We love a good origin story, and not just when it comes to superheroes. Pomades have undergone several transformations, from ingredients used to the class that uses them. No matter what, we’re happy that these tubs of grease have stood the test of time, making guys look sharp generation after generation.

We’re also thankful that bear fat is no longer a main ingredient.

Read on for a bite-sized history of pomades.

Where does the word “pomade” come from?

“Pomade” is derived from the French word pomade, which means “ointment.” Pomade comes from the Latin pomum (fruit, apple) and Italian pomata (apple). That’s because pomades were originally made with mashed apples (as well as animal fats and herbs).

Pomades were originally used as ointments and only later as hair products.

Historical Timeline:

18th Century

• Pomades are exclusively used by gentry and thus associated with the upper class.

19th Century

• Bear fat becomes the main ingredient in pomade.

Early 20th Century

• Petroleum, lard, and beeswax replace bear fat as the main pomade ingredient.
• 1930s to 1940s – Introduction of Murray’s Superior Pomade, Brylcreem, and Royal Crown Hair Dressing.

Fun Fact: All of these brands are still in existence today.

• Film idols like Cary Grant and Rudolph Valentino popularize the shiny, well-combed look that is easily achieved by the average Joe with inexpensive hair products. Brilliantine and hair oil go into heavy rotation.

Mid 20th Century

• Dixie Peach Hair Pomade is a hit with teenage boys from WWII through the 1960s.
• 1950s – Pomade becomes irrevocably associated with the glitzy rock and roll era (Elvis!).

​Today

• Pomade production and popularity pick up major steam as the slick, groomed look goes into style. Hairstyles like the pomp and quiff require pomade for the best hold and shine.

 
This brief history is brought to you from The Pomades Blog

You may recall from chemistry class the term “half-life”—the time it takes for an element to decay by half its original value. While often utilized in nuclear physics to describe the decay of radioactive atoms, the concept also applies to the metabolization of substances by biological processes in the human body. Alcohol, prescription medications, metals, and even water have biological half-lives and deteriorate at different rates.

In this blog post, we’ll address the following:

• How Long Does CBD Stay in Your System?
• What Factors Contribute to How Long CBD Stays in Your System?
• Does Frequency of Use Change How Long CBD Stays in the System?

So, How Long Does CBD Stay in Your System?

CBD is no different. It decays like all other compounds, but that rate of decay varies depending on many factors. A 2014 study titled Cannabidiol: Promise and Pitfalls concluded that the half-life of orally-administered CBD was about 1 to 2 days. In other words, if you were to take 40 mg of CBD, only 20 mg would remain after 1 to 2 days. As noted in a 2012 study, CBD half-life changes based on the method of consumption:

• IV administration: 18 – 33 hours
• Oral administration: 2 – 5 days
• Smoking: 27 – 35 hours

A general rule of thumb in pharmacokinetics, which studies how drugs move throughout the body, is that it takes 4 – 5 half-lives for a drug to be effectively eliminated. The point at which the intake of a drug is at equilibrium with its elimination is known as its “steady state.” In keeping with the previous example, if the half-life of CBD is assumed to be 1 to 2 days, then it would take anywhere between 4 to 10 days for any given dosage of CBD to reach this steady state.

What Factors Contribute to How Long CBD Stays in Your System?

It’s important to note that these are merely ballpark estimates, and that multiple other factors contribute to varying rates of CBD decay, including:

• Age
• Sex
• Weight
• Metabolism
• Lifestyle
• Frequency of use

Because of this, it can be very difficult to assess exactly how long CBD lingers in the body, and at what concentrations. CBD is fat-soluble and can build up and store in fat cells for quite a while, especially in daily and high-BMI users. Those who live very active lifestyles, on the other hand, will most likely metabolize CBD at a faster rate than even a moderately active person. Likewise, all other things being equal, a younger person will naturally metabolize CBD faster than someone much older.

Does Frequency of Use Change How Long CBD Stays in the System?

Arguably, the most crucial factor when it comes to drug elimination is the frequency of use. How much and how often someone uses a substance will have a major and perhaps the most significant effect on how long it takes for that substance—be it CBD or any other drug—to dissipate completely.

Unfortunately, there is no single definitive answer to the question of how long CBD stays in your system; there are just too many different contributing factors. But it’s also essential to address the reasoning behind such an inquiry. Too often, it’s a question pitched by CBD enthusiasts who are worried about testing positive for THC in a drug test as a result of their CBD use, although this is exceptionally rare (as discussed in a separate blog post).

As the market for CBD continues to expand, so will the need for additional clinical trials and other scientific testing. In due time, we may yet gain more detailed insight into the effects—and duration—of CBD in the body.
 
