Back when the pandemic started heating up in the United States several months ago and local shelter-in-place orders were instituted which closed down barbershops, I decided I’d let my hair grow out for the indefinite future. Instead of seeing the shutdown as an inconvenience, I reframed it as an opportunity to achieve some sweet, sweet, 1980s Sam Elliott hair. I had tried to achieve this worthy goal before, gotten close, but abandoned the idea when it didn’t seem to be coming together. I wanted to give the idea another go round; maybe it would somehow work out better this time. 

I was optimistic about the project, but by the middle of July, I’d reached my head-mop breaking point. Just as I had concluded on my first attempt, my hair is just too thick, wavy, and vertically-oriented in its growth to pull off the 80s flow. Instead of looking like Sam Elliott in Mask, I looked like Edna Turnblad in Hairspray. What’s more, all that hair on top of my head was making me overheat during the hot and humid Oklahoma summer.

So I had my mother-in-law buzz it off (she buzzes my father-in-law’s head each week, so she’s a seasoned pro). I officially joined the pandemic buzz cut club. 

The clippings lumped together on the floor looked like the pelt of a dead varmint. My head felt a few pounds lighter and a lot cooler. I’m enjoying my buzz cut. It’s a breeze to maintain. Washing my hair takes significantly less time and there’s no need to style or even comb it.

But I plan on returning to my typical side-part hairstyle for the fall, which presents a minor issue: a buzz cut can look a little awkward — fuzzy and round — while it grows out. The last time I grew out a summer buzz cut a few years ago, I remember I looked vaguely like a Chia-Head. 

To avoid looking like a potted indoor novelty plant, I reached out to Thad Forrester, barber and co-owner of Hudson / Hawk Barber & Shop for his advice on growing out a buzz cut.
 

If you can visit a barber . . . keep the back and sides short, and let the hair grow out on top.

“I like the strategy of keeping the sides and back short until the top starts to get longer,” Thad told me. It helps push more visual strength into the top of your head and “prevents the Chia Pet look from happening.”

Ask your barber for a taper at the temple and neck. If you don’t mind showing some skin as the hair gets closer to the hairline on the sides and neck, you can also ask for a medium fade along the sides and back. This will give your hair some dimension, making it look more like an actual haircut and less like a uniformly round tennis ball. Continue to let the hair on top grow out, until it too is in need of a trim. 

If you’re wanting to eventually grow the sides and back of your hair out rather than keeping them trimmed close to the head with a taper or fade, start this process once the hair on top of your head is long enough to comb. 

You’ll need to visit your barber a little more often — perhaps every two weeks — to keep your style looking sharp during this grow-out period. 

If you don’t think you’ll be visiting a barbershop anytime soon, you can of course keep buzzing your head. If you don’t have a mother-in-law handy, here’s a guide on how to do it yourself.

What if you can’t visit a barbershop now, but think you will in a couple months or so, and want to start growing out your hair now? Giving yourself a taper isn’t impossible, but it’s pretty tricky. Even having someone else do it for you is iffy.

You’ll thus probably need to content yourself with letting your buzzed fuzz get puffy, but you can still keep it from looking too unruly by doing a DIY clean-up along your hairline. This means trimming your sideburns along with the two trails of hair that run down your neck. We’ve got a guide on how to take care of this job here.

Genetics will influence how quickly your hair grows, but on average, humans grow about ½ inch of hair a month. Depending on how long your hair was pre-buzz cut, expect it to take 3 to 4 months to grow out to its original length.

There you go. How to grow out your buzz cut, and banish Mr. Chi-Chi-Chi-Chia Head to 1990s commercial breaks.
 

These grow out tips are from Art of Manliness

When COVID-19 began spreading in the U.S., Dan Kerber was drawn to the data. The 48-year-old from Plano, Texas read about case counts and projections every day, keeping his team at the telecommunications company Ericsson up to date on the latest news. So in May, when states including Texas began to reopen before the data showed it was time to do so, Kerber began to get nervous.

“If more people are out, does that mean my family and I are going to get it despite our precautions?” he thought. “Until there’s a vaccine or a treatment, I still worry about being in public.”

