planet goth... haunted house
the bathroom
The Goth Look
Pale and interesting, elaborate and favourite colour – black. That’s the goth look, and whether you’re a goth fashion tourist or a real dyed-in-the-wool committed 100% gothic GOTH, the bathroom is a place where you’ll be spending lots of time…..
what happens to hair when it is repeatedly dyed?
The pigment melanin that makes us go brown in the sun is also responsible for all the different shades of hair. Naturally dark hair contains a lot of densely packed melanin whereas very blonde hair contains very little.
Permanent hair dyes work by removing all the melanin using bleach like hydrogen peroxide and then the desired coloured dye to replace the melanin.
Semi-permanent dyes just coat the hair with the desired coloured dye so your natural shade remains beneath it.
Permanent hair dye can cause your hair to become dry and brittle – repeated dyings make things worse. Semi-permanent dye normally doesn’t have this effect and actually can be quite conditioning. However, dying your hair is never going to damage the hair that hasn’t grown yet, so don’t worry even if you make a huge mess of dying your own hair – it will always grow back.
If you want to dye your hair, the safest option would be to go and talk to an experienced hairdresser before you try anything.
piercing - what are you really doing to yourself?
The tissue ‘damage’ which occurs in piercing is a bit like a cut and the body treats it as such. Cells are grown around the foreign object, and sometimes the body tries to expel it by pushing it out; this is quite common with eyebrow piercings. And is not a pretty sight!
Providing you have your body piercing done by a reputable piercer and you follow the after-care instructions carefully, there should be no real danger. The most common problem is infection. To minimise the risk of this you should chose your piercer carefully. Check if they’re approved by the Association of Professional Piercers and if not follow their guidelines for choosing a piercer.
why is it good to stay out of the Sun - do older goths look young?
Although it’s not to everyone’s taste, maintaining pale skin can actually be beneficial to your health. The sun gives off ultraviolet (UV) light, as well as visible light, and this can damage your skin, which you will probably know if you have ever been sunburnt. Also UV light can damage the genetic material (DNA) inside our cells, and if enough damage accumulates it can cause skin cancer.
The body protects itself from UV light by producing melanin, which absorbs the UV and prevents it from causing damage. Exposing skin to sunlight triggers the melanin cells in our skin to produce more melanin, giving us a suntan. You’ll have noticed the longer you stay in the sun the darker your tan gets, this is because it takes a while for your cells to start producing melanin – although some of us with dark skins produce high levels of melanin all year round.
Staying out of the sun can help in the prevention of skin cancer, but if you want to enjoy going out in the sun and keep your skin pale at the same time, all you need to do is apply a high factor sun cream.
It is impossible to say whether older Goths look younger as although the sun can cause premature aging of the skin it’s not the only factor that causes aging. Pollution, diet, lifestyle and genetics all play their part too. But it’s important to remember that we all do need a certain amount of sunlight for both our physical and emotional health.
enhancements
Beauty enhancement by means such as liposuction, Botox injections, tummy tucks and breast implants are some of the lengths women will now go to improve their appearance. In each case there’s a considerable risk involved. But a woman putting her health at risk for the sake of her appearance is not a new phenomenon…
In the 1920s it became fashionable to have a suntan, but before that, women desired as pale a face as possible, so they applied an early form of whitening foundation to their faces. Up until the 19th century, the whitening foundation consisted of a deadly cocktail of carbonate, hydroxide, and lead oxide. With each application, the toxins built up in the body and were responsible for problems such as muscle paralysis or even death….
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