Food For Pretty Faces
Not everyone uses fancy branded products to keep their hair and skin at its best, some, especially students use alternative ingredients which come in handy on a student budget.
Sugar, eggs and honey are great for baking cakes but come in handy for students who find it difficult to purchase fancy branded cosmetics on a student budget.
There are tons of items around your house, in the kitchen, pantry cupboard, vanity and even laundry room waiting to be used in a beauty treatment recipe handed down to you by your great grandmother.
These home-made techniques are also sometimes professionally recommended as they are more cost effective and, in some cases, the natural ingredients are less damaging to your skin and hair.
Popular recipes are brushing your lips with toothpaste before lipstick application to make the colour last longer and the lips soft, lemon juice to lighten the hair and petroleum jelly combed lightly through the tips of eyelashes to get a sexy, subtle sparkle.
Even udder balm – yip, the stuff farmers use on cows – makes the list as a miracle cure for dry and chapped hands and feet. Although Vaseline has the same effect once it is applied, udder balm is less greasy.
If you are wondering whether these remedies work, according to Witsies they do. First year BA student, Monique Roxanne, says, “Toothpaste on pimples dries it out. I’ve tried it out and it works.”
Another recipe she says works is egg white and mayonnaise with a little vanilla essence – to give it a nice smell. “It conditions the hair and makes it shiny and soft.” But remember to rinse out with lukewarm water or else you’re stuck with egg hair.
Her class friend Cloe Murugan exfoliates with a liquid soap and sugar mixture and says it works just as well as the brand products. Her mum also used to use horse shampoo in her hair to make it thicker, stronger and to grow faster and she says that worked too.
“A lot of people put yoghurt on their faces, it cleanses the pores and cools your face,” says 1st year BSc student, Naadhirah, who did not want her last name mentioned.
Recipes other students gave include a ground mustard powder and water paste which when applied to the roots prevents hair loss. Olive oil used in your hair once a month, left wrapped in a warm towel for an hour also makes your hair soft and healthy and 30 plain aspirins applied to a normal bottle of shampoo and used normally helps to relieve dandruff.