Kerber, who says he’s never struggled with anxiety before, now feels “underlying concern or unease” when he spends time in public, in large part because he has an autoimmune condition that makes him more susceptible to coronavirus. At the same time, he says, he’s anxious about the prospect of working and living remotely for months more, or longer. “I’m concerned about going into public, but now I’m also concerned about how long I can [last] without going out,” he says.

When COVID-19 lockdowns were first instituted, it felt, for many people, unfathomable to stay home nearly 24/7. But for people like Kerber, it now feels equally strange—and nerve-wracking—to do anything else after months cocooned inside. Psychologists have dubbed the phenomenon “re-entry anxiety.”

Lily Brown, director of the Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, says there are two distinct types of re-entry anxiety. Some people are anxious because they have a “lurking fear” of catching or spreading COVID-19, she says, while others have fallen out of practice socializing and are finding it difficult to resume.

Both types of anxiety are likely driven by uncertainty and a fear of unknown harm, Brown says. Ambiguous and ever-changing public-health advice likely doesn’t help, either.

Brown says some anxiety is probably healthy as society reopens, since the virus is still spreading and still poses health risks. A little bit of nervousness can motivate you to follow public-health guidance like social distancing and wearing a mask. But when anxiety starts to interfere with your day-to-day life, it may be a problem, Brown says.

If you’re struggling to find the right balance, try these expert-backed tips for combating re-entry anxiety.

Take baby steps

“Exposure therapy“—or safely confronting sources of fear—is the gold-standard treatment for many fear and anxiety disorders. The same tactic may help with re-entry anxiety, says Dr. Ryan Sultan, an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center in New York City.

“Don’t go from staying locked in your apartment to taking the subway,” Sultan says. Instead, set progressive small goals that will get you closer to behavior you find scary. For example, you could start with a walk in the park alone, then try chatting with a friend from your window and finally go for a walk together.

If you do feel yourself getting pulled into an anxiety spiral, focus on your breathing. “The simplest way to pull yourself back from that anxiety is to really concentrate on taking controlled, slow, deep breaths,” Sultan says.

Start soon

“Social isolation absolutely has short-term mental-health impacts,” Sultan says. “But it potentially also has long-term impacts, and they’re directly proportional to the duration. The longer people avoid things that are making them anxious, the harder they will be to overcome.”

That does not mean you should rush out and socialize just like you did before coronavirus. (Large social gatherings are still not condoned by health experts, and most recommend meeting up outdoors.) But think about what you can do safely right now—perhaps sitting with a friend in your backyard while wearing masks and staying six feet apart—and take steps to do it sooner rather than later.

But think long-term

Sultan says he’s seen multiple patients who are remaining more isolated than necessary because of re-entry anxiety. He asks them a simple question: “Is this the life that you want to live indefinitely?”

Almost invariably, he says, people realize they “miss being outside, seeing their friends, living their life.” Having that moment of realization can motivate people to start taking small steps back toward normal, Sultan says.

Be wary of crutches

Brown says it’s easy for recommended public-health practices, like washing your hands regularly, to spiral into “safety behaviors” that, consciously or subconsciously, you rely on to keep anxiety at bay.

Be honest about how these safety behaviors are affecting you. If wiping down your groceries “takes you five minutes and it really helps you,” it’s probably not a big deal, even if it’s not strictly recommended, Brown says. But if you’re spending hours a day cleaning your home, that could be a bigger issue. “It’s never really up to me to decide, ‘Is this behavior a problem?’” Brown says. Ask yourself, “Is it getting in the way of the life you want to be living?”

Recruit a partner

Like most behavior changes, quelling re-entry anxiety is easier with a buddy who can both support you and hold you accountable, Brown says.

Similarly, if someone in your life is struggling with re-entry anxiety, try to be their partner through it, Sultan says. “Ask them, ‘What would make you feel more comfortable doing this? Is there something I can do that would help you with that? What’s something you would feel comfortable with us doing?'”

Then, of course, actually accommodate their answers, rather than forcing the issue, Sultan says. If your loved one is too nervous to go to a busy park, try suggesting an early-morning visit to beat the crowds, rather than convincing them everything will be fine at midday, Sultan recommends. And remember that people may have COVID-19 risk factors that look different from yours. Respect that people are going to want to move at different paces, often by necessity.

