Nayantara Karnik

Protein for Hair : Why You Need It and When You Do Not?

December 7, 2016 Nayantara Karnik 11 Comments

Most of us know the importance of deep conditioning and moisture for our hair. We oil our hair on a regular basis and try to take good care of it, yet sometimes no matter what we do, it continues to be problematic. Assuming that you have no medical or health problems, your diet is reasonably good, you exercise regularly and try to stay healthy, it can be puzzling as to why these problems persist. In that case I’m here to tell you it could be because of a not-very-well-understood hair ingredient – protein for hair. Is your hair getting too much of it or not enough?

Who Needs Protein for Hair?

Our hair is made up of about 91% protein, including keratin which we often see in the hair product ingredients. It is also one of the major hair straightening treatments.

Now, what are proteins? Going back to school chemistry, proteins are larger molecules composed of chains of smaller amino acids.

In the modern world, our hair is exposed to styling, treatment and environmental damage or other stress which cause the hair structure to degrade beyond what our ancestors ever faced. Even though getting protein for hair from inside-out is the key and it should be sufficiently present in your diet, that may not be enough for your hair to remain in a healthy state.

DIY Oats and Almonds Cleanser for Sensitive and Dry Skin

January 28, 2016 Nayantara Karnik 13 Comments

Update: This post is chosen as one of the 10 Must Try DIY’s by Blogadda. Congratulations Nayantara and thanks for such a wonderful DIY 🙂

My skin was totally acting up a couple of months back. I don’t really suffer from acne though I do have combination skin. I was getting dry red patches, itchiness and irritation especially around my mouth. All the usual face washes and cleansers were only aggravating the problem and no amount of moisturizers or facial oils were helping.

I figured the problem was sulphates which I’ve eliminated from my shampoos but it’s real hard to find face washes without them. Usually the Aroma Magic ones work well for me as they are sulphate-free and mild but I needed more this time. I know that oats are the bomb for sensitive skin and redness so I pottered around to find a good concoction of stuff that would work for me.

Oats are an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids, thiamine and iron. They are known to have anti-inflammatory properties and suit all skin-types, even the most sensitive. These properties make it great for treating acne and redness, sunburn & itchy skin. They also contain natural mild cleansing agents and gently moisturise and exfoliate skin.

Next up is green tea, a favourite of mine for all things skin & hair, loaded with anti-oxidants, helps in skin-renewal and hence anti-aging. Another benefit here is its anti-inflammatory properties, again great to treat redness, rosacea and acne as well.

Almonds are known the world over to be great for skin. They also contain anti-oxidants which help to protect skin, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin E which is an additional anti-oxidant, magnesium and calcium which counter the effects of stress hormones and help cells absorb nutrients. They are great for glowing skin and to combat dryness. When ground to powder they also, like oats, make a very mild exfoliant.

So I thought of using these awesome ingredients to concoct a face cleanser-mask for myself judging by the way cleansing grains have become so popular over the conventional face washes. But I wanted to make it a bit more special, so read on to see what else I added to it.

DIY Oats and Almonds Cleanser for Sensitive and Dry Skin

How Many Calories do we Need? – Diet 101 {Part II}

September 14, 2015 Nayantara Karnik 5 Comments

The last time I was here I gave you a background on diets and what it actually means to eat healthy versus the latest fad diet. That’s all well and good but in continuation, how does one actually go about this whole seemingly complicated process. Well, a little bit of hard work is in order, but I promise you, after the initial bit of effort it does get easier.

How Many Calories do We Need? Let us do some basic Math.

Calculating the amount of calories you need to consume is totally individual. The best option if you’re starting out is to find a calculator online, which will give you numbers based on typical algorithms using your current weight, height, age, gender etc. In general, the recommended calorie deficit is not more than 500 – 700 calories per day, though this could vary a little.

