Our society is becoming more and more obsessed with how we look. It is becoming common place for people to have surgical procedures to alter some portion of their body or face that they are not happy with. People are in constant search for products to make them look and feel younger. Over time we are going to start looking like carbon copies of each other. I am a believer that the aging process is inevitable and a part of our life that we should embrace rather than fight.
My family has been blessed with the genes that keep us looking younger than our years. My mother and sister and I are often thought to be younger than what we are. I contribute this more to our nutritional upbringing than to anything else. We grew up on a farm. We did not have a great deal of money so most of the food we consumed was what was raised in the garden as well as meat that was raised in the barn. Our beauty products were mainly made by our mother from recipes that were given to her by her grandmother. We had natural hair care and facial products long before the current craze.
When we were growing up the big hair look was in. To achieve the fullness that was popular a great deal of styling gel and hair spray was required. We never had to buy any of these products because my mother made them. Creating natural hair care products was part of our chores. My mother had wonderful perennial gardens. The plants however were not just for beauty; she used them to make skin lotions as well as natural hair care products. Flax was the main plant that was used for the hair. Flax have a small blue flower that turns to seed once it has completed blooming. These seeds are then boiled to create a gel that sets the hair. If the gel is watered down and places in a spray bottle it is the same as a firm hold hair spray. My mother would also make shampoo by adding different plants and herbs to homemade soap.
As we got older and money became more plentiful my mother still made her hygiene products because we all liked them better than the harsh chemicals that are in some of the products that you buy in the stores. Today there are many products that are available for natural hair care as well as skin care. When I look at the list of ingredients they are very similar to those that my mother used. She could have been a millionaire if she had marketed her products years ago.