Ep. 104: How to Get Glowing Skin and Healthy Hair Naturally

In this mini-episode, Lauren Bernick tells you what really works to get glowing skin. She even admits to some embarrassing practices. Lauren believes that if you wouldn't want a product in your mouth, you shouldn't put it on your skin. She has real recommendations for what works. Lauren also dives into the science behind hair loss, the main cause, what to test for, and how to regrow hair. You don't want to miss this episode!

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Transcript

Lauren Bernick (00:01.208)
Hi friends. Okay, we're gonna talk about glowing skin and healthy hair in just a second. But this episode is brought to you by Grand Teton Ancient Grains. They're a family farm and on-site mill producing high-quality grains without pesticides, herbicides, or glyphosate. Just real food that's grown and milled with care. And if you know me, you know how much I love a good bull.

And lately I've been using their emmer berries and millet instead of just, you know, the usual old brown rice and quinoa, and I'm loving it. I also adore their stone mill bronze dye pasta. It has incredible texture and it really holds on to your sauce. So you can learn more at ancientgrains.com. You'll get free shipping when you fill a box. That info is going to be in the show notes. Okay, so thank you, Ancient Grains.

Alright, so this is just a little mini episode. And I'm just gonna you know, talk you through what I do, what I've researched. I research all the time because I'm very particular what I put on my body. For those of you who don't know me, I'm Lauren Burnick. I'm 57 years old, almost 58. I don't have Botox, I don't have fillers. just because

This is what I'm doing at this point in my life. I'm not saying I'm never gonna do anything again, but this is where I am right now. I'm really just trying to age well as naturally as I can. Okay, so I had heart disease diagnosed in 2015. I reversed my heart disease by following a whole food plant-based diet. I've lost 20 pounds, I've kept it off for 11 years.

If you want to know more about that, you can go to wellelephant.com. You can download my cookbook. You can find out about my online class, Ace Plant-Based Eating, if you're very serious about reversing disease like I did. But one of the things, you know, on this health journey, I've discovered is I don't want to put anything on my face that I wouldn't or couldn't eat. So what I do is I start in the morning with warm lemon water.

Lauren Bernick (02:21.13)
It's so good for hydration. It helps to produce collagen. You want to make sure it's warm, not hot. You don't want to burn your throat. Okay, so that's the first thing I do. The second thing I do is you guys, I hope my husband's not listening to this. I don't know why I feel shame around this, but instead of like dermaplaning and all the things, I shave my face. We've talked about this before on the podcast, okay?

I don't have a big hairy face. I just have the usual little, you know, peach fuzz and whatever. But if you shave your face, it helps your products get more deeply into your skin. And then you don't have to worry about plucking and all the things. So you want to this it might be a good episode to watch on YouTube, but if you're just listening, I'm gonna describe. So if you're shaving, you don't want to shave down. You kind of want to start from the

Corner of your mouth and go towards your ear that way. And then you want to shave down, like near your sideburns, and shave down your face, down your throat, under your chin, obviously, but you want to shave down your throat because you want to be going in the direction of your lymph nodes. so that's another tip, and it also kind of is a great exfoliator. Then the other thing I do is I dry brush my face very lightly.

I don't use any kind of special dry brush. I just have one that I've had for a long time. But again, you know, I started like my forehead and I just brush very lightly towards my temples. Then I go in the direction from my corner of my mouth towards my ears and then down towards my neck, towards my lymph nodes, like which are in your collarbones and your underarms.

If you want to watch if you want to know more about your lymph nodes, you should watch or listen to episode 102. We just did it not long ago with Drina Burton. She gives us like a five minute lymphatic drainage that we can do. But that's what I do. It really depuffs your face. It's incredible. The other thing that I do is face yoga. And again, that's another guest I had on

Lauren Bernick (04:44.056)
Famiko Takatsu, episode 78. Go watch or listen to that. Okay, so I'm actually gonna show you a couple of things. I am so into face yoga. I I mean, it's you know, it's like one of those things, it's like, my god, now I got you know one more thing to add to my list of things to do. But she has like five minute sessions, and honestly, mostly I only do five minutes a day.

And my troubled area, my trouble area is, you know, I have some sagging in my lower face and I'm trying to lift up my cheeks. And honest to God, my husband and I were talking about it the other day. And I was like, I think my cheeks are starting to lift. And he's like looking and he's like, Yeah, I think they are. And so, you know, that's what you would be doing with fillers. And it's very expensive. It's also something

We don't know all the ingredients that are in it. I mean, I imagine it's I don't know. I don't know what's in it. I don't want to bag on face fillers. If you like God love ya, do Do whatever feels good to you. I'm not bagging on them, but I'm just saying for me, like I'm just trying to do it naturally. Okay, let me show you quickly a couple of moves that I do. it she also does a lot with lymphatic drainage. So, you know,

I got my ear pods in, let me make sure I don't pull them out of my head. But you know, she starts with lightly tapping and then just like you want to drop your mouth, like make an O shape, like ohm. And it just brings a lot of circulation to your face. But here's the thing that I love. She has a couple of things that depuff under your eyes, and it's really it works.

