10 things parents should know about raising teens — by an expert
It can feel like time to worry, as if we are doing something, but we're better off staying steady. Calm parent, calmer teen.
I've been writing about mental health since 2014, when my memoir about my own anxiety and depression, Black Rainbow, was published. I became an ambassador for Sane and Rethink Mental Illness, which put me in touch with experts as well as parents struggling with troubled teenagers.
This led to a five-year journey in which I
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The Sun
28 minutes ago
- The Sun
The everyday hairstyle making Brits go bald & the easy trick to solve it, according to a hairdresser
A HAIR expert has revealed that brushing wet hair may cause more permanent damage to hair follicles than many people realise - and can lead to you going bald. Dr Roshan Vara, from Treatment Rooms London, said this common post-shower habit weakens hair structure at a molecular level, potentially leading to increased breakage and thinning over time. 3 They shared: "Wet hair has a lot of physical differences to hair when it's dry and that can affect its ability to handle stress from brushing. 'Water affects the hair shaft, and as a result, it experiences stretches in the cuticle because of swelling and that leads to breakage due to the strain.' Hair researchers have found that wet hair can stretch more than dry hair before breaking, but this apparent elasticity is misleading. Dr Roshan explained: "Wet hair causes stretching which damages the protein structure, leading to weaker hair over time.' So how do you combat this? SAFE SOLUTION Wide-tooth combs should be used instead of brushes, for wet hair, according to the hair transplant expert. Dr Roshan continued: "If you haven't brushed your hair before you wet it, don't use a standard brush, use a wide-tooth comb and start from the ends and work your way up. 'Never start brushing from the roots when hair is wet - you must avoid doing this to prevent damage.' According to Dr Roshan, styling techniques that combine wetness and heat exacerbate the damage. They added: "Using a hairdryer on soaking wet hair is particularly damaging, even if many may do that without even thinking. My hair's so thin you can see my scalp but miracle £8 buy fixes it in seconds 'The speed of which water is removed from the hair shaft can cause essentially a rupturing effect which pushes out the cuticle and leads to hair falling out as it isn't as strong as it needs to be." The protection of the hair cuticle continues its decline as a result of aggressive brushing on wet hair. Fine hair and chemically treated hair – whether coloured, permed or relaxed – are especially susceptible to wet brushing damage because their protein structure is already altered. TINA Farey, Editorial director at Rush Hair, shares her advice… HOW TO RESTORE DAMAGED HAIR Whilst you can't fully reserve the effects of damaged hair, you can stop the problem from growing. Depending on the condition of your hair, I'd recommend getting a trim every six to eight weeks - this will prevent any split ends from travelling further up the hair shaft, which weakens the hair's overall structure and leads to more breakage. Even just an inch of the ends will completely transform the appearance of your hair – trust me. When it comes to products to help restore damaged hair, Goldwell's Rich Repair Treatment Mask is a firm favourite – strengthening damaged locks to be healthy and shiny once again. HOW TO PREVENT DAMAGE My number one tip is to always use a heat protectant – even if you're only blow-drying your hair. Consistent heat styling without one will leave your hair open to heat damage. I'd also recommend refraining from over-washing your hair as this can strip the hair of its natural oils – nobody wants a dry and irritated scalp! And finally, swap your sleek, slick back for a hair down day! They may be in fashion at the moment, but over time all that tension on your strands from being pulled will wreak havoc on your hair follicles – this could lead to thinning and bald spots in areas where the hair is constantly pulled.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
I'm a 29-year-old who spends £600 a month (including £375 on gym memberships) to look this ripped
As a 29-year-old woman, you'd think my biggest outgoings would be clothes, nights out, beauty treatments and my Octopus Energy bill. But those cost a snip compared to the £375.97 I spend on gym memberships each month. I don't get blow-dries or Botox (yet) and I rarely go clubbing. I'm more concerned about looking ripped while maintaining a healthy mind space, and I'm willing to spend a hefty chunk of my salary each year to get it.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Forest Green tickets on prescription to improve patients' mental health
Dale Vince, the green energy entrepreneur and owner of Forest Green Rovers, has been mixing football and social causes for years. And so it's perhaps not surprising that he is one of the partners in an initiative where GPs can prescribe a day out watching his National League team as an alternative to antidepressants. 'Our country's facing a difficult time,' Vince says. 'We've got extreme poverty at one end and extreme wealth at the other end, and football is the thing that binds us, it's the thing that brings us together every week with a common purpose and a common cause. Modern life has stripped a lot from us as people and led to a mental health crisis. Football could help put that right.' The initiative, called Football on Prescription, was developed with Simon Opher, the doctor and Stroud MP, and will give eligible patients a card which they can take to the New Lawn Stadium to claim their free ticket. Vince and Opher formed a relationship last summer when Vince door-knocked for Opher during the general election. The pair spoke about the idea while watching football together themselves. The initiative will be ready for the new season, with Forest Green's first home game of the campaign against Yeovil on 16 August. 'Our people know how to make ticketing work and so we just came up with a simple card that we gave to GPs that they're then able to give, in effect, as a prescription to anybody they think could benefit from it,' Vince says. 'It has got all the information the patient might need. It's got the information the GP needs. And the same for the club.' The initiative is a form of social prescribing where non-medical methods are used to improve people's mental health and wellbeing. The concept dates back to the 1920s in the UK, gaining more traction in the 1990s. It is an approach Opher pioneered in Gloucestershire as a GP. Opher, who is the chair of the all-party parliamentary health group, first introduced social prescribing to his practice in 2001 where he started running art sessions at his surgery in Dursley. 'We've got some really quite good scientific evidence now that [social prescribing] improves mental health and reduces social isolation,' he says. 'If someone comes in with some stress – maybe their partner's left or they've lost a very close relative – you know that they are a bit down in the dumps but they don't necessarily need medication, and one of the issues in this country is 8.7 million people in England alone are on antidepressant medication and some people could actually get better with other activities. Social prescribing is a way of providing that.' Forest Green finished third in the National League last season, their first after being relegated back there from League One. Both Vince and Opher hope the initiative can be extended to more lower-league clubs around the country. 'Unless you're in the Premier League and maybe Championship, most football clubs aren't selling out every week. So it's not like you're giving away the chance to sell a ticket,' says Vince. 'You're just giving away an empty seat to somebody in need.' Opher is wary, however, of extending it to clubs in higher leagues. 'If a ticket costs £160 and you're giving it out for free, you may actually increase people's attendance at the doctor just to get a free ticket,' he says. 'So we have to be a little bit more careful perhaps with Premier League clubs. But certainly we'd like to see more smaller clubs take up this idea if it works and is effective for people's mental health.'
