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Month: February 2019

2019 Health Relaxation

Derms say the time you wash your face at night actually matters—here’s why

3 min read

February 08, 2019 at 01:16PM by CWC I may be an avid face washer, but the actual time that I practice my double cleansing routine changes. Sometimes, I’m extra ambitious and clean the day away right when I get home from work (it’s increasingly more difficult the more tired I get). On other occasions, I’m washing my face just before I hit my pillow and drift off into peaceful, glow-getting sleep. Both methods give me a debris-free complexion that’s dutifully slathered with my selection of serums and oils. But I started to think about whether the timing of my facial cleansing impacts the effect of the products on my skin. Your cellular regeneration magic happens while you sleep, after all. For clarification, I sought some derms’ advice. “During the course of the day, whether you’re wearing makeup or not, your skin is going to be a magnet for pollution and debris and grime,” says Rhea Souhleris Grous, aesthetics director and beauty expert at Union Square Laser Dermatology. “All day long, you’re collecting it and your skin’s fighting to preserve itself—so the faster you get home and remove it, the faster your skin can relax and repair itself. You’ll be ahead of the game.” Dermatologist Shirley Chi, MD says that the more important factor is what you’re applying to your skin afterwards. “You can wash your face any time during the day, but it depends on what product you’re putting on your face afterwards,” she tells me. “Retinol for instance is

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2019 Health

The sneaky way hormonal birth control can mess with your hair

4 min read

February 08, 2019 at 12:17PM by CWC Hormonal birth control can do some pretty funky—but also amazing!—things to your body. It can change your skin (buh bye, hormonal acne), regulate your periods, and in news-to-my-ears, it can also change your hair. When a friend recently told me that she was convinced her IUD was making her hair curly, I admittedly had my doubts. I’d never heard of such a thing! But after talking to an OB/GYN and a trichologist on the subject, she may actually be onto something. “The birth control pill can definitely affect the quality and quantity of hair growth,” says Sherry Ross, MD, an OB/GYN and author of She-Ology. “Some women notice their hair thins out when taking the pill, while others notice hair loss. There are also women who notice a fuller, thicker, and shiny head of hair while taking the pill.” She notes that it all comes down to how your body and the hormones work together, and that a family history of hair loss may mean that certain hormonal birth control methods could trigger that same reaction in your body. IUDs, she explains, can be some of the most common culprits when it comes to hair changes: The Mirena has been known known to cause hair loss in a very (I repeat: very!) small percentage of women: It has alopecia listed as a side effect that effects less than 5 percent of women. According to her, the non-hormonal copper IUD has been associated with hair loss and changing

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2019 Health City

How I totally overhauled my relationship with Instagram for better mental health

10 min read

February 08, 2019 at 10:20AM by CWC We’ve all read the headlines about how social media and mental health typically don’t go hand in hand. So many people swear by just cutting it out of their lives altogether for better peace of mind. And that’s valid. But as someone who has always prided herself on being an over-sharer (case in point: I used to post photos from middle school to a website called Web Shots a decade before Instagram was a thing), I always assumed I was immune to it all. Then last year, I had an Instagram-induced mental health crisis. At the time, I felt like I was leading a double life. There was the smiley, happy version of myself who dominated my Instagram feed with vacation photos and cool beauty products. Then there was IRL me, who was having daily panic attacks and wasn’t sleeping or eating or taking care of herself. The pressure to live up to the persona I had created for myself online became crippling, but I felt like if I put out an image of myself that was anything other than what my followers expected, I would be failing them. Even worse: I felt like I would be failing myself. I secretly liked the Internet version of me a whole lot more than the real life one. So privately, I would lie awake all night, sobbing, and then hours later I would post photos of myself smiling on a beach in a bikini. It was all

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