Okay, so what you want to do is you want to take your pointer finger and your middle finger, your index finger and your middle finger, and put them at the corners of your eyes, the outsides of your eyes. And just lift up the top a little bit, your brow, and just stretch out that skin. You're kind of making a V shape with your fingers and pulling the skin, and then

Lauren Bernick (06:58.434)
you squint like you're looking at something in the distance and you can kind of feel the bottom of your eye pulling up. You can feel that muscle and you just squint in the distance. And I know I look like a total maniac, but you do this for like 10 seconds, you hold it, you let go, you repeat it three times, and then you switch and you put the like you know your piece fingers. So again, your pointer and your middle finger under your eye.

So one goes at the corner of your eye, that's right by your your nose, the bridge of your nose, the other finger, your pointer fingers at the outside of your eye. And then you push down. You don't pull down, you push the skin down and you squint in the distance. And that also removes the puffiness. And again, you do that like for 10 seconds and you do that three times. And then the thing that's the cheek lifter, this is my favorite one.

And I'm gonna look like a total lunatic. I'll do it without my glasses. so you're gonna pull your upper and your lower lip over your teeth. So you look like, you know, when you're imitating like a granny with no teeth, you just pull in your upper and lower teeth, lips over your teeth, and then you have to feel for this muscle. There's like a muscle.

right under your cheekbone and you're aiming to lift that up and if you can't feel it at first it took me a while to locate it. I think that was the holdup. but once I finally found this muscle you can feel it lifting and so you do your mouth, your teeth, your lips over your teeth, you smile real big, like you're pulling this muscle up and assist it if you can't feel it. You can just assist it with your fingers

and pull it up towards your ear and you hold it again for ten seconds.

Lauren Bernick (08:57.57)
I'm holding it if you can't hear me, if you can't see me. And then release and you do that again. Do it three times. Those she has so many exercises. She has for your neck, for you know, every part of your for your forehead. But that's been my real go to. Because you know what? You exercise every other part of your body. Why not do your face? Okay, the other thing that I'm so into right now.

And again, I've done a lot of research. Rose hip oil. It's lightweight, it's non-greasy, it's a botanical oil. it's packed with vitamins A, C, E. It has essential fatty acids like linolic linoleic acid. It's very hydrating. It fades hyperpigmentation, it fades acne scars, it stimulates collagen production and it in it protects your.

your skin against environmental damage and it doesn't clog your pores. So again, it has omega 3s, omega 6, and it penetrates, it locks in the moisture. And it aids in cell regeneration and exfoliation. That helps to dim diminish the dark spots. And vitamin A is a natural form of retinol.

So it promotes cell turnover and collagen production and it smooths your fine lines and wrinkles. the vitamins ENA, along with other antioxidants, calm irritation from inflammatory conditions like eczema or rosacea, and it brightens your skin. It really gives you a healthy glow. I I put some on this morning, so already, you know, I've had it on for hours, but you know.

I have very dry skin. Now, if you have oily skin, I'm not sure, you know, if this is I think it'd be still good for you. and I use it morning and night, and then I use sunblock. I'm gonna talk about sunblock, but honestly, I've stopped using a lot of the serums and things that I was using. But if you want to keep using your serums, this is how you do it. So you cleanse, you apply any serums, and then you gently massage two to three drops.

Lauren Bernick (11:20.128)
into your clean damp skin. You can also mix it with your moisturizer. You know, just put a drop or two in your favorite moisturizer. And then you can use it just directly on your skin at night. It makes it for a really good overnight cream. And again it has the the natural retinol in it. So that's you know amazing. Okay.

I mentioned sunblock. That's really the only thing I'm using right now is the rose hip oil and sunblock. Sunblock, you want to make sure it's a mineral sunscreen. And the reason that you want to use minerals, like zinc oxide or titanium d dioxide is because they sit on top of your skin and it reflects and it scatters UV rays. And

it doesn't absorb into your body. So it's very gentle for sensitive skin. And it works immediately. You don't have to wait 15 or 20 minutes before heading out in the sun like you would with, you know, chemicals. It's good for sensitive skin and it has broad spectrum defense. The zinc oxide and titanium dioxide offer UVA, that's anti-aging, and UVB for burning.

So it those are really important. And also it's reef and environmentally safe. It doesn't contribute to you know, like coral bleaching when you use oxybenzone and octin octinosate. Those two chemicals are found in most sun blocks and they're very bad for the environment. Not to mention they could be

potential hormone disruptors. So that's what to look for in your mineral sunscreen. You want it to be mineral based, titanium dioxide and zinc oxide. Okay, the other thing that I've been doing, I am obsessed with brandy doming of the Vegan Aids strawberry face mask. I had her on a while back, episode 95, and she told me about this strawberry

Lauren Bernick (13:35.875)
face mask that you can find the recipe to on her website The Vegan Eight. So go look for it. It only has three ingredients. And I'm telling you, it rubbed off a brown spot that I had on my head. It is unbelievable. And you could eat this. You could eat this face mask if you wanted to. I mean, I don't think it would taste delicious, but it's just three ingredients made out of food. Strawberries. Strawberries and lemons are two of the ingredients, okay?

