Hair Gel and Hair Spray

A boyfriend or husband will be upset when his girlfriend or husband cuts away her hair. What does mean for a woman who has long hair? In the Bible it also says in the New Testament, "...if a woman has long hair, it is glory to her..." 1st Corinthians 11:15. There is an example of a man who has long hair and special a gift - Samson. When he cuts his hair, he loses his strength. So, even in the olden times, hair does matter to people and it sure does now today.

One difference is that, it does not give anyone special abilities but it does attract one sex to the other. "The average British woman spends an astonishing £36,903.75 on her hair in a lifetime, according to new research. She will spend the equivalent of just under two YEARS of her life washing, styling, cutting, colouring, crimping and straightening her locks in salons or at home". [Mail Online, August 2006]. It also goes for the men, for those who want to lure the opposite species, like the peacock and the peahen. To look nice, you've got to use products and hairstyling materials like hair gel and hair spray. Hair wax is catching up to the trend too. However so, the focus will be on hair gel and sprays.

Hair gel is probably more common to men than to women. Hair gel is to make hair hard or have a wet look. Hair gel contains cationic polymers the functional chemical in hair gel. Viscosity is due to this compound which makes the positive charges stretch. From here, the stretched - out charges causes it to take up more space and to hinder the flow of solvent molecules around it. The cationic charges are attracted to the negative charge of the hair, holding them together. Hair gel is made out as water based, so it can be washed out. A few other examples of chemicals in gel is glycerin sorbitol, triethanoamine and benxophenone-5. Looking at the names, these are of organic origin. glycerin sorbitol is from alcohol and oil. Benzophenone-5 is a definitely comes from a benzene group, phenol (a type of alcohol) and a ketone group.

Hair spray. It originally consists of carbon, chlorine and fluorine compounds. Since now, widely known for the inducer of global warming, manufacturers has used another solvents like alcohol and hydrocarbons, which has less devastating effect on the environment. One of the polymers used is a water soluble polyvinylpyrrolidine, which is also used to glue the layers of wood in plywood together. Polydimethylsiloxane contrasting to polyvinylpyrrolidine, insoluble in water is to sustain it longer. Pytocalcious chemicals are another family of ingredients in hair spray, which increase the amount of minerals in the hair's root causing the hair to become stiff.

What ever the chemicals are, it sure does great things to our hair.

Plastic

Plastic bottles can be seen everywhere. Almost everyone if not all the people in the world have held this plastic bottles, drank from them and or at least seen them. This bottles are usually filled with water,juices or sodas. Reuse, reduce and recycle is something many people follow when it comes to plastic bottles. They are reused more than one time after the original contents are finished.

Plastic bottles are generally made from plastic #1 polyethylene terephthalate( PET or PETE) or polycarbonate plastic. Polycarbonate plastic is a polymer made of bisphenol A (BPA). There are disputes on whether BPA is harmful to the body. BPA is said to interfere with the body's natural hormonal messaging system. Studies show that repeated usage of these bottles increases the chance of chemicals leaking out from the bottle into whatever beverages are in it. Besides that, hot substances in these things made from plastic can also cause leakage of chemicals. BPA is used to make linings of food and drink cans besides CD cases, plastic knives and forks and dental sealants. There's concern expressed about physiological changes that occur in people when they ingest BPA thats has leached from plastics into their food

or drinks.

Some studies on animals have suggested that it is safe but others bring to rise serious concerns.

BPA mimics the female sex hormone, oestrogen. It has been linked in animals to breast cancer, liver damage, obesity, diabetes, fertility problems in males and developmental disorders in the young. Professor David Melzer of the Peninsula Medical School, Exeter,who led the research said, " Our study has revealed for the first time an association between raised BPA loads and two common diseases in adults." He said that for the time being, it isn't confirmed that BPA is the direct cause of the extra cases of heart disease and diabetes but if it is, these serious conditions could be prevented by reducing BPA exposure.

The federal National Toxicology Program said Tuesday that experiments on rats found precancerous tumours, urinary tract problems and early puberty when they were fed or injected with low doses of the plastics chemical bisphenol A (BPA).

After all this, you may think that you cannot reuse bottles anymore. But that is not true. Bottles are made of different kind of plastics. Do NOT reuse bottles made from :

1. Plastic # 1(PET)

2. Plastic # 3 (Polyvinyl chloride) as it can leach hormones disrupting chemicals into the liquids they are storing and will release synthetic carcinogens into the environment when incinerated.

