Fogged-up bathroom mirrors are one of the many mundane annoyances we face in our morning rush to get ourselves clean and presentable for work or school. You hurry through a hot shower to wake yourself up, and by the time you emerge, the steam has condensed on the mirror so that you have to either waste precious minutes waiting for it to clear, or try futilely to wipe the mirror off with your hand or a washcloth, often smearing the mirror in the process.

If you are fortunate enough to have a large, airy bathroom, or one of those fancy-schmancy heated mirrors that repel condensation, you don't have to worry about this sort of thing. But for the rest of us who have to contend with small, poorly ventillated baths, here are a few tips for clearing the fog:

• If your bathroom has a built-in vent fan, make sure it's running and in good condition. Many bathroom fans get lots of dust bunnies caught in them, and dust doesn't do your ventillation any good. If your fan's cover can come off with the removal of a few screws, take it off and see if you can clean it out with some compressed air. If cleaning it means you've got to go digging in there with your fingers, though, turn off the electrical breaker first just to be safe.
  
  
• Shower with your bathroom door open or at least cracked. Sometimes, if you live with others, keeping the door wide open isn't feasible if you're concerned about privacy. However, if you get a rubber doorstop, you can block your door open a few inches to keep the steam down and not worry about giving the roommates or family a peep show.
  
  
• Get a small squeegee. You can generally find these in the bathroom sections of discount, hardware, and bed-and-bath stores. These squeegees work much better than a paper towel or washcloth, and keep your mirror clean. However, they do little good if your bathroom has quite a lot of steam, since the mirror will immediately fog again.
  
  
• Get some plain white shaving cream. Clean your mirror, then cover the entire thing in a layer of the shaving cream. Let the stuff dry, then wipe it all off with a dry paper towel or your trusty squeegee. Your mirror should appear clean and streak-free, but it will now resist condensation for a while.
  
  
• Alternately, get a no-fog cloth from a hardware or automotive store and rub your mirror down with it. This will be more expensive than the shaving cream method, but it's also less time-consuming.
  
  
• Use your hair dryer on the mirror; this will clear off fog quickly if the bathroom is getting aired out otherwise. However, running a hair dryer in an unventillated, steamy bathroom with steam-damp hands may create an electric shock hazard and might decrease your dryer's life span. And running your hair dryer at 6 a.m. with the bathroom door open won't make you popular with your roommates.
  
  
• When you're finishing your shower, point the shower head away from your body and set the water as cold as you can. Let the cold water spray for ten seconds or so; this will pull a lot of the steam out of the air. It works best if you do this before you open your curtain or shower stall.

Labels: home tips

Posted by Lucy A. Snyder | Link For This Article

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You step into the shower, only to discover that your shampoo bottle is practically empty. Argh! You fill the bottle partway with water, shake it up, and douse your wet hair with the diluted, sudsy shampoo. In seconds, you're lathered up, rinsing off, and ready to face your day.

As you turn off the water, you realize you've still got some shampoo solution left in your bottle. You're tempted to put the bottle back in your shower caddy and save the remainder for your next shampoo. After all, it seems a waste to just dump it, and you haven't got much time to go to the store to get a new bottle.

Resist temptation, brave shampooer. If you dilute your shampoo to eke another day's hairwashing out of a bottle, throw the rest away immediately afterward.

Why? According to a chemist friend of mine, once you've diluted shampoo, you've rendered the preservatives in it too weak to do their job. Your watered-down shampoo is chock full of nitrogenous compounds and carbohydrates that bacteria and fungi will find oh so tasty. So if you let this solution sit for a day (or more) and then dump it on your hair, you'll also be dumping on a nice homemade culture of various nasties that may find your scalp to be equally delicious. You could find yourself getting a case of dermatitis or an infection.

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Common Shampoo Chemicals (And What They Do)

Acids: the innate alkalinity of soaps and detergents can make hair look dull because the hair cuticle swells and gets rough in an alkaline solution, so most shampoo manufacturers add acids to brighten hair's shine. The pH of most shampoos is usually 6.5 to 7.5.

• ascorbic acid
• citric acid

Detergents: these remove oils from your hair and let them dissolve away in water.

• ammonium lauryl sulfate
• ammonium laureth sulfate
• disodium cocoamphodiacetate
• sodium lauryl sulfate

Lather builders: suds improve shampoo's cleaning action.

• cocamide mea
• cocamidopropyl betaine

Conditioners: these chemicals put a coating on the hair shafts to make them thicker, smoother, softer, easier to comb, and less prone to static; they also strengthen the hair's cuticle.

