Are some of the basic items in your closet causing you health problems?
• Jeans and nerve damage
• Bras and irritable bowel syndrome or constipation
• Handbags and neck strain and tendonitis
• Sunglasses and cataracts
• Thongs and bacteria or fungal infections
• Shoes and bunions, calluses and hammertoes.
Read on to discover more potential dangers lurking in your wardrobe - and how to avoid them.
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ARLENE MILLER of Newton, Mass., was aware that her face had changed as she aged. I love children. Nalini Ambady, a psychology professor at Tufts, said, “In 40 milliseconds, people can accurately judge what we are saying with our expression.”
But what if a face conveys thoughts or feelings that aren’t really there? At any age, an expression can send unintended signals. “The face is both a voluntary and an involuntary system,” said Paul Ekman, an emeritus professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, “so we may be wanting to convey a smile or a grin, but involuntarily our face may betray even within a smile itself that we’re actually a little angry or a little sad or a little disgusted.”
If lines, creases, sags or folds that mimic an emotion become fixtures on a face, “we may incorrectly make the presumption that the person is having that emotion all the time,” said Dr. Ekman, the author of “Emotions Revealed,” and the director of a firm that consults on strengthening emotional skills.
“Expressions are contagious,” she said.
Infants quickly begin interpreting and mimicking others’ expressions, Dr. Etcoff said. “Wrinkles etch in around expressions that we’ve used very often,” Dr. Etcoff said, as “ghosts or shadows of expressions past.”
If crow’s-feet linger, they can suggest a smile long after it is gone.
As for Ms. Miller, whose angry expression startled the little boy, she was so concerned that she sought out cosmetic treatment to help soften her look. After injections of Botox to smooth her forehead, and Restylane, which plumped her smile lines, Ms. Miller said she feels more confident.
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Imagine getting a nice, warm facial massage. Now imagine chatting with the man lying in the next cubicle.
More and more metro sexual men are opting for beauty treatments and beauty products. Cosmetics are no longer a woman’s domain; with men now recognizing the need for their own kitty of cosmetics (some even have brand preferences). Most admit they picked them from a woman’s cache.
The baton is now being shared with man next to her.
“I carry the Palmolive face wash in my bag. A face wash can help men look clean and presentable.”
There are a wide range of face washes now available in the market for different skin types. For men with sensitive skin, try a face wash that does not have a strong odor or is brightly colored.
Twenty years ago, someone who mentioned going to a spa conjured up images of ritzy, high-priced places like Canyon Ranch in the Berkshires or an exotic resort in the Sunbelt. Today however, going to a spa often means visiting a place right around the corner, something akin to Indulgence Day Spa in Lexington center.
“What once were hair salons, skin-care salons, nail salons, are now calling themselves spas, offering these and other services” under one roof, Leavy said.
And with “individuals living longer and staying in business longer, preserving one’s looks is a big motivator for using a local spa,” Leavy said.
Before becoming a small-business owner, Carey managed a hair, skin, and nail salon in Waltham. Many customers request basic manicures and pedicures Carey said, emphasizing, though, that available services are wide-ranging, including a “sunless tanning treatment” a seaweed- and mineral-based facial, a European-style body wrap,and the “Ultimate Indulgence” a Swedish massage, facial, manicure and pedicure, and a light lunch. New services being contemplated are “trendy” laser hair-removal procedures and eyelash extensions.
“Men are apprehensive about coming into a spa catering to women primarily.
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Jennifer Hudson
Anne Hathaway
Julia Stiles
JENNIFER HUDSON’S SEXY NAILS
Soften Rub cuticle oil into nail beds and massage hand cream all over.
Swipe nails with a cotton ball moistened with polish remover (get the top edges, too, or polish will peel from there).
Apply two coats of dark red. On Hudson: Lippmann Nail Lacquer Lady Is a Tramp ($15, at lippmanncollection.com ).
Finish with top coat.
HATHAWAY’S HAIR
Smooth the Frizzies and add shine
Pull hair into a high ponytail and secure with elastic.
Slide on a hair band, then do a once-over with a lightweight hair spray, like Gibson’s Beautiful Hold Hair Spray ($32, at Sephora.com ).
STILES BLOWOUT
Mix a dab of hair balm and hair serum in your palms (Evangelista applied Phytoderfrisant Balm and Phytolisse Serum, $26 and $30, Sephora.com).
Run a wet/dry flat iron over three-quarter-inch sections to smooth (T3 Wide Wet-or-Dry Flat Iron, $200 at ulta.com ). Then roll your hair in jumbo Velcro rollers.
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After years of pushing spa mania, hotels are trying to prevent terry-cloth clad guests from wandering into lobbies, bars and weddings. Hannah Karp on the effort to get robes back into the backrooms.
Now, the hard part: convincing guests to wear anything else.
