Holi 2021: Tips to prepare your skin, hair before the festival of colours
As we gear up to celebrate the festival of colours — Holi — here are a few tips on how you can keep your skin and hair protected from the damages caused by the colours.
The Spring season brings with it the festival of colour — Holi.
With parties, loud Bollywood music, and delicious food, the festival of colours is all about having a great time with friends and family. But, we have to admit, it creates a mess that takes forever to clean.
As much as we love the festival, we hate the aftermath.
Playing with harsh colours and exposure to the sun can make your skin dry, tanned, flaky, irritated, and burnt. The chemicals found in the colours can be extremely dangerous, and in many cases, penetrates the top layers of your skin, causing rashes, allergies, and acne breakouts. In fact, our tresses suffer, becoming dry and lifeless overnight.
If you wish to have a trouble-free post-Holi clean-up, here are some tips to follow:
Oiling
You do not want to damage your hair from the Holi colours. The first tip is to oil your hair before you go out to enjoy the festival. Apply coconut oil 25-30 minutes before you step out. This will protect your tresses from being dry and damaged.
Sunscreen
This is really important since you don’t want to get tanned. Use sunscreen all over your face and body. This will protect your skin from sunburn, and you can enjoy the festival without worrying about tanning. Make sure you use it behind your ears as well as this is the most neglected part.
Wear cotton clothes
Avoid wearing denim, synthetic, and silk clothes as wearing such clothes may cause irritation, rashes, and allergies to your skin, which may be problematic in between your fun. Wear comfortable cotton clothes. In fact, try to wear full sleeves as this will cover your arms, protecting your skin against suntan and colours.
Stay hydrated
Generally, during the festival, many forget to drink water, resulting in dehydration. And since the festival is mostly celebrated outdoors, you should drink more water to stay hydrated. Try to avoid drinking alcohol and fizzy drinks as they will affect your diet and are not healthy for consumption. You can go for coconut water, buttermilk, thandai, and fresh juices to cheer with your buddies.
Avoid lenses
Do not wear lenses when you go out to play Holi. If your friend might just come from behind to surprise you to put colours on your face, the spectacles might help you avoid getting colours in your eyes.
Avoid skin treatment
Do not get any skin treatment done three to four days before Holi. This will ruin your skin as the colours may react.
Eat healthy
Holi means binge eating on gujiyas, pakodas, a lot of sweets, and fried foods. However, these few pleasures may affect months of dieting and workout.
You can obviously cheat by tasting these food items but avoid binge eating. You can have delicious healthy foods such as baked gujiyas made of natural substitutes of sugar, dry fruits, fruits, drink chilled juices and smoothies, buttermilk, etc. These are delicious and healthy, and will help to maintain nutrients as well.
Even after taking precautions, if you still have skin damages, apply aloe vera gel, cucumber juice, or rose water on your skin. This will help to soothe your skin.
Once you are done playing Holi, use glycerin or an aloe vera based soap to remove all the colours from your skin. This will moisturise your skin completely after taking a bath. You can also apply lip balm on your lips to protect your lips.
Edited by Suman Singh