Evolution of Beauty

According to this week's issue of the Economist (Nov 16-22), beauty came from the evolution of people's faces, which really comes from people's hormones.

Experiments have been done to determine the biological basis of beautiful people, by inviting participants to choose between multiple photographs of faces and choosing their preference. (Facial features such as smaller noses, jawbones, and friendly faces were amongst the highest rated) Therefore, scientists wanted to create an experiment to breed the the shapes of faces, as well as seeing the correlations of a preferred face to how their general health, social well being and fertility are.

However, it is unethical to pair human beings  for the sake of an experiment with a sperm and an egg. Locating men and women give birth and raise a child with a perceived bone structure may also be difficult, as the couple will have to get along to start with; existing couples also may look for traits in the partner other than face structures, making the choice of participants even more difficult...

Luckily, a similar experiment has been done with foxes. There was an experiment in 1959 done by a Russian geneticist called Dmitry Belyeav. His goal was to breed silver foxes, as to make them tamer and easier for the farmers to handle. Although his breeding was successful in making the foxes tamer and easier for the farmers to handle; he found out that the foxes developed patches of color, meanwhile their ears became floppy, their skulls became rounded and flattened, shorter foreheads stubbier noses and short jaws.

Dmitry Fox


A silver Fox


These newly breed foxes to wild foxes became what dogs are to wolves -- not fearful, nor aggressive. Scientists believe that the link was between these facial features and behavior traits, may be due to hormones. Hormones such as estradiol, and neurotransmitters such as serotonin may affect behavior and faces. A change in one may lead to a change in another.

This leads scientists to believe that Homo Sapiens (human beings) evolve to a friendlier face as homo sapiens are friendlier species and thus, a friendlier face would be more preferable, as it may be a marker of desirable social attributes.

Thus facial features seen in Belyeav Fox (flat face, small noses, reduced jaw and "high eyebrows"), were also similar to the traits that men find desirable in women.


What are your opinions? Feel free to leave a comment or email me at spankypandasaccessories@gmail.com



Photo Reference:
www.arkinspace.com 

No Shampoo Hair Wash - Apple Cider Vinegar

Disclaimer:  I have really damaged hair from excessive hair straightening and various permanent dyes. This is also my personal reflection of trying out this combination. 

Sooo...I've finally tried it. Coconut oil hair mask + Apple Cider Vinegar rinse

Result: 

Shine 3/5

Silky 5/5

Soft 3.5/5

Process:

I tied in a ponytail and cupped handfuls of coconut oil onto my hair. I gently put a shower cap over my hair and make sure my head didn't leak oil. Then I took a hot shower with the cap around my hair to open up the pores on my scalp to enhance the oil absorption. 

Last time i kept my coconut oil mask on for an hour and after my 2nd wash, my hair became super strong and shiny, almost like virgin hair) [Note: I refer to virgin hair as hair that has never been dyed or permed or straight ironed]. I decided to get greedy this time. What would happen if i were to keep it for longer hours? After reading the suggested leave-in, i decided to sleep in my shower cap, with a towel over my pillow.

Don't let most beauty industry people fool you, sleeping in with a coconut oil hair mask IS NOT PLEASANT. First off, coconut oil has a strong smell of coconut and something greasy, it may be accepting so some while repelling to others. Second, sleeping in a ponytail is uncomfortable. Third, rolling around creates a squishy sound.  

I didn't get a good sleep. Somehow, my shower cap rolled off somewhere from my rolling around. I felt my face touching the towel and wondered how much coconut oil got on my towel. I also wonder if my skin was soaking up the coconut oil, and hoped it wouldn't block my pores. Oh no, my head is on a rough towel, wouldn't a rough towel make my skin rough, cuz my face is rubbing against it? Would my hair get torn out by rolling around on a rough towel? Damnit! Why did I use a worn out old towel anyways? Why am I such a cheapstake to myself. 

Then for the first time ever, I took my bottle of Apple cider vinegar and diluted a large spoonful of it with tap water in s bowl. After a few rinses with luke warm water, i started to dip my hair into the ACV bowl. Then i poured a bit of the ACV onto my scalp. It actually burned a little, but i ignored it and continued to pour it onto hair.

Usually coconut oil hair masks needs a double rinsing. Instead of washing it immediately, i went to the gym with it. 

After my second rinse with shampoo this time, 95% of the coconut oil got washed out. I blowed dried my hair as usual and then inspected the bath tub, floors and towels for hair loss. There was a 2% spike of stranded hairs and it spiked my paranoia, was it the ACV?  Was it not diluted enough? Was it the excessive rinsing? 

So there goes my paranoia. Do I need to do more research on healthy things for my hair? YES. Will I try Apple Cider Vinegar Again? Maybe a few months later...

My first DIY Trials

I've always had this huge bottle of apple cider vinegar in my kitchen for the longest time ever. I was totally impressed by its health benefits and weight loss mechanisms. So I purchased a bottle. However, I had a terrible reflex system and even a very very diluted ACV seemed like a super acid drink.

Some time this year, I've overcame my laziness to try DIY beauty treatments.  I was always advict of skin care products, 5 years ago, I tried so many Japanese / European /American expensive line of skin care products, that my parents decided to stop funding my skin care routine. There were both ups and down to this situation, the ups were that I did not have to take a deep breath and bet my face 's safety on an expensive chemical to make or break my face.

Then at some point of time, I looked into haircare. This was back in the time where I would dye my hair every 2 months for 2 consecutive years and I've been through almost every shade of red and brown. I've also got nasty hair extensions for 2 years, that I would take out and get new ones put in. The dying and the hair extension tension was just so much for my hair that when I finally decided to do nothing with my hair, a massive amount started to fall out (shed). I was so scared of the hair loss that I've resided to hair loss masks and shampoos just to find a reverse effect. So I tried to target the root of this and looked into the ingredients of my shampoo. Then I looked into the ingredients of a rather famous horse hair shampoo and read their reviews on the Internet. Apparently even the horse shampoo had Sodium Lauryl Sulfate ( a chemicals used in car wash), even  worse than SLS was Aluminium Lauryl Sulfate (which could be found in commercial brands like Patentene, Dover..) and only organic brands did not contain these harmful ingredients.

However, there are two reasons why I do not like using organic shampoos:
1. High cost
2. Old lady scent

Being the frugal-soon-to-be college grad, I had to figure out a way to be cost efficient, while making the most out of the products that I had at home or cheap food goods.

In the past 2 weeks, I've experimented with
1. Honey Olive oil + sugar mask (face mask)
2. Coconut oil (hair mask)
3. Apple Cider Vinegar (hair mask) 

So far I'm liking the results :)