It's incredible. I'm obsessed with that. So go look on the Vegan 8 website, listen to episode 95. then of course, you knew this was coming. I think eating a whole food plant-based diet is one of I I just talked about how it's the fountain of youth. Okay, it gives you glowing skin because it's rich in nutrients, it's rich in antioxidants, it's anti-inflammatory.

Okay, and these are the top foods that build collagen. Citrus fruits and bell peppers. They provide massive amounts of vitamin C to jumpstart your collagen production. And remember, we talked about starting your day with the lemon water. that has a ton of vitamin C, legumes and beans, you know, legumes, whole grains, I'm sorry, legumes and beans, chickpeas, lentils, black beans. they have the specific amino acids.

Glycine and proline that are required for less skin elasticity. Pumpkin seeds and cashews. These are exceptional plant sources of zinc and copper, which stabilize and reinforce new collagen fibers. Garlic and cruciferous vegetables, broccoli, brussels sprouts, garlic contains sulfur, a trace mineral that prevents the breakdown of existing collagen. And soy products like tofu, tempeh, edamame.

they have geniste and a plant compound that helps block enzymes that degrade skin elasticity. So, you know, you know, I think that's the answer to everything is eating a plant-based diet. But in this case, it really is. It is. It's good for your skin, it's good for your heart, it's good for your brain. okay, let's talk about hair now. Okay, a lot of women.

Lauren Bernick (15:58.243)
tell me that they experience hair loss. And I'll tell you what, I did too, actually. luckily I started with a lot, but I have experienced hair loss because I've talked about this before. I had a f fibroid tumor and it was causing me really heavy bleeding. And I was still getting my peri I'm I was still getting my period up until a couple months ago. You guys, I think I'm finally maybe

Starting to head towards menopause at 57 years old. but my periods were so bad and I was losing so much blood, I was anemic. And then I started shedding a lot of hair. And so I looked into this and my iron levels were really low, obviously, if I was anemic. Okay, but this is if your hair is falling out, you want to check your iron levels. Go to your doctor, get them tested.

Your serum ferritin levels, you want them at least 50 to 70 nanograms per milliliter. Really, you want 70 to 80 nanograms per milliliter to trigger hair regrowth. And your doctor might tell you that your ferritin level of 20 or 30 nanograms per milliliter is normal because you're not an anemic, but your hair follicles are non-essential tissues.

And when iron stores drop, the body redirects iron away from your hair follicles to support vital organs, causing your hair to prematurely shed. So again, to support high cell turnover rates required for healthy hair, you want to have these lab values: serum, ferritin, 70 to 80 nanograms per milliliter. That's the optimal spot.

For regrowth. Okay. Another thing you could check is your hemoglobin. You want it greater than 13 grams per deciliter. even if you're not anemic, pushing your hemoglobin into this range optimizes oxygen delivery to the scalp. So go to your doctor, request a full iron panel, and then

Lauren Bernick (18:19.456)
Okay, and don't just test your standard iron levels. Explicitly ask for serum ferritin as a standard paral panel. They often don't do this. And then you also want to rule out cofactors. Iron deficient deficiency it doesn't always act alone. ask your doctor to cross-reference your results with a thyroid panel, vitamin D. You want to target more than 40.

nanograms per milliliter and vitamin B12 you want to target 300 to 500 picograms per milliliter and that's all gonna help restart your hair growth. Okay. And be patient. It takes like three to six months to start this. I'm just starting to get new baby hairs and regrow hairs. so I mean

People don't often think that I have hair loss, but yeah, I mean I I had it too. So, but mine's starting to grow back. Stopped falling out, and now it's starting to grow back. So that's it. Those are the things for healthy skin and hair. Let me know if you have some tips that I left out. But you know, the other thing is have fun, laugh, eat well, sleep well, reduce stress, try to enjoy your life. I mean, I know that sounds easier said than done.

But you guys, I mean, it's it's we're all heading towards, you know. There's there's no way out. There's no way out. We're all gonna die. So it's time to enjoy the ride at this time of your life. Make sure you are having fun. Don't focus so much on what's wrong with you. Focus on what's right with you. You're beautiful. You are beautiful no matter where you think you're starting from.

And think beautiful thoughts about yourself. Look in the you know, I I'm not a big one to say look in the mirror and tell yourself something nice, but tell yourself something nice all the time, especially if you think a bad thought. You know I want you to stop that bad thought immediately and replace it with something beautiful. So have fun. Enjoy yourself. enjoy your life. And let me know if I left anything out of my skin and hair routine, okay?

Lauren Bernick (20:45.239)
Until next week.