What's your culture and beauty secret?

[KiwiLiz]

Originally Posted by vampodrama

Beer is said to make all women very beautiful. now, how it works, I'm not sure - of course with the high b-vitamin content etc it works one way. however, if you're male and consume enough beer, all women will eventually look very beautiful at some point

That's an interesting My BF is studying pharmacology, they studied the drug/chemical effects of alcohol last semester, he says that apparently beer blocks the production of testosterone in the body, so effectively it's feminizing. Maybe that's where the idea comes from?
But in practice, I don't think beer makes any one beautiful... In my first year of uni there was term that floated round a bit, "the fresher five", as in the five kilos you gain from drinking a lot in your first year, for most though it was bit more than 5 kilos. It happened to the guys too, my BF gained 10 kilos in his first year!

No cultural beauty tip from me, although there's lots of people from the pacific island living in New Zealand, I've met a few that use coconut oil for their hair, and they all had long beautiful hair

[Cinnamon.locks]

Scottish/German/French/Norwegian/Spanish here, basic memories i have are treating hair loss with red peppers, jalapenio and rosemary, beer rinses, bear oil, rose oil, Chamomille rinse, beet rinse, carrot rinse, cow patty on hair for hairloss ( yes cow eeeewww.) and a friend from Russia told me she uses vodka as a rinse for shine and hairloss. bananas for hair and skin, Mangoes mashed and mixed with oils for hair, Castille rose soap for hair shampoo, egg whites for shiny and strong hair, vinegar for shiny hair, natural mayo for conditioning.

I don't remember much else, but will search my family's (grandma's and mom's ) recipe notebooks as soon as i find them.

[getoffmyskittle]

Err, yeah, the 100 brush strokes thing. I forgot, my grandmother told me to do that. The not Indian one. I tried it and got a lot of split ends. That was pre-LHC, too, so I'd do it at night so that I could watch the static electricity in the brush. It glowed yellow! Kinda cool party trick; only works on coarse, dry hair; very damaging. Overall, not recommended.

[kakaa]

In Croatia, women used to wash their hair with eggs. They conditioned it with olive, walnut and thistleroot oil and treated hair loss with a hair tonic made of nettles.

[Eirinn]

Polish with a strong asian genes of Armenia

Polish: in this forsaken by God and people country we're specialists of face masks - we have 1000 for every skin problem:

oats&yoghurt - acne

cucamber - whitening

honey/almond - moisturizing

strawberry&yoghurt - rose&cream complexion (works!)

flax seed jelly - scars, acne

For hair (We are nation of long hair. Every fifth girl on the street has hip/tb length):

castor oil overnight - strenghtening

white vinegar/ beer rinse - shine

egg yolks wash - who knows? for smell?:>

gelatine condish - shine&strenght

chamomile rinse - lightening

and the most important - one dull braid for whole life!

Armenian:

Nie mam zielonego pojęcia! (I don't have an green idea)

[CiaBabi]

Jamaican:

Fresh aloe from the front yard for conditioning
Black castor oil for thickening and sheen and to make it soft

[CiaBabi]

Also keeping the hair in protective styles because of it's fragile nature (twists, braids, canerows)

[lora410]

I'm irish, french, lituanian and god knows what else my mutt blood has, but my mom used to love mayo hair mask. Stinky though.

[JessTheMess]

Irish -
beer rinse - shine
raw potatos - depuff eyes

Italian -
olive oil - hair, nails & skin
garlic - eat a raw clove a day to keep the doctor away
red wine - ?

Welsh -
using only a BBB and a wooden comb
oatmeal mask - soft skin

Native American -
I never met my great grandpop so no clue

[Tapioca]

I'm full Dutch (American born).

As far as I can tell from relatives, their secret seems to be keeping it short and perming it! I think I'm the only one of my relatives with hair past BSL. (Except for a sister-in-law, but she's married in.)