Post Holi tips: Five easy steps to pamper your skin, hair

The fun and frolic of Holi is undeniable when you sink into the cheerfulness with all the colours under the comforting warmth of sun. But, after spending the entire day outdoors with lots of colours, water, & sun - comes the time for a heart-warming after party!

Ms Gunjan Gaur, Permanent Makeup Expert and Executive Director of ALPS Beauty Clinics, shares some gentle after-Holi-care tips; so that you become the limelight of your Holi bash.

Start-it-well: Just after playing colours, you can soothe your face with this multi-benefit pack. Mash the pulp of a cucumber and mix it with papaya, gram-flour and few drops of olive oil. Apply it liberally all over you face and wash off to reveal brighter & younger looking face. The cucumber will soothe your skin and papaya due to its papain content, will help make it brighter. While, the cleaning part will be perfectly implemented by gram flour, the added olive oil will nourish and heal the rashes caused during your play.

Body wise: Before taking bath, try removing dry colours (gulal) with a cotton cloth or dry palms. After this, go for a soothing bath using a loofah and a clarifying body-wash. Avoid regular soaps to wash off colours because, soap being an alkaline agent, will make your skin itch. Scrub your body to clear off the colours and dirt, to bounce back to fair and glowing skin. But be sure to not rub the skin vigorously as it can cause rashes over your skin. Rub a piece of papaya especially on coloured areas of the face and body to reveal a colourless skin.

Tress perfect: Cleaning your mane after Holi is a huge task. Recommended is to take a head wash with plain water and allow the colours to go off on their own before you use a shampoo. Then, use a clarifying protein-based shampoo (twice or as required); followed by conditioning with a nourishing conditioner. To make your hair do away with the Holi blues, try this ultra-nourishing home remedy.

For this, prepare a very smooth paste by adding ripe banana, avocado pulp, honey and mayonnaise. Apply this mixture on your scalp and hair for 30 – 45 minutes and wash off to get smoother tresses.

Superb scrub: For scrubbing the colours off with a homemade scrub, you can create this effective mix. Take 1 tbsp gram flour, 2 tbsp bran, 1 tbsp sandalwood powder, 1 tbsp rice flour, 1 tbsp fresh cream, 1 tbsp olive oil and 2 tbsp orange juice along with some poppy seeds and a little turmeric powder. This moisturizing and exfoliating pack will not only help you scrub off all your Holi colours, but will also impart a lush glow on your skin.

Don’t go overboard: If you feel any irritation on your skin during the process of taking the colors off, analyze the product which is causing it and stop using it. There are several sparkling colours available nowadays that may contain glass crystals which can be utterly harmful for skin, so avoid such colors.

Incase, you happen to encounter with such colors, rush to your nearest doctor on immediate basis. Moreover, one should also not use kerosene, petrol or spirits to remove the color stains over the skin as it can cause severe side-effects.

Apart from this, if you swallowed some colours by chance and got stains in teeth, try applying a paste of lemon juice and fine salt over your teeth to help remove the stains and flash a radiant smile at your party.