A little while back, Dr Andrew Huberman, a Stanford neuroscientist with a massive podcast, released an episode called “How to Improve Skin Health & Appearance”. It had a bunch of slightly weird recommendations if you’re familiar with skincare science. He mentioned some of his sources, but didn’t have any experts talking. 1.5 months later, he released another skin episode, this …
There’s been a few viral posts about how harmful chemical sunscreens are. The latest one is a post about “Sunscreen Swaps” from @a.glimpse.of.amelia (an Australian “low-tox” consultant) and @jordiepieface (a nutritionist from New Zealand), claiming that “some conventional sunscreens can do more harm than good”. Unfortunately, most of the post is inaccurate, and it’s likely scaring people away from using …
There’s been a lot of stories about benzene contamination in personal care products over the last 4 years. This year, benzene was discovered in benzoyl peroxide, a staple acne treatment. How concerned should we be? Petition and original paper I’ve written about the background behind Valisure’s benzene analyses before, as well as questions about the accuracy of their data and …
There’s been increasing talk about how blue light from phones and computer screens could be a potential cause of skin damage. Is it worth worrying about, or is it just marketing? This topic is going to be a two-parter. In this installment we’re going to talk about visible light damage, and how you can protect your skin; in part 2, …
What’s the best way to dry your hair, according to science? Is it hair dryers, hair straighteners, towels, or just leaving it to dry naturally? I have fragile, expensively damaged hair and try a lot of hair products, so I have a special interest in this. Here’s the science of drying your hair. The video is here, keep scrolling for …
How do you check if information is reliable? One shortcut that works well (most of the time) is to check if the source itself is reliable! This is much faster and easier than trying to learn the science behind an area you’re not already familiar with – it takes a lot of time to properly factcheck information, even for experts. …
There’s been a lot of hype around Cyperus oil for hair removal, largely based on a study where it supposedly worked as well as laser. Unfortunately I don’t think it works, and if it did work, it would be a risky product to be using. For context, my PhD is in medicinal chemistry. Part of this involves looking at the …
If you’ve ever tried gel nails, you’ll know you have to bake your fingers under a UV lamp. And if you’re like me, you might’ve thought: I know UV from the sun is bad and causes skin cancer, tanning beds are extra bad, they cause extra skin cancer… is this thing that looks like a tanning bed (for ants) actually …