Health and Beauty Tips for the Southern Belle

The Southern part of the United States is hot, humid or both, depending on which season and which state you’re in. If you live closer to the coast, you might experience a bit of extra humidity. Despite the South’s many charms, the weather can wreak havoc on a Southern belle’s beauty routine. Here are a few tips on looking your best in a region where keeping up appearances is everything.

Counter Humidity with Hairspray

Due to the intense humidity in the South, setting your hair properly in place with hairspray every morning before going out is a must. Failing to do so will cause your beautiful tresses to assume a mind of their own—frizzing, flattening and tangling freely. If you don’t wish to look like you just woke up and never even bothered to brush your hair before going to the office in the morning, you will need some hairspray. Spend one week in the heat and humidity without hairspray to appreciate how important it is to just keep your hair in place! In fact, the battle between hair and humidity is so intense that even men apply hairspray on a fairly regular basis to keep themselves from looking disheveled.

Take Care of Your Teeth Religiously

Dental care is not cheap in the United States, irrespective of whether you are in the South or in any other part of the country. This alone should be reason enough to take care of your teeth if you wish to keep your bank account healthy. However, that is not always an option, especially if you have a congenital issue such as an overbite or crooked teeth for example. Extreme cold, heat and/or humidity can be detrimental to human teeth in general, but maintaining good oral health becomes a lot harder when you have malocclusions.

It has been noted that due to extreme heat, a large number of people tend to experience constricted nasal airways, leading them to breathe through the mouth while sleeping. Mouth breathing is more prevalent when someone has a malocclusion, which prevents them from closing their mouths completely. In addition to that, the Southern heat and humidity can lead to greater consumption of sugary and/or aerated cold beverages, which is also extremely detrimental to oral health.

Fortunately, there is an easy solution to this problem, and it’s surprisingly affordable, especially when compared to the expenses of getting your teeth aligned at an orthodontist’s clinic. You can order your clear aligners online from companies like ALIGNERCO and perfect your smile from home. These clear braces can be put on completely by yourself and they will straighten your teeth in less than a year’s time.

Keep Your Skin Cool

If you are in the South during spring or early fall, chances are that you will still be sweating. Come summer, the sweat will drip down by the buckets and you don’t want to let it sit on your skin for too long. The face comes first, so keep wet wipes handy at all times when you go out during the day or night. As for the rest of your body, you should consider a change of clothes as soon as possible, preferably preceded by a shower as soon as you get inside.

In case you are wondering what will happen if you don’t pay special heed to sweat management, then you should go through the following possible effects:

• Acne and pimples, irrespective of your age
• Clogged pores, whiteheads and blackheads
• More severe and persistent heat rashes
• Fungal and bacterial infections on the skin (ringworm, prickly heat, etc.)

Other than these, you can also potentially catch a cold from wearing sweaty clothes for too long, not to mention the fact that no amount of perfume will help after a certain point.

Sunscreen is a Must in Summer

Even though darker or tanned skin tends to provide more protection against the sun than light skin, it’s still a very bad idea to go out in the sun without proper SPF protection for anyone. If you are light-skinned though, doing so will put you at a significantly higher risk of developing melanoma.
It has been established through research that roughly five bad sunburns in a lifetime are enough to increase one’s natural chances of developing skin cancer by 200 percent, not to mention the permanent skin damage caused.

The bottom line is that if you do not wish to damage your skin beyond repair, wear sunscreen during the summer months and avoid trying to get a tan at the beach. Add a pair of polarized shades to protect your eyes from the Southern heat, while upping your cool factor.

Avoid Scented Moisturizing Lotions & the Bugs that Love Them

It’s not going to be as humid if you live in Texas, but dry heat tends to cause heatstroke much more easily and quite literally heats the moisture off your skin, lips and hair. The effects are very similar to what one would experience in colder climates. You can effectively counter the dry heat with modern moisturizers, but only non-scented moisturizing lotions are advised.

The problem with scented moisturizers and even perfumes, in general, is that they attract bugs. The very idea of bugs rushing to someone in droves is not a pleasant one, but to make the situation direr, we are talking about the world’s deadliest bugs, aka mosquitoes. If you are new to the South, understand well that from the swamplands of Florida to the streets of New Orleans, the region is swarming with mosquitoes. Petroleum jelly is an excellent option for keeping both the flaky dryness and the needling bugs away from your skin.

Shave & Moisturize With Oil

In hot weather, a lot of women prefer to wear shorts or skirts. This is necessary to keep the legs aerated, but it presents a fashion dilemma. If you are not comfortable with unshaven/unwaxed legs in public, you will need to wax or shave your legs quite regularly and that can damage the skin over time, especially if the hair is thick. Olive oil or certain essential oils are the best solution, as these simultaneously moisturize, protect and repair the skin from the damaging effects of regular shaving or waxing.

Finally, you may also want to hydrate your hair twice a week during the summer months. The heat will drain all the moisture out of your hair and then the humidity will put it back on top of the cuticles, along with sweat on the scalp. As one may imagine, the only way to keep your hair and scalp healthy is to clean and moisturize both quite regularly.