I agree almost 100% with Sshrivastava!! Many of us (me included) use hair conditioner everyday! I seriously could not get a comb thru my thin, delciate and heavily processed hair, if I did not alternate with cream rinses, conditioners and gooey protein packs!! Some being animal fat based, some being plant based! When I had my last Miele W & D set installed, I spoke a lot with the Miele tech about what products I use. He of course liked that I mainly use Persil, but said my German Ariel Powder was equally as good. He said the machines have been HEAVILY tested with both powder and liquid detergents, and BOTH are 100% fine (although some cycles require liquid detergent...comforters, express, denim...). In regards to liquid fabric softener, he said not only is it fine, Miele actually recommends it!! Liquid Fabric softener, as Sshrivastava said, makes our clothes softer, more manageable and really does help the fibers lay better, and reduces wear and tear on our clothes. The Miele tech said, that as long as you rinse the fabric softener dispenser and siphon valve with HOT water when done with the machine...there is NO worry about buildup in the drum, lines, seals or hoses. He said, that just does NOT happen. Build up, mold, mildew due to fabric softener occurs when people do not keep the soap tray clean and do not leave the main door to the washer open to breathe and dry out!!! In regards to "natural" plant based detergents and softeners...Miele DOES NOT recommended them at all. The tech said the "natural" products, especially being plant based actually do gum up the machines. When using warmer temps, especially Extra White and Sanitize...the plant based detergents and softeners change on the molecular level, and become somewhat sticky! Miele says no to plant based products, and especially NO to dryer sheets (plant based or conventional). Miele recommends Persil Powder or Persil Liquid (gel), Miele Care Collection, Tide he Powder, Tide he Liquid, and many other German detergents.

To repeat some of what I've said earlier in multiple posts, I've taken a multi-faceted approach: sunlight therapy light for 30 minutes each morning during the shorter winter months making sure to eat healthily, esp. lots of legumes exercise (which for me also includes social partner dancing...not only provides exercise but physical interaction and music!) bamboo sheets have greatly helped with night sweats. I sleep much better. join a menopause support group or else start your own such Meetup group (I did, in NYC!) I take Rainbow Light Menopause One make it a point to be social....to get out of the house and be around other people. Go for walks...be around nature. If you are a night owl (like me), try your best to change your schedule little by little. Waking up earlier and going to bed earlier means you will have more waking hours in the natural light, and fewer waking hours in the dark, which in turn helps with serotonin levels and mood. Talk to a shrink if you are depressed and/or try to engage in cognitive therapy on your own. Be aware of how you are able to somewhat impact your own mood. For e.g., I noticed a pattern, whereby I was constantly assessing my mood multiple times per day. 'Am I feeling depressed right now?....Yup, I am. I am indeed feeling down...just like I was earlier today...just like I was yesterday. Ugh.' I realized that in doing that, I was then creating a sub-conscious 'reality' for myself, that if I am feeling down today, and I felt 'down' yesterday, and the day before that, that it stands to reason that tomorrow, and the next day, will also be the same. And how on earth can I expect to be in a good mood, if I believe this to be my reality, for the foreseeable future? Talk about creating a sense of doom for oneself. ;-) So.... I realized that this thought pattern I was exhibiting was not serving me one iota. Of course, we all know the expression of 'living in the moment'. I decided to purposefully try this at every moment of every day. 'Oh, doesn't this cup of coffee taste so good?.... this is so great that I just finished this work spreadsheet on my computer...I can now cross this off my to-do list.... this is great... Oh, this is a great song I'm listening to ...this salad I'm eating tastes so fresh!.... don't my two cats look so cute sleeping together..." And so on. By doing this, at the end of each day I found that I was able to look back and think 'you know...today wasn't that bad actually...'. And if I practiced living in the moment the next day as well, I could say 'this is great...today was pretty good...yesterday was pretty good...'. So that in turn helped to create my own new reality, which then helped me believe that the days ahead would also be pretty good! ;-) (If I assumed the days ahead would not be so good, they usually were not so good. But if I took on a more positive outlook, that my days ahead would be good, or 'pretty good', indeed, they usually were. While we can't control our emotions or mood entirely, much of it IS about perspective, and recognizing the ways we self-sabotage. And on that note....do not believe for one minute that 'older women are regarded with little worth' (as someone else here said). I am so utterly tired of women (and most often, it's American women) making this complaint. If you believe it, so it will be. No one wants to be around an older woman who is down in the dumps about her age. You could take two older women who look the exact same age more or less, and who have a similar appearance. One woman is confident, takes pride in her appearance, dresses attractively, does not feel her age is in and of itself a detriment; she is engaging, curious, outgoing. The other woman goes around believing that now that she's X-years of age, she's washed-up, and that society and men will 'ignore her'. She doesn't bother trying to dress nice, because she figures 'why