Anuradha Sridharan

tl;dr answer - I stopped using shampoo. Hairfall has become one of the common issues among women today. Hormonal changes, stress, increased body heat, hard water, lack of adequate nutrition, lack of proper sleep, PCOD/thyroid issues are some of the reasons why many women are facing hair fall, especially in urban areas. I've also been one among such women. After 3-4 years of taking multiple steps, I've finally managed to control it. The first and most important step that has shown good results is that I have stopped using shampoo. Why this drastic step? I have tried 3-4 leading brands of shampoo that promised less hair fall and strong hair. They end up making the hair look so frizzy that you have to use their specific conditioner to get the straight look which would last for a day or two max. Once I had been to a parlor for hair wash and the lady was quick to spot and say "mam, your hair fall is very high. why don't you try this brand of shampoo?" She handed me...

We wake up, we would rather grab a cup of instant coffee than take a few more minutes to prepare the traditional, filter coffee. We fall sick, we would rather pop some antibiotics immediately than let the body's immune system to fight it out. We feel pain, we would rather pop a pain-killer and get instant relief than try to understand why the pain has occurred in the first place. We feel hungry, we would rather grab a pack of ready-to-eat food and stuff our mouths than prepare healthy snacks and stock up at home/office. We want to cook, we would rather buy a pack of cut vegetables or sprouts and whip up something quick rather than cut the vegetables by ourselves. We want to make dosa, we would rather buy the readymade batter pack than prepare the batter using a electric mixer/grinder at home.( Dear grandma, you really used that huge traditional Indian stone grinder? unbelievable! ) We don't get sleep, we would rather pop a sleep inducing tablet than try to calm our mind...

The migraine and I go a long time back. I remember we started to date around my engineering 1st year. The relationship continued for a solid 10-12 years and now finally we have drifted apart. When I look back, I had a number of bad habits that fueled this relationship: - Skipping breakfast (not my fault entirely during college days, I had no choice) - Drinking less water (again not my fault during college days. I hated going to the stinky, dirty bathrooms to answer nature calls) - Giving long gaps between meals - Drinking too much of tea and coffee (around 3-4 cups a day during my full-time working days) - Eating more of cafeteria food (which in turn increased acidity) - Eating too much of packaged food (around late evenings which is worse) Whenever the migraine hits me with its full force, I would pop a pill immediately (Saridon tablet to be specific) and sleep for 30 minutes. The pain would have reduced but I would end up with severe acidity. My laptop bag always ha...