This means that if your current calorie maintenance level (the number of calories you need to maintain your current body weight) is 2500 per day, you should eat 2000 per day. That takes your weekly calorie deficit to 3500 (500×7), which according to standard calculations equals 1 lb or 0.5 kg of weight loss per week. If you are close to your recommended ideal weight (within 5kg), I suggest creating a still smaller calorie deficit of around 200-300 calories only.

It is literally dangerous to your health if you restrict your calorie intake drastically. Remember what I said earlier about how your body burns calories just to make all your organs function. This is the reason why anorexia can be life-threatening. When the body is deprived of sufficient nutrients over time, the organs can actually suffer and even fail in the long run.

For women, it is recommended to eat no less than 1200 calories per day and for men not less than 1500 per day. And, even that I would say is less than the average person should consume, unless you’re a very tiny, old, inactive lady who needs only the bare minimum to function! So don’t use 1200 as a baseline regardless of your current size and activity level, most likely you need to eat significantly more than that even if you’re on a deficit.

Everything You Need to know About Diets – Diet 101

September 2, 2015 Nayantara Karnik 1 Comment

In my first article, I talked about some of the more commonly believed myths about dieting and losing weight. Here I hope to explain more about how to get started on developing a healthy diet and the importance of knowing your calories. Remember the last time I mentioned that diet is 80% of the key to weight loss, or weight management if you prefer.

What are Calories?

To start with, what are calories really? A calorie is basically a unit of energy that the body derives from fuel which in this case is food per weight in grams/ ounces. Technically when we say there are 155 calories in 100 gms of boiled egg, it’s actually Kilo-calories (like kilograms versus grams in units of weight), but for convenience it’s usually referred to as just calories.

Different types of food provide different quanta of energy or calories. What happens to these calories? Your body uses and burns it in doing various activities. Even when sleeping your body is burning calories just to keep your heart beating, your brain and organs functioning, amongst a myriad of other natural and involuntary functions. I’ll come back to why that’s important later.

The basic principle of understanding how this works in relation to weight management is knowing your energy consumption vs. energy expenditure, or calories in vs calories out. A calorie deficit is when you eat less than you burn and will result in weight loss, whereas a calorie surplus is when you eat more than you burn, leading to weight gain. Simple enough concept, right?

How to use Henna and Indigo to naturally darken brown Hair?

July 22, 2015 Nayantara Karnik 48 Comments

Since I hit my 30s, I’ve been noticing greys creeping up one by one. Maybe not 50 shades, but enough to be noticeable! Sadly, most of them turn up around the crown of my head and end up being very visible. Ever since I decided to grow out my hair, I’ve been trying to take care of it better and part of that was to stop using chemical dyes on it.

I just got tired of the whole cycle of getting damaged and split ends, cutting it then wondering why I wasn’t able to grow it out. So around 3-4 years ago I decided to start using henna. My henna of choice is the one by Shahnaz Hussain, and I’ve been happy with it. I actually like the smell and love the way it conditions my hair.

But, from 8-10 greys or so, I now have loads more…sigh, the perils of ageing!! And, I really detest those bright orangey-red threads running though my hair. I literally had nightmares of my whole head turning a ghastly orange. After the usual internet research, I found there were 2 options to naturally colour hair dark-brown to black, though it doesn’t seem to be used commonly in India. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

Both these methods involve the use of indigo, and as fate would have it, when I happened to step into the local organic store a few days later, I spotted it on the shelf, so picked up a pack. This is the one that I’m using, and it’s available on flipkart and amazon, probably other sites too. Since then I’ve used it twice, and I did get better results the 2nd time I used it. Just like plain henna, it builds up colour with each use.

By the way this is the same indigo used to dye denim, and it can’t be used on it’s own, it’s always used in combination with henna. So, if you would like to know how to use it, read on ladies (and gents)!

So, the thing about the indigo molecule is that it literally needs the henna to hold onto the hair shaft and they are used together either as a 1-step or 2-step process. In a 2-step process, you get a deep blue-black colour, which I understand colours even lighter toned hair and the 1-step gives you a deep auburn to dark-brown shade.