This information is from Zatural
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Depending on the growth rate of his hair and the style he keeps it in, a man’s got to visit his barber every 2-6 weeks to keep his haircut sharp. While visiting a barbershop can be a relaxing ritual, in our busy lives, it more often feels like an inconvenience, and a significant expense. You thus may naturally desire to extend the life of your haircut and the amount of time you can let lapse between appointments with your barber.
 
While you obviously can’t slow down how fast your hair grows, there are ways to make your visits to the barber less frequent, without your hair looking untidy and out of hand. Accomplishing this concerns either choosing a more barber-independent hairstyle, or creating an at-home maintenance routine that allows you to delay your visits to the barbershop.

On the first front, you can choose to go with a buzz cut style and learn to cut it entirely yourself. This snips the barber out of the equation altogether.

If that’s not for you, you can choose a fuller, longer hair style, that sports more natural borders. With this kind of style, which has a little texture/shag already built in, the growth of your hair won’t be as noticeable, so that you can get away with having it cut less often.

However, if you have a haircut with harder edges — one that’s longer on top and shorter on the sides, and that’s faded and tapered with a tight hairline around your ears and the back of your neck — then the (over)growth of your hair will be much more noticeable. The shorter your hair, the more regularly you need to have it cut. But you can still postpone these haircuts for longer periods of time by touching it up in between appointments. Barbers actually sometimes offer to do this quick clean-up job for half the price of a regular haircut. But you can also do it yourself for free, and in less time.

How to Make Your Haircut Last Longer

After you’ve gotten your hair cut, your hair will begin to grow out most noticeably in the trails that run down your neck from either side of your hairline and in your sideburns. Extending the life of your haircut is then just a simple matter of cleaning up these problem areas. Here’s how to do it:

1. Get a sharp haircut.

For an in-between, at-home maintenance trim to be most effective, it’s best to start with a quality haircut in the first place. Hair that’s been precisely cut by a skilled professional will grow out well and be easier to return to form, while hair that’s been more poorly cut will grow out more awkwardly and be harder to tighten up.

2. Gather the needed tools.

You’ll need a few things to perform this DIY clean-up:

• Hair scissors — can be small ones
• Multi-purpose electric trimmer
• Hand mirror — you’ll need to be able to see the back of your neck
• Comb

3. Trim your sideburns.

First take your electric trimmer and trim up the bottom edge of your sideburn so that it’s straight and at a length to your liking; parallel to the middle of your ear is a good general guideline.

Then, take your comb and comb the hair of the sideburn towards your face; use your scissors to trim these overgrown hairs along the vertical hairline of your sideburn. (You can do this job with your trimmer too, but it tends to turn out better when done with scissors.)

Repeat this process, this time combing your sideburn hairs towards your ear, and then trimming these hairs along the hairline. If there is hair covering where the curve of the top of the ear starts, snip that too. It’s possible to use your electric trimmer to cut all along the arch of your ear, but that’s hard for an amateur to get right, and I wouldn’t recommend it. 

Then repeat on the other sideburn.

4. Trim your neckline.

This part is tricky to do on your own; if possible, ask a friend or loved one to do it for you. If you’re on your own, stand in front of a mirror, holding your trimmer in one hand and your hand mirror in the other so you can see the back of your neck in the mirror that you’re facing.

Then move your trimmer in upward strokes until it meets the hairline created by your barber.

5. Keep your hair smooth and styled.

In addition to cleaning up your hair in between appointments with your barber, try to shampoo your hair less often, and finish off your ‘do with some styling product; overgrown hair looks more unkempt when it’s dry and frizzy, so you’ll want to keep it tamed and tight.

Following this DIY maintenance routine can let you go as much as 2 weeks more before you have to get a real haircut, reducing your visits to the barber by a third to a half.

These tips are brought to you from Art of Manliness

One of the well known underlying causes of thinning hair, and receding hairlines is having an iron deficiency. One way to measure iron in the human body is to take the ferritin levels, which can correlate to the amount of iron the body stores.

Ensuring your body maintains appropriate ferritin levels will help prevent the onset of further loss of hair in some cases. Low ferritin levels can preclude more serious health conditions, and should be addressed.

What is A Low Ferritin Condition?

According to the Mayo Clinic, having low ferritin levels is essentially having low iron in your blood.

Ferritin is a blood cell protein that contains iron, and a test that shows low ferritin can help medical professionals understand how much iron your body is storing.
Anemia is a serious medical condition, and having low ferritin levels can be a sign of iron deficient anemia which may also be a precursor to hair loss.

Low ferritin can occur for a variety of reasons including; inadequate intake or nutritional deficiency, malabsorption due to disease or the body’s reduced capacity to absorb iron, excessive loss of iron through various issues including menstruation or gastrointestinal losses, and functional iron deficiency in which iron is stored, but not adequately supplied to the bone marrow.

If you believe your hair loss might be associated to issues of low ferritin it will require a blood test to make that determination and then some medical work up to understand what is actually causing the iron deficiency in the body.

How Does Low Ferritin Impact Your Hair?

