Dark Knees and Elbows Home Remedies

What do we know about the skin around knees and elbows?

It is usually thicker than its surroundings and has more folds, is rough and dry and appears to be dirty even though the part may have been covered like full sleeved clothes and jeans. The skin is at least a tone darker than the original skin color. It looks ugly and never seems to restore to its original state. 

Why is the skin dark?

Have you seen a baby with dark elbows and knees? No, obviously. It is the result of friction like leaning on the elbows or knees which causes the maximum problem. In schools, we are supposed to sit on the ground or participate in sports activities which causes the knee skin to grow drier. And, of course, due to our bad habits, we seem to lean on our elbows rather than sit straight and keep a good posture. The other cause is lack of hygiene and improper care. So, your affected areas need more care now on.

There are other reasons as well. Being overweight is one of them. And, another of the most pertinent reasons is eating a lot of sugar. Now, I would suggest you to ponder on certain points? Is your menstrual cycle highly irregular? Have you been to a doctor or ignored it? Are you a teenager going through puberty? Are you having any other dark patches or blotches on your skin, especially near your genitals or breast or neck? If all these questions are answered in negative, you do not need any professional advice. If not, you might need to consult a doctor and get yourself checked. Darkening of skin is usually a symptom to some of the diseases caused by hormonal imbalance in the body. 

An Advice: When you read these questions, I am sure everyone of you would feel that all the questions are positive and may get panicked. So, I would like to suggest that you talk to your mom about all these issues and then come up to a conclusion. Always remember many of our problems including skin and hair conditions are due to weight issues which seems always out of control. So, take time and start with losing weight. I am sure that many of your would notice an immediate change. Even the cure for the said diseases is to lose weight so no need to think much. Now, on a lighter note, let us go to the home remedies and see what we can do to get rid of the dark skin.

Home Remedies and Habits to get rid of the Dark Skin

• First things first. Lose weight. Start pranayam. It is the simplest of the exercises and extremely relaxing. 
• Secondly, stop munching on sugar and processed food. All the processed food including breads, cereals, energy drinks, soft drinks, energy bars and health foods are extremely high in their sugar content. And, they can wreak havoc with your system. Feel like having a dessert. Go for yogurt banana custard which is satisfying enough for the palate. Or, prepare the particular junk food which you feel like munching on at home. 
• Stop leaning on your elbows and knees and you would see the difference in two days. Trust me, I have been there and done that.
• Always use a moisturizing and little rough body scrub made from honey or oils like coconut, almond, olive and such. They help in getting rid of the dead cells in these areas in an effective way. Sugar and rock salt are obvious choices for the granular part of the scrub. Use Cane Sugar (powdered jaggery). It is widely available and use organic products as much as possible.
• Apply a heavy moisturizer on your legs and arms. They are, generally, the driest parts of the body even if your skin type is oily. Keep the elbows and knees moisturized.
• Use a loofah at least 3 times a week in your bath if you have sensitive and dry skin and once a day for other skin types. It helps in regular exfoliation of the area and keeps the skin smooth.
  
• Applying coconut oil or almond oil is also beneficial as they are best oils for curing dry skin.
• Use bleaching fruits (fruits good for oily skin) in conjunction with moisturizing agents (liquids good for dry skin) of your applying as a knee packs, elbow pack or scrub. Like, lemon juice with sugar is a good option, even better is tomato juice or pomegranate juice with honey or oils. Fresh Lime (mausambi) juice or orange will give more potent results than lemon.
  
• Coconut oil and Walnut powder make good exfoliators for dark skin patches.
• Another great remedy which surely works is milk cream. Mix milk cream with a pinch of turmeric and apply on the affected areas. 
• Aloevera (straight from the plant) also shows lightening of the skin.
• Keep the elbows and knees covered as much as possible. 
• There should be no deep lines visible on the joints. If you can see lines, that means your skin is dry and you need to moisturize it. Apply oil from Vitamin E supplements topically.
• Sesame oil is great for moisturizing such areas as it has especially high proportion of essential fatty acids. 
• Massage the areas with oil daily. That will make the skin soft.

Note: The skin on elbows and knees always look little darker than original skin color because of the folds in the skin which increases if you are overweight. So, to check if the color of knees and elbows have lightened, folds on the elbows or knees and see the color. That should give you the accurate state of your skin.

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Relaxing bath and Shiny Hair with Mint leaves

So, yesterday, I very unwisely bought a lot of mint. And, today, I find lot of it had dried up. Obviously, I did not use the refrigerator for the purpose. So, as it is not usable for culinary purposes and discarding it just like that seemed too much of a waste, I decided to have a mint bath. I cleaned all the mint and dropped it in a pot of water and brought water to a boil. Then, simmered it for around an hour. The water had become all green and smelled like mint. Oh, so heavenly!! I filtered the water and poured it in my bath. Now, here is a twist. I had to wash my hair too and forgot that before pouring the mint water in my bath. But, anyways, I was not going to throw the water and I guessed mint would not really turn out to be so bad for hair. So, I had a most comfortable and relaxing bath with mint water.