Management at the Huntington Hotel in San Francisco is instructing its staff not to seat anyone wearing robes in the bar. (The Homestead says dress is “resort casual” in the Great Hall, where the tea is served, and that guests in robes are asked to leave.)
The exposure problem is largely the result of the hotel industry’s aggressive push into the spa business. Nearly half of U.S. hotels and resorts now boast spas, up from 25% five years ago, according to Spa Finder, an industry tracker. Spas at U.S. resorts and hotels generated $2 billion in 2005, up from $1.9 billion in 2003, according to the International Spa Association’s latest data. Not everyone is ready to diss robes. “I said: ‘No, I just love the robe,’ ” Ms. Giassa recalls.
Uninvited robed guests have been spotted among wedding guests in hotels from the Crowne Plaza in Clayton, Mo., to the Boston Park Plaza Hotel & Towers. Fairmont hotels from Seattle to Hamburg, Germany, have done away with jacket-and-tie requirements for guests at their restaurants over the past four years. For years, robes were only standard in the swankiest suites. Now, most hotels are stocking rooms on every price level with two robes instead of one, to save housekeeping staff extra trips and to lure more guests to new, multimillion-dollar spas.
Even cruise lines are stocking more cabins with robes, as well as upgrading fabrics and hosting “robe parties.” Oceana Cruises holds a “White Robe Breakfast” on each cruise to help guests relax between shore excursions. Keeping all those robes clean is expensive. Miguel Montenegro, regional director, says the increase is due to hotels expanding their spas and starting to stock each guest room with two robes. This year, robe imports are expected to grow 16.7%.
Not Dressed for Breakfast
Some hotels are taking steps to mute the impact of the terry-cloth invasion. Other hotels are trying to circumvent the problem. The Sanctuary hotel at Kiawah Island Golf Resort off the coast of South Carolina opened in 2004 with 11 rooms adjacent to the spa so guests could walk from their rooms to the spa in a robe without passing through any public areas of the hotel. JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa in Phoenix added six suites near the spa in February, and the Ritz-Carlton Amelia Island opened two spa suites in December.
Costa Cruise Lines introduced Samsara Spa cabins on its Costa Serena ship this May and Costa Concordia ship last summer, with direct access to the 23,000-square-foot spa to sequester robed guests. Some hotels are giving up the fight. In San Diego, the Hotel Del Coronado says most guests now ignore the policy forbidding bathrobes, cover-ups and bathing suits in all indoor public areas. The hospitality industry is set to continue rolling out new robes, which could encourage guests to wear them even more. W Hotels is working with female designers to make its robes more “fun, flirty and whimsical.”
“Spa ‘detox’ programs rejuvenate your body and mind,” which notes that “detox programs” are on of the Top 10 Spa trends of this year.
Deal or no Deal? Red Mountain Spa in St. George Utah, rated as one of the Top 10 Destination Spas in 2007 by Condé Nast Traveler, has an extensive menu of inviting health and fitness programs to choose from. Limit one treatment per person/day. Besides, they have spa treatments and are known for their healthy gourmet cuisine.
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Certified and licensed massage therapists are relatively few in number at this point, but the massage therapy profession has become a six billion dollar business in the United States, making it a lucrative career for the picking.
Physical as Well as Mental Work Required
The massage therapist should also be able to increase the client’s blood circulation and stimulate the lymphatic system to promote relaxation. There are many massage clinics that offer jobs for qualified therapists and you can also apply for a job with sports teams, health or fitness clubs, nursing homes and chiropractor’s offices.
Read Spavelous “Now Your In The Know” Coffee it does a body good!
Instead of reaching for another cup of coffee, how about reaching for the latest thing in skin care products — offerings containing coffee or caffeine.
Caffeine, coffee’s most well-known ingredient, works on skin in the three primary ways: as a vasoconstrictor, an antioxidant, and a diuretic.
Coffee in beauty products apparently isn’t addictive.
FACE CREAMS / SERUMS
Dermatologists like this cream for its antioxidant and anti-aging effects for sensitive skin, because it contains caffeine, green tea, and hyaluronic acid. REVALE SKIN, about $110, available through Revaleskin.com
Revalé Skin serum has a promising new antioxidant source, coffee-berry. Coffee beans are seeds from the coffee cherry fruit. It protects the skin from UVA damage.
EYE GELS
In eye gels, caffeine helps deflate puffy skin because it constricts blood vessels.
BODY SCRUBS
Nyakio uses coffee scent and coffee seeds. Sugar-blended with coffee beans, vitamins A & E and essential oils soften skin and remove dead skin cells. The coffee and citrus scent is invigorating.
ANOTHER PRODUCT
BARE ESCENTUALS BUZZ LATTE FOR LIPS SPF 15 lip balm, $8, Sephora: contains coffee extract.