Having low ferritin levels, or being iron deficient, has been shown to cause thin, lifeless hair. Iron deficiency can lead to anemia, which puts the body in a state of survival and causes accessory functions such as maintaining and growing hair to cease.

While losing small amounts of hairs on a daily basis is normal, having low ferritin levels can accelerate symptoms of hair loss and thinning hair.

In fact, low ferritin is one of the more common causes of hair thinning seen in women.

Hair is unable to grow in a healthy manner and is likely to fall out before reaching any significant length, which leads to individuals complaining of ability to only grow short hairs in some areas.

As hair is merely falling out prematurely, this issue is reversible once the levels of ferritin are addressed within the individual.

In the 2013 article, Iron Plays a Certain Role in Patterned Hair Loss, the authors discuss their research on the role of low ferritin in hair growth.

As hair is a consistently proliferating organ, it requires sufficient blood supply to grow full, long, and healthy.

The research found that when matched for age and sex, those individuals with low ferritin were more likely to have symptoms of thinning hair.

Participants who took an iron supplement to address low ferritin levels showed improvement in hair density and hair length when compared to the control group.

Another impact of low ferritin on the hair is related to the body’s reduced ability to produce red blood cells, which will reduce the overall red blood cell count in the body.

According to the University of Rochester, red blood cells require iron to form normally and to carry oxygen throughout the body.

At the base of each hair follicle, there is a network of blood vessels that connect to the root of each strand of hair (See Fig. 1 above).

Red blood cells typically carry oxygen to the hair through these systems of blood vessels, which carry oxygen and supports healthy hair growth. Hair is not typically able to sustain normal or healthy growth without adequate supply of oxygenated blood.

Side Effects of Low Ferritin

Having low ferritin levels, or essentially being anemic and low in iron, can lead to a variety of negative symptoms.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute states that the type and severity of symptoms related to low ferritin will vary depending on the level of iron deficiency.
One of the most common signs of low ferritin is fatigue, or feeling tired.

Other symptoms of low ferritin levels are associated with the poor transfer of oxygen throughout the body including dizziness, headaches, or shortness of breath. Further signs include brittle nails and sore or swelling of the mouth and tongue.

One unusual side effect of low ferritin is that it can cause the unnatural craving of non-food items such as dirt or paint, a symptom referred to as pica.

Symptoms of Low Ferritin

• jaundiced, pale or yellow skin
• extreme tiredness
• dizziness
• heavy menstrual cycles
• digestive tract bleeding
• blood in the stool
• shortness of breath
• chest pain
• brittle nails
• hair loss
• pounding or “whooshing” sound in the ears
• restless leg syndrome
• craving non-food items

Ways to Increase Low Ferritin Intake

The only way to determine whether or not you have low ferritin levels is to consult a physician, who will have to perform a blood test in order to ascertain ferritin levels.

If it is determined that you do have low ferritin, this issue can be relatively easy to address.

While low ferritin levels can be addressed through diet, individuals who are known to have deficiencies would likely benefit from some measure of supplementation.

There are many ways to increase the ferritin levels in your body, including eating foods with high levels of iron and taking prepared supplements that are available on the market or in the form of a prescribed medication.

Numerous common food items have varying levels of iron, many of which can be incorporated into a healthy diet.

While there are supplements and medications to help increase ferritin levels in the body, this should be done so in consultation with a medical professional.

Eating a healthy diet, high in iron and other essential nutrients, will help support positive overall wellbeing which reduces the symptoms of hair loss and hair thinning associated with anemia, and a poor diet.

What Are Some Ferritin Rich Foods?

• Red Meat: the largest food groups that contain high amounts of iron to help raise ferritin levels in the body is red meat. While most meat contains some iron, the highest concentration of iron levels will be in the organs such as the liver, heart, and kidney. I wouldn’t recommend too much red meat as it is hard for the body to digest. Some people can thrive on red meat and for others it doesn’t suit their body type at all.
• Nuts: most nuts contain iron levels, and are generally a healthy snacking option that can be eaten on the go
• Dried Fruit: containing high quantities of iron, commercially available dried fruits are a healthy snack to address low ferritin
• Iron Fortified Foods: many foods have had iron added during the production, a simple means to address low levels of ferritin in many people. Many breakfast cereals, and enriched flour, have been fortified with iron

Conclusion

Having low ferritin levels can be a sign of more significant health issues, but may also lead to hair loss or hair thinning without progressing to more serious cases of iron deficient anemia.

There is significant evidence to suggest that low ferritin levels may be associated with hair loss, as it can affect blood flow and oxygenation of the hair follicle.

There are numerous ways to ensure your body has enough iron to maintain high levels of ferritin, including making some healthy adjustments to your diet or using a daily supplement.
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Ensuring your body does not have low ferritin levels is important for your overall health and having strong, resilient hair.
 
This information was found at Hairguard
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