• allantoin^*
• ammonium xylenesulfonate
• dimethicone^*
• glycerin
• hydrolyzed collagen^*
• tricetylmonium chloride

Thickeners: these add body to the shampoo and some also act as weak conditioners.

• xanthan gum^*
• cetyl alcohol^*
• hydroxyelthylcellulose
• stearyl alcohol^*
• sodium chloride
• sodium citrate

Preservatives: these keep down bacterial and fungal growth.

• diazolidinyl urea
• disodium edta
• methylisothiazolinone
• methylparaben
• propylparaben

Sunscreens: ultraviolet radiation can damage your hair and scalp.

• octyl salicylate
• PABA

Other Stuff

• Glycol distearate gives pearly-looking shampoos like Pert their sheen
• Botanicals such as tea tree oil
• Anti-dandruff ingredients such as zinc, pyrithione, and alpha hydroxy acids

* Some thickeners and conditioners cloud shampoo and, in the absence of dyes to make the shampoo green or blue, also tend to make it look very much like semen. Additives like oils and proteins that have not been thoroughly emulsified will also cause this effect.

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References: http://www.exploratorium.edu/exploring/hair/hair_3.html, http://www.chemistrystore.com/shampoo_formulas.htm

Labels: cosmetics, health, home tips, science

Posted by Lucy A. Snyder | Link For This Article

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For those of us who live in shared houses and apartments, the loss of a roommate is a bit more complex than for those who live in college dorms. Having your roommate move out may be a source of sadness, anxiety, or barely-contained joy, depending on your relationship with him or her and your financial situation. Ideally, your roomie's move-out was something you'd both planned, but sometimes a move-out is a sudden, unexpected event.

Here's a checklist in case a roommate leaves your household suddenly:

1. Are the utilities taken care of? Get them put in your name if they're not already. It's easy to forget that the electric bill was in your departed roommate's name ... until the day you come home to find that the power's off. You might not even get late notices if the roommate put in a change-of-address before he or she left, so call the companies to check.
   
   
2. Can you afford the place on your own? Sit down and do some figuring. Do you need to find a new roommate, or can you squeak by if you, say, cancel your DSL or cable service?
   
   
3. Check your apartment and belongings The sooner you find out if your departed roommate left with any of your belongings, the better your chances of getting them back. Conversely, check to see if your roommate left anything behind, or caused any damage to the place that needs attention. Also, if much of the shared furniture and appliances were your roommate's, now is a good time to make a list of what you'll need to replace.
   
   
4. Tell your landlord your rommate's gone Most landlords want to know who is and is not living in their properties, and so this type of notification might be required in your lease. And if you're stuck for rent, if you're very lucky and have a sympathetic landlord, you might gain some extra time to pay or even be let out of your lease. If you live in a complex with many styles, you might convince your landlord to let you move into a less-expensive place. This is also a good time to ask for repairs in the event your roommate trashed anything during their hasty departure.
   
   
5. Take care of your renter's insurance In some instances, housemates are carried on the same renter's policy. When one leaves a policy you were in control of, you need to have them taken off it. But if the departing roommate was the one with the policy, you need to get your own insurance.
   
   
6. Clean house This is especially important if you're going to look for a new roommate, but if you're living on your own, it's nice to get a fresh start. Clean out all the junk, box up anything the roommate left behind, etc.
   
   
7. Go shopping If you need to get furniture to replace things your household lost when the roommate left, be aware that brand-new specialty store furnishings are often hugely overpriced. If you want new, functional furnishings, try discount stores like Target. If you don't mind second-hand furnishings, you can often find very decent stuff at yard and garage sales. Also check at furniture rental places; while rentals themselves are a rip-off for most people, they sometimes sell used furnishings at decent prices.
   
   
8. Start looking for a new roommate, if you need to But do some soul-searching first: know yourself, know what sort of person you'll be compatible with, and know the mistakes you made with your previous roommate so that you'll be less likely to repeat them. Don't let desperation drive you to live with someone who will make your life miserable.
   
   Start your search by asking friends, relatives and coworkers if they know of any likely candidates, but if you need someone very quickly, you might immediately try a classified ad or a flyer at your college if you're in school. Meet your prospective roommates for lunch or coffee, and don't be afraid to ask them for personal references if they're strangers. Likewise, don't be offended if they ask you for yours.
   
   When you've found a good match, sit down with him or her and make sure that you're both on the same page when it comes to visitors, bills, pets, chores, noise ("clean" and "quiet" can mean very, very different things to different people), the care and use of each other's property, etc. Getting everything on the table from the start can avoid conflict down the road.

Labels: home tips

Posted by Lucy A. Snyder | Link For This Article

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