Figure 8

Figure 8 with my new Ron Quattros

Collagen light therapy

While I was away in Denmark I ran into a tanning salon where they have the collagen light therapy/ infrared light therapy.

I’ve read about this a couple of times before, so I was instantly up for trying it.

It has a number of claims:

The light frequency claims to generally improve the circulation deep in the skin and improve skin cell renewal, which leads to prettier and firmer skin. It has claims of reducing wrinkles, reducing liver spots, reducing acne and reducing stretch marks.

To the cynic in me, this sound like one of those claims that makes me mentally finish it with “…And with this amazing product, your coffee will never be cold and you will never step in dog poo ever again!”

Yea.

It is said it has a proven effect on (winter) depression. Now that one I do actually believe.

Anyways.

Cynic side aside (Heh), I actually wanted to try this thing since first I heard of it.

This is something I could actually believe would benefit skin. I could just never believe that any cream, no matter how sci fi-fancy, could actually penetrate deep enough and “rearrange” skin enough to make a difference in its appearance.

Fade stretch marks and scars? Sure. But maybe just rubbing a normal, cheap cream on would do the same. Wouldn’t the stimulation of the circulation and some simple moisture help too? How would you know you wouldn’t get the same effect from a cheaper cream? You wouldn’t.

The scars on my lower legs have come a long way (A long, long way) but since they are still sensitive to just about anything and everything, I crossed my fingers the light therapy would help.

It came with a hefty price tag: Their special offer was 12 treatments in total for 995 kroner.

133 Euros and 184 USD.

Ouch.

They had a complicated system to determine how often you should go to begin with and how often you should go after for “maintenance”, but since I didn’t care about the anti age claims and all that, I just went for once a week.

It works almost like a normal tanning bed: You go in, you lie down and you wait until it switches off again. Only the “bed” is even less comfortable because it’s not ergonomical at all and the treatment time is 20 minutes instead of however long a tanning takes.

A bright pinkish light starts up and it seems to increase in strength through the treatment, but that might be an optical illusion.

20 minutes is a long time. The first time I was bored out of my mind. It didn’t help that I couldn’t figure out how to kill the damn radio either. Is there anything more obnoxious than radio hosts? DJ’s maybe?

Meh. I couldn’t see any difference after the first treatment, but I had not expected that either. 

The next couple of times I learned to relax in the infrared bed. The bright pink light and the warmth are very relaxing. Combined with the quiet hum of the air conditioning, it just made my mind blank out. In the end, I ended up falling asleep a lot.

When I had used up the first 12 treatments, I couldn’t spot a difference for sure. I didn’t look younger, my scars hadn’t faded noticeably and my freckles were still there.

I did however think my skin had a healthier glow.

And my skin was definitely crazy soft a full 24 hours after each treatment. Like, crazy soft: No cream had ever worked such magic, ever!

Hubby complimented it on me several times too (And we’re talking about a man who never notices anything like that)

So I ended up refilling my card twice with two special offers more. Definitely more money than I liked having on what is basically an unsecured credit card. Hmm!

Would I recommend it?

Yes. Even with the hefty price tag.

I do think it did do something to my skin. Maybe something I could have spotted if I did a before and after-shot. Maybe I did need to follow the complicated schedule. But I didn’t.

It definitely made my skin softer though. Noticeably.

I would go to an infrared light therapy treatment again if there were one in Lund. To my knowledge there isn’t…

Oh, and you know you’re a longhair when you end up having to turn that little “pillow” around to make room for your bun instead of resting the back of your head on it! 

Dammit

My cute little 10” laptop died. I had it in to get it checked, and they said it was the motherboard.

Typical. It’s 2 years and 2 months old so it’s just not worth the time or money to do anything to fix it up anymore.

Sigh. 

Braidwaves!

Ron Quattro haul

I got my first Ron Quattros and I’m very pleased with them.

Strong, hair friendly and a wonderful finish. They feel like they would never chip or peel.

The Flexstixs feels a bit too… Well, flexible. Haha.

Otherwise, I just know the rest of these will be my new favourites! 

Awesome word

Seriously, why do people do this?

2nd day ‘do

I think its time to officially name this my 2^nd day ‘do since I always end up making this one the day after I have done dual Dutch braids 

Mathalicious!

I’ve been featured!

On an awesome site that aims to teach math in a meaningful way, using real world topics!

Look!

Link to awesomenes

Let Down Your Hair
How fast does hair grow? Students analyze a scatter plot, create a line of best fit, and interpret slope as the rate of hair growth over time.

The awesome Kate Nowak have promised me that the lesson will be a featured lesson sometime this summer so all my readers can see the whole thing.

Stay tuned!

Ankerhus

Since I have international readers, I thought maybe people would be interested in seeing one of the places I was last year.

I was at a place in Denmark called Ankerhus in Sorø for a seminar.

Ankerhus was founded in 1902 and is part of a home economics movement that started in the late 1800s.

The main building is from 1923. 

Today it’s part of University College Sjælland and is home to the bachelor degree in nutrition and health. It is one of the two places in Denmark that trains nutrition and household economy students. 

There are just under 400 students in the school. And of course the people who come in for different seminars like me.

Funny little overgrown building I slept in. It stands out from the rest of the place :)

I tried to figure out if this was some sort of small castle, but had no luck. We just have too many of those here…

Of course there was amazing food in a place like this! 

CC cream love

I tried the Clinique superdefence CC cream a while back and really wasn’t impressed.

It was around the time where the CC creams had just taken over after the BB creams as the greatest new hype.

I wasn’t impressed. It seemed like just an overpriced foundation to me.

Then I stumbled upon the L’Oreal CC cream.

It boasted of “anti redness” and was only a fraction of the price of the Clinique one, so I figured why not give it a shot?

At first I tried way too much of it: It evened out the redness but ended up being too dark on my fair skin.

Now I have learned to mix a drop into my foundation and I. Am. In. Love!

Where has this one been all my life?

It is just perfect at evening the redness out instead of covering it with foundation.

For those who have a tendency to get red and irritated skin: Give this one a try!

The range also have an anti dullness and anti fatigue version.