3. Plastic # 6 (polystyrene) as it has been shown to leach styrene, a probable human carcinogen into food and drinks as well.

Bottles made from the following are safe to use:

1. HDPE ( plastic # 2)

2. Low density polyethene ( LDPE, plastic # 4)

3. Polypropylene (PP, plastic # 5)

Aluminium bottles and stainless steel water bottles however are the safest choice when it comes to reusing

bottles.

Water

Readers may ask why write about water? Well, isn't water 70% of the world and also about 70% (65% to be exact). An evolutionary theory also states that humans evolved from water. However, according to the Bible, GOD created man from the EARTH. In Genesis 3:19 says "...Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return."

You are reading this post about water. (The creation of man, is true btw.) Water. All of us were always told when we were young to drink 7 cups or approximately 2 liters of water everyday. We use water to bathe, wash dishes, do the laundry, and making coffee. Some also just waste water by leaving the tape on while washing the car and when brushing teeth. There are also religious rituals which uses water. I don't look at it as wasting as it will return to the earth sooner or later.

So the usage of water is plentiful but the knowledge OF water is few. The whole world knows that water in chemistry sense is H2O - 2 hydrogen 1 oxygen. What else? Is that all about water? No it is not. Actually, the oxygen atom holds two more pairs of lone electrons. The valence electron for H atom is 1 while for oxygen is 6. 2+6=8 electrons. 2 bonds holding the hydrogen atomS to oxygen consists of 4 electron. 8-4=4 more electrons remaining. Since hydrogen can only take 2 electrons where do this extra 4 electrons go to? It will be added to the central atom oxygen. Hence 2 pairs of lone electrons. There is a special physical property relating to this particular bond formation of water.

The basic physical properties of water are: boiling point is at 100°C and the freezing point is 0°C both at standard pressure. But what if it was not at standard pressure? Take for example if one is to boil water in the mountains while mountain climbing, what will the boiling temperature be? [NOTE: Boiling point is reached when the vapour pressure of the solvent is in equilibrium with the atmospheric pressure]. So, on the highlands, pressure is lower. At lower pressure the boiling point of water will be reached faster than when boiling water at the base of the mountain. On the other hand at high pressure, water will turn to ice at a temperature lower than 0°C.

Ice is solid everyone would agree. When a solid is drop into water, for instance a rock, it WILL sink. Why doesn't it happen for ice? Of course the answer will be ice is less dense than water. So why is it less dense? Remember about the bondings of water mentioned above, because each molecule is hydrogen - bonded to four neighbours in a 3D crystal. This crystal formed is spacious as water molecule do not solidify to form compact solid like rocks. In an equal volume of water, ice has fewer molecules. Have you also notice that when a pond during winter only freezes on the surface, allowing aquatic flora and fauna to live, another special property of water is involved. Water reaches maximum density at 4°C.

The knowledge ABOUT water is now known, but some are still neglecting the knowledge of how to save water. Yes, the water cycle is always happening, the concern is the supply of clean water. Clean water do not come naturally. It has to be processed. The cleanest, rather the purest water we can find is rain water, but do we drink rain water? NO. It contains carbon dioxide as it dissolves in rain drops while passing through the atmosphere. Some water sources contains mineral deadly when drank. It has to be cleaned by distillation, which is quite costly. So, save CLEAN water, as it is essential for our welfare. Be grateful for what has been given.

Coffee

Coffee is drank all around the world. It is one of the most popular drinks in the whole world. It is a commodity second only to oil.

Coffee, like other plants, contains thousands of chemical components with different characteristics. Although it is one of the most studied plants, many components still remain undetected and little is known about the effects on humans of the majority of the substances present in the coffee bean and the coffee that we drink. The typical compounds found in coffee are caffeine, trigonelline and organic acids.

Caffeine, in its pure state exists as a white powdered alkaloid with and intensely bitter taste.

Ever wondered why people drink drinks containing caffeine to keep awake, why students drink coffee to stay awake while studying into the wee hours of the morning?

Caffeine operates using the same mechanisms as amphetamines, cocaine and heroin to stimulate the brain but with milder effects. A chemical in the brain called adenosine binds to receptors and slows down nerve cell activity when we are sleeping. Caffeine looks like adenosine to a nerve cell and hence it binds to the receptor. As it is not adenosine, the cell's activity does not slow down. The cell cannot "see" the adenosine anymore as the receptors are taken up by caffeine. So, instead of slowing down, the cell speeds up.

