit certain hairstyles. Those of us with super round faces (that’ll be me, then…) usually can’t pull off short hairstyles as our facial bone structure just isn’t delicate enough. It’s also true that people with delicate features can sometimes look as though they are drowning under a huge mop of hair. If you don’t know what your face shape is, wait until the bathroom mirror is steamed up after a bath or shower and use your finger to draw around the edge of the reflection of your face – what you’re left with should be a good indicator of your face shape and should help you to decide which style is best for you.