Get help

One bright spot to the COVID-19 pandemic: it’s never been easier to connect with a mental health professional, thanks to an uptick in telemedicine services. If you’re struggling with anxiety, don’t hesitate to seek professional help, Brown says.

“I see people suffering with anxiety for years before they do anything about it,” she says. “We know that cognitive behavioral therapy is really effective in managing anxiety. My vote is always just reach out.”

If you don’t know where to get started, Brown says she and her colleagues can offer referrals. Contact them here. You can also call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s hotline 24/7 at 1-800-662-4357.

From Time.com

Coconut oil is full of healthy saturated fats and offers a distinctive and delicious taste making it a beloved ingredient in many foods. In recent years however, many people have also begun to celebrate the wide and varied cosmetic benefits coconut oil offers. Due to its antimicrobial properties, coconut oil has natural anti-fungal properties making it an important aid for a number of skin issues, such as acne and athletes foot. What’s more, due to its naturally hydrating properties, the oil can be used as a moisturizer and is effective at reducing dryness.

The benefits of coconut oil for hair are well-documented and varied. While it may seem counter-intuitive to apply oil directly to the hair, it doesn’t not have the heavy and greasy effect you may think: instead it naturally strengthens, cleanses and smooths the hair. Comprised of medium-chain fatty acids, the oil from coconuts is able to penetrate much more deeply into the hair shaft than other substances. As such, it can provide much needed moisture to dry hair and help strengthen the cuticle to help prevent split ends.
 

Different ways to use coconut oil for hair

There are a number of different ways to use coconut oil for hair. The most popular are:

• As a deep conditioning hair mask
• As a detangler
• To help fight dandruff

From Schwarzkopf.com

As my esteemed colleague A.A. Newton has pointed out before, most vinaigrette recipes call for too much oil and not enough acid. Newton remedies this by halving the oil in any and every vinaigrette recipe she encounters, but that strategy only works with existing recipes.

If you want to make your own, unique, bespoke vinaigrette, it’s best to start with a ratio of one part vinegar and one part oil, rather than the oft recommended one part vinegar to three parts oil. This may seem like acid overkill, but keep in mind that a good vinaigrette should be too intense to enjoy on its own. It’s a dressing, not a gazpacho. Half a cup of dressing is plenty for a family-sized salad, so start with 1/4 cup oil and 1/4 cup acid.

For the oil, you can use something with flavor, like olive or hazelnut; or you can use a more neutral option like grape seed, avocado, or canola, and really let the other ingredients shine. If you want to get really crazy, you can mix oils—like toasted sesame and grape seed to stretch the flavor of the former—just make sure you don’t exceed the 1:1 oil-to-acid ratio.

For acid, pretty much any vinegar will work, though I would avoid straight-up white vinegar. If you want a really tart dressing, you can add a tablespoon of white vinegar and three tablespoons of something else, but I am not joking when I tell you it’s really tart. Lemon and lime juice are also quite lovely, particularly when paired with honey.

You must use some mustard

A good mustard adds flavor to your vinaigrette, and—more importably—it is the key to a stable, emulsified dressing. Without it, your oil and vinegar will separate from each other in mere moments, no matter how hard you shake. (Shake in a jar for the best results.) Mustards with a lot of mucilage emulsify the best, so choose a Dijon or another whole-grain option to maximize its stabilizing effects. A tablespoon will do the trick.

You need to sweeten, sweetie

A little sugar makes everything taste better, and salads are not exempt from this scientific fact. Liquid sweeteners go into solution the fastest, so choose a syrup. I’ve sweetened vinaigrettes with maple syrup, agave syrup, simple syrup, and honey, and all are pretty equally delicious. A tablespoon is all you need.

Add salt and other seasonings

Salt doesn’t just make things taste salty, it makes things taste good, and you need 1/4 teaspoon of it to make your vinaigrette sing. You could stop here and you you’ll have a perfectly delicious dressing, but I know many of you will not (and why should you). For other dry seasonings—like cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, white pepper, etc.—start with 1/4 teaspoon and add more as needed to taste. For fresh herbs and alliums (like garlic and shallots), add them minced, 1 teaspoon at a time, until you reach your desired level of potency, keeping in mind the flavors with intensify as they sit in the dressing.

Finish with a dash of common sense!