How can we play safer Holi?

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This spring festival, maintain a few skin and hair care tips to beat all your beauty woes. As we get into the true spirit of the festival of colours, it is important to protect our skin and overall body. Make sure that playing with colours does not damage skin or hair severely. Even Holi, we hear that lot of people suffer after playing with colours that contain harsh chemicals. Extreme usage of these chemicals. Extreme usage of these chemicals not only harms the skin but can lead to a serious lifestyle issue. According to Nivedita Dadu, these chemicals like engine oil, diesel, acids, mica, glass powder and alkalis are highly used in making of colours, which can lead to eczema, redness, blisters and flaking of the skin. There are also some colours, which are highly toxic and can cause cancer. To reduce the adverse effects of these on your life, it’s best to take precautions.

Pre-Holi advise:

  1. First and foremost stay hydrate drink gallons of water, juices etc. Dehydration causes skin dryness, which let colours seep into your skin.
  2. Apply oil to your hair. Coconut oil and olive oil are fire options to protect your hair from harsh colours.
  3. Rub some oil behind your ears, ear lobes and nails as these are the places where the colours easily settle.
  4. Avoid sitting in the hot sun, with colours on your face or body as this makes the colours stronger and difficult to wash off. Sit under a shade.
  5. Use more red or pink colours, which can easily be taken off. Those like purple, green, yellow and orange have more harmful chemicals in them and should be avoided.
  6. Don’t forget to wear waterproof sunscreen before you step out.
  7. Wear clothes that cover most of your body. Avoid heavy fabrics like denim.
  8. Cover your head with a thick scarf.
  9. Don’t wear lense because lenses have a tendency to absorb the colour. Wear glasses and keep wiping them clean from time to time.

How to remove colours:

  1. Hair should be deep conditioned after the wash. Make sure your hair is clean. Apply hair mask after two to three days to cure the damage.
  2. Cleaning the skin and hair after playing with colours is very important. Do not rub the skin vigorously with soaps, instead adopt for a cleanser. After that moisturise your skin.
  3. Avoid scrapping off colours with your nails as they will leave unpleasant marks, Gently apply a granular scrub on the body and face to get rid of it.
  4. Do not bleach, shave, wax or go for facial or clean-ups the following week. Give your skin and body some time to recover from the damage.
  5. Avoid using kerosene, petrol and spirits to remove stains, as they will make your skin dry.
  6. Rejuvenate your skin with a mixture of sea salt, glycerin and a few drops of aroma oil.

Keep in mind:

  1. The red colour is obtained from mercury sulphite, which may cause skin cancer or Minam at a disease (mental retardation, paralysis, impaired vision)
  2. Green has copper sulphate in it, which causes allergies in eyes or even temporary blindness.
  3. Purple is made of chromium iodide, which tends to cause bronchial asthma or other forms of allergy.
  4. Black is obtained from lead oxide and it may cause renal failures or learning disability.