How to clean ourselves - Know about soaps

How should one bathe?
Should one use a body wash or a regular soap?
What kind of soap should one use?
Whether one should use soap or body wash depends on their skin?

So many questions arise in our mind, when caring of skin is concerned.
The skin on one’s body may be quite different from the skin on her face. It would be a good idea to check the skin on arms and legs. Even if the face has oily skin, arms and legs may be quite dry.

In Indian tropical weather conditions, one should bathe twice a day, morning and, using a cleansing agent and warm water. One should rinse thoroughly to prevent soap residue from getting deposited on the skin. Soap deposits may cause allergic reaction, and also lead to darkening of the skin. Always moisturize after cleaning the skin at night, even in summer.

It becomes confusing, what to use from so many cleaning agents available in the market. All of them are claiming their benefits. Let us know what we want for us and which will suit the best for our skin.


Choosing a Soap


If you have normal skin, these are the cleansing agents you should choose from:

Regular/traditional soaps:

These soaps are fine for normal skin, but may be irritating for dry skins.

Transparent soaps:

These are the best option for sensitive but oily skin.

Shower gels or body shampoos:

These have been recently introduced, and are often technically better than soaps.

If you have dry skin, these are the cleansing agents you should choose from:

Moisturizing or super fatted soaps:

These are good for those who have dry skin as they contain fatty ingredients and are pH neutral.

Body washes:

The moisturizing ones are especially good for dry skin.


Specialized kinds of soaps


Deodorant soaps:

Avoid using these on your face as the antiseptics can cause reactions.

Medicated soaps:

These can cause dryness, especially when used for long periods of time. Under no circumstances should you use a medicated soap for more than two months at a stretch.

Use a medicated soap only if:

*Spend a lot of time outdoors.
*You perspire due to strenuous skin.
*You have too much body odor.
*You have a skin infection.

pH of the soap is important:


pH is the approximate measure of acidity of a substance and is represented by a number. Seven is considered neutral, whereas less than seven is acidic. The higher numbers denote alkalinity.

Our skin is mildly acidic. Most of the ordinary soaps available in the market are alkaline. They react with the acidity of the skin and kill some superficial cells. These cells putrefy and cause more bad odor. More alkaline, and cheap is the soap, more damage will be done to the skin. Search for neutral pH soap for best results.

This article is republished at India Study Channel

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Food and beautiful hairs and nails

External beauty can be acquired by not just applying the right products to your face, what also matters is the food intake. Just like every other part of our body, hair and nails are at their strongest and healthiest when a balanced diet is consumed a healthy diet that contains an adequate amount of protein and plenty of vitamins and minerals.

The most important factor is to eat plenty of protein-rich foods, such as lean meat, chicken, eggs, fish, low-fat dairy products, pulses, nuts, seeds and soya. Diets deficient in protein can result in fine hair that is prone to breaking or split ends, and nails that are brittle and vulnerable. Poor dietary intakes of iron can also have a major impact on nails, causing them to become brittle, spoon-shaped (curved in the middle), and pale rather than pink in color.


As there is very little overlying tissue, the small blood vessels under the nail are more obvious than else¬where in the body. As a result, iron in the red blood cells shows up as a pink tinge - or pale, if iron intake is poor. Also, a loss of hair or thinning hair is one of the main symptoms of anemia, a condition that results from lack of iron. One of the best sources of iron is red meat, fish, bread, green leafy vegetables, peas, lentils, beans, dried fruit, and eggs.

Vitamin C helps the body to absorb iron from plant foods, so foods such as citrus fruits and juices, berries. Green leafy vegetables, kiwi fruit, tomatoes and pep¬pers should be consumed. It's a common misconcep¬tion that white spots on nails are caused by a calcium deficiency. More often than not, they're caused by damage to the nail itself and will grow out, but a poor intake of zinc may be the cause. This immune-boosting mineral - found in meat, poultry, seafood, cheese, nuts and seeds - is essential for healthy nails and hair, and its absence can be linked to dry and brittle hair, loss and even dandruff. Prevent dry hair and cuticles, drink eight glasses of water a day and eat juicy fruit and vegetables - many contain at least 90 per cent water. so one can maintain fluid and vitamin levels at the same time

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