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Relaxing your hair straightens your curls. Hair relaxing uses a chemical process that does the opposite of perming. To limit the damage done to your hair, it is best to relax your entire head of...
If you are up for the challenge, here is a general tutorial on how to make cold process soap.
Choosing the best relaxer for black hair is the same as choosing a relaxer for any other type of hair. Hair type does generally differ between racial groups, but generalities should not be applied...
Making fake gold coins from nickels is a fun project. With a few simple steps, you can change a lowly nickel into shiny gold coin. You can fool a person for a moment, until that person realizes...
Olive oil serves as natural, non-toxic, alternative hair relaxer. It can protect and repair damage. Unlike commercial products, olive oil does not interfere with the chemical structure of the...
The demise of Red Devil Lye a few years back left home soap-makers scrambling for a key ingredient. Otherwise known by its chemical name, sodium hydroxide, lye is an essential component of...
Potassium (K) is a chemical element with the atomic number 19. Pure potassium is a white metal that is very soft and burns in water. It has few uses in elemental form since it's so reactive with...
Ringworm is a very common skin fungus. It is usually harmless. However, it can be a pain to get rid of and unsightly to look at. It can be treated with some types of household bleach for those...
Sodium, the eleventh element in the periodic table, is best known for exploding with water. This element has much to offer students not only of science but also of history. A little research will...
Beryllium is too reactive to be found in elemental form but is an important part of about 100 minerals, with beryl (Al2Be3Si6O18) and bertrandite (Be4Si2O7(OH)2) being the most commercially...
Aluminum is common in the Earth's crust but rare in its free form. Aluminum is difficult to extract because its primary ore, aluminum oxide (Al2O3), is so stable. The following steps will explain...
Carnival Glass was offered as a prize at fairs and "carnivals." It is an inexpensive glass with vivid carnival type colors of orange, gold and purple iridescence made in the United States...
Soap making is a great hobby. It can also be a wonderful business. Becoming a soapmaker is not terribly difficult. Once you have a few basic skills and knowledge, you will be a soapmaker. It may...
If your yard is plagues by Japanese beetles try this effective spray. It doesn't damage trees or shrubs.
Ringworm is a fungal infection of the body or scalp that is caused by coming into close contact with pets, rodents or nature. Although uncomfortable and itchy, ringworm is usually not serious....
Glow sticks and glow rings have become very popular, however, many people never consider actually making their own glow sticks or rings. With a little ingenuity and an afternoon to spare, you can...
Soap is produced by combining fats or oils with sodium hydroxide, also called lye. The soap maker adds fragrances, essential oils and other ingredients to the lye substance according to the...
When making soap, equalizing the temperature of the sodium hydroxide, or lye, and water to match the temperature of the oils is an important step. You must be very careful when working with lye....
Copper sulphate is useful as an algaecide in swimming pools and as a source of copper in animal feed. It's a simple process to make copper sulphate, but it involves potentially dangerous...
If you've got a bit of sawdust lying around, you can transform it into paper. Try making a single sheet first. Once you're familiar with the process, you may wish to make a larger batch. Making...
If you have curly hair and want to perm it straight, there are plenty of home kits you can use to do this yourself. Following the directions is crucial for the health of your hair. You can then...
Used cooking oil can be used as a component in a biodiesel mix in cars with a diesel engine. The terms waste vegetable oil (WVO) or used vegetable oil (UVO) are used interchangeably and refer to...
Lime mortar is a substance used to bind together brick or stone. It can also be used to fill gaps in masonry. Lime mortar has been used since earliest times and variations are known from all over...
Stearic acid is a long straight chained hydrocarbon--fatty acid--with a carboxyl group on one end and a methyl group on the other end. The chain length varies from three to 24 carbon atoms. It is...
The hair shaft is composed of several levels of structure. Within the original twisted protein strands, the protein is held together by chemical bonds that are called disulfide bonds. These bonds...