And, the results? My skin is not at all dry. Even I tried the scratch method - scratched a line on my hands with my nails, it left no white line which is usually left if I take too hot a bath which I did today also despite all my advices to you to avoid it. And, my hair is so soft and shiny, I can't get my hands off my hair. I can also claim that my hair has not looked so good in a very long time.  It has become more manageable and there are no frizzes. So, go on and give it a try. You can use mint water as a hair rinse and see the results for yourself. And, of course, do not be surprised if you smell minty all day long. I am smelling minty all over, even my hair!! It feels fabulous. One more plus point is that the bath leaves you unexpectedly cool so it can be a great option on a hot summer day.

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Natural Moisturizers for Oily Skin

Oily Skin mostly feels like a bane to everyone who has it. And, most likely, it is. Because, the skin is prone to the onslaught of acne and pimples and regular outbreaks. A slight imbalance of food habits can also tip the scales and result in more oil production. And, there seems to be nothing one can do about them. But, the boon part of having oily skin is that you are not prone to wrinkles and fine lines as much as people with dry or normal skin are. But, this seems like a small compensation when you have to invest so much amount of care to tend to oily skin. 

Cleansing is not that big a concern. There are a number of natural ingredients which can clean the oily skin. Milk, citrus fruit juices, tomato, besan or any other flour, baking soda, clay masks are all great cleansers when it comes to oily skin and they also tend to control the oil (sebum) production in the body. Green / Black Tea can act as a toner. But, my concern today is how to moisturize oily skin? I have been asked by many of my readers how to take care of oily skin. But, I am, honestly, clueless when it comes to moisturizing the oily skin. You can not use any ingredient like milk cream or oils like you can for normal or dry skin.

I would say that there are two ingredients in my mind which can be used to moisturize an oily skin. And, yes, oily skin also needs to be moisturized. Otherwise, it gets dull and greasy. 

First ingredient I would vouch for is aloevera. Aloevera gel, fresh from the plant, can be used to moisturize any skin type. But, aloevera is actually a little drying. So, I think it will suit oily skin well. And, it is great for acne and pimple prone skin.

Second is a product - any calamine lotion. More commonly, one we get in India, is called Lactocalamine. The blue bottle is suitable for normal to oily skin. The main ingredient of any calamine lotion is Kaolin clay which is very good for oily skin. 

But, I am confused as to is there any other natural ingredient which can be used to moisturize oily skin. I would not vouch for honey as a moisturizer because commercial honey has lot of preservatives. 

Another thing I was wondering was how does application of oil affect the oily skin? I know many of you would be horrified on the mention of such a thing and cast it directly as outrageous. The obvious answer would be that it would lead to more inflammation and acne and other kinds of outbreaks. But, is it really true. 

Update: I recently visited Marie Veronique Organics site and found this which I am directly copy-pasting from their site:

Most people get a bit nervous when they hear the words oil and skin in the same sentence. But there’s no reason to get nervous. In fact, waxes, not oils, are the major cause of skin congestion. Applying oils to the skin, without the interference of a wax barricade, gives your skin the essential fatty acids it needs. These fatty acids, called lipids, form an environmental protection barrier that prevents the elements from assaulting our skin, keeping all skin types healthy. Research indicates that a compromised lipid barrier may be at the root of skin problems such as eczema, acne and wrinkles.
MVO oils maintain the integrity of the lipid barrier, preventing moisture loss and dehydration. At the same time they inhibit peroxidative and oxidative damage. The reason you should care about that is, in a word, wrinkles. Upon contact with light, lipids will undergo what is known as peroxidation. These peroxidized lipids lose their barrier ability and gaps occur in the lipid matrix, resulting in a loss of skin resilience and the formation of wrinkles.
A word (or two) about acne. Treating oily skin with oils may seem even more counter-intuitive. But think about this:

• Scrubs, harsh soaps and other drastic treatments that strip off your topmost lipid barrier do a number of things that may actually aggravate the problem.
• Oil-stripping actually prompts your skin to produce more oil, but it may be more of the oil that you’re trying to control.

Topical applications of fatty acids alleviate breakouts by re-stabilizing the lipid barrier, thus restoring anti-microbial activity on the skin’s surface. What’s more, because lipids dissolve lipids, MVO oils actually break up congestion at the source.

Marie Veronique is a former chemistry school teacher who got into making her own products because she could not find any good sunscreen. And, now she is one of the biggest names of the industry. The best thing is that her products are all organic. And, she is one to advocate oils for all kinds of skin. So, I hope I have convinced you to try applying oil and see the results.


[Do share with me how you control your oily skin]

READ MORE - Natural Moisturizers for Oily Skin