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Ilchi Lee

–TOUCH–

In the know: Skin deep
The skin is the body’s largest sensory organ, allowing us to feel touch, pressure and temperature, and even read Braille with our fingers. Within the skin, different types of receptors, activated by various stimuli, trigger nerve impulses. We feel the stimulus when those impulses reach the brain, according to research from the University of Washington . Some receptors, however, are superior to others. Our fingers and lips, for example, are more touchy than our backs because they have more receptors.

Sensory specialist: Sensing with fencing
When a cat is walking near a wall it can feel it with its whiskers, and nocturnal animals like highly intelligent raccoons have a finely tuned sense of touch, according to Fred Beall, general curator of Zoo New England. They love getting their hands wet as they amble along rivers and streams, plunging their paws underwater fishing for food.

Newly blind students in the Carroll Center for the Blind’s fencing program feel their way with foils, which they use to ‘measure’ objects in their mind’s eye as they suddenly find themselves navigating a world without the benefit of vision. They use visual imagery to adjust their mental image to the information they receive mainly with their sense of touch.

Participants also rely on their hearing, sense of movement and balance—an array of sounds tells them whether they are touching the end of the foil, its shaft or its handgrip, for example.

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By Ilchi Lee

We tease it, tangle it, tug it and twist it. Then we perm it, color it and straighten it. From hair spray and blow dryers to chlorine and curlers, our manes undergo a brutal assault, often losing their former glow and glory.

Crash dieting, long illnesses and even childbirth can make it become brittle and eventually fall out.

Staying healthy remains the best insurance policy to avoid tresses in distress. Balanced diet, proper rest, exercise and even acupressure will condition your hair better than any product on the market.

Diet for beautiful hair
Magnificent manes spring from a diet rich in nutrients. If your locks are limp and lifeless, add more protein such as eggs, lean meat and fish, beans and seeds, whole grains and low-fat dairy or soy products.

Vitamins and essential fatty acids can restore luster to dull hair. Good sources include green leafy vegetables, brewer’s yeast, berries, apples and citrus fruits. Biotin is considered the most potent vitamin for promoting hair health and preventing gray. Wheat bran, eggs and liver offer the highest levels.

Hair also thrives on essential minerals such as iodine, sulfur, zinc and silica. Add these to your diet with seafood, sunflower seeds, alfalfa, dandelion greens, garlic, kale, spirulina, oysters, pumpkin seeds and wheat grass. Borage, evening primrose and flaxseed oils all contain omega-3 fatty acids, which help keep hair supple and shiny.

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