The pituitary gland notices this activity and thinks some emergency is going on and so it releases hormones which tell the adrenal gland to release adrenaline. Adrenaline is a "fight" hormone, it increases heart rate, opens up the breathing tubes, causes the liver to release glucose into the bloodstream for extra energy and tightens muscles, ready for action.

That is why after drinking coffee, your muscles tense up, your heart beat increases and you feel excited. Besides that, as amphetamines,caffeine increases the level of dopamine which is associated with the pleasure system in the brain, providing feelings of enjoyment and reinforcement.

Coffee is one of life's pleasures. For a majority of adults, coffee can be enjoyed in moderation (4 to 5 regular size cups a day). It helps maintain important body fluid levels besides increasing alertness and keeps us going throughout the day.

Junk food

Everybody love junk food. What is junk food? Junk food has been define as high in calories and low in nutrition. The example of junk food are pizzas, fish and chips, ice-cream etc.


Actually everybody thought junk food is always bad for health,but the nutritions believe that there is no bad food, but just bad diets. They discover some of the junk food may provide valuble nutrients. Lets say, fish and chips. When the fats content of the fish and chips is minimized, the food will provide nutritionally rich meal high in vitamins D ,B12 and also some small minerals.

Milk shake is also consider as a junk food. This is because milk shake usually high in fat, but milk shake also good source of calcium. Low- fat milk is a readily available source of calcium without as much fats or calories like in milk shake. So milk shake known as junk food.

We can recognize junk food by just looking at the food label. The information of the food ingredient such as :

1) more than 35% of calories from fat (except for low-fat milk)
2) more than 10% of calories from saturated fats
3) any trans fat
4) more than 35% of calories from sugar, unless it is made with 100% fruit and no added sugar
5) more than 200 calories per servings for snacks
6) more than 200 mg per serving for sodium (salt) for snacks
7) more than 480 mg per serving for sodium (salt) for entrees

Junk food is not just food, it is produce by the work of science. This involve chemistry. Some ingredient such as citric acid, acetate acid etc. are added to produce junk food. For example, junk food such as potato chips, they do not just contains potatoes right? Just observe the food label. We bought the "Pringles Sour Cream and Onion" for references. The ingredient in a piece of potato chips includes lactic acid, citric acid, dextrose, maltodextrin, calcium lactate, acetic acid and also malic acid.

Lactic acid is also known as 2-hydropropanoic acid(milk acid). It can be found in sour milk products. Lactic acid is a chiral compound and have two optical isomers. The molecular formula of lactic acid is C3H6O3 and have acidity for about pH 3.86.

Another acid that contains chiral compound is malic acid. Malic acid is an organic compound, decarboxylic acid. It is a homochiral and have molecular formula of C4H6O5. Malic acid can be found in most unripe food. It has sour taste.

Citric acid is a weak organic acid. Citric acid is also known as 3-hydroxypentanedionic acid. The molecular formula of citric acid is C6H8O7. Citric acid act as flavouring and preservative in food, and it has sour taste due to the acidity.

Acetic acid is an ethanoic acid, with the molecular formula of C2H4O2. Acetic acid is an organic acid which gives vinegar its sour taste. Acetic is also known as acetyl hydroxide.

Calcium lactate is also known as 2-hydroxypropanoic acid. It appears as white crystaline salt. Calcium lactate is made by the reaction of lactic acid on calcium carbonate. The molecular formula of calcium lactate is C6H10CaO6. Calcium lactate act as baking soda in the food industries.

Dextron is one type of sugar in glucose, also known as corn sugar or grape sugar. Dextrose is just a simple carbohydrate and highly soluble in the presents of water.

Another substance is known as maltodextrin. Maltodextrin is a polysaccharide that use in the food additive. The molecular formula for maltodextrin is (C6H10O5)n. It can be easily digested and being absorbed rapidly as glucose.

The ingredient that added to the potato chips mostly involving the sour taste. This is because the potato chips we observe is sour taste. Don't think junk food is just an unhealthy food, there are a lot of interesting ingredient being added to the food for different kind of flavour. Read more about the food label to determine the ingredients that contains in a certain type of the junk food.

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