Looking at the ingredient list in a cosmetic preparation can be daunting. However, when you examine each ingredient in context, you can see that each chemical has a purpose. The ingredients in...
A NiCad battery is also known as a nickel-cadmium battery. They utilize a nickel oxy-hydroxide anode and a cadmium cathode flattened together and rolled into a spiral cylinder. Between the cathode...
The alkaline battery can take the square or cylindrical form that we all know so well. The contents are contained safely within a steel casing. The cathode, which is the negative part of the...
Rust is what commonly occurs when iron or steel is left out in the open in the presence of water or lots of moisture in the air. An electrochemical reaction occurs called oxidation, in which...
So you've made a few batches or 100 batches of handmade lye soap, this technique is for those who have some soapmaking experience and want to try something different. It is quick, easy, makes a...
Goat milk makes soap creamy and moisturizing. It actually dissolves the glue that sticks dead skin cells to your skin. So use will soften skin and help relieve eczema and psoriasis. I have found...
In chemistry, a substance that can accept a proton is commonly thought of as a base. By accepting protons, proton acceptors are essentially able to remove a hydrogen ion from solution, which is...
Choosing the best at-home hair relaxer for white hair is no different than choosing a relaxer for any other type of hair. Hair relaxers are marketed mostly to people of African descent because...
Hair relaxers are chemical compounds that are used to straighten naturally curly hair of any texture or color. The use of hair relaxers is popular because it is the only permanent method of...
With the trend of green living becoming increasingly popular, people are looking for new ways to take the green living lifestyle and apply it in their own homes. One of the newest trends in green...
Hair relaxers work to straighten hair thanks to two very powerful chemicals: sodium hydroxide and guanidine hydroxide. Sodium hydroxide is also called a "lye" relaxer due to the very high pH...
Hot and cold process soap making involves mixing of oils and fats with lye solution at specific temperatures. The so called hot process method incorporates heating during the reaction. The cold...
Sodium hydroxide (or lye) and water is a powerful paint stripper originally used to remove lead paints. This at home solution is just as strong as anything you could buy at the store and just as...
Glycerin is widely used in cosmetics because it is known to attract moisture to the skin. It has skin soothing and softening properties. According to pioneerthinking.com, clear soaps contain 15...
The battery works by creating the movement of charged particles, which is usually just called electric current. This is created by the electrochemical reactions between two electrodes, the cathode...
Hydrogen in its pure form is highly combustible; it rarely exists alone in nature. It can be retrieved by extracting it from the many molecules in which it exists. An easy way to extract and...
Alkaline batteries, the most common type of household battery over the past several decades, not to be confused with rechargeable types such as nickel cadmium batteries, are so named for the...
In order to understand how Nicad battery chargers work, it's important to understand how the batteries lose their charge in the first place. Nicads, like other kinds of batteries, work by...
It is important to know that a pH buffer is a substance that resists a change in pH when small amounts of an acid or a base are added to it. In other words, it can make an acid less acidic and a...
Chemicals have the ability to permanently change the wave pattern and color of the hair. If used improperly, chemicals can break hair, leaving it fragile and limp. The most common chemicals that...
Magnesium oxide is a naturally occurring mineral, and is also known as periclase. Periclase, which is solid and white, is a common source of magnesium. It has an extremely high melting point, and...
Biodiesel is a biofuel that can be made at home, even from used cooking oil. It's made to run on a diesel engine with no engine modification and is environmentally friendly.
There are many benefits to biodiesel fuel. Because it uses organic elements and burns clean, its impact on the environment is less than traditional fuels. Biodiesel can also be produced at home...
Many homeowners are interested in ways to use alternative fuels to heat their homes. Biodiesel, made entirely from organic products, is a great choice. It can be used in any diesel furnace and can...
Biodiesel fuel can power any engine that runs on diesel fuel, including vehicles, generators and furnaces. E85, or ethanol, is an ester alcohol that can be manufactured at home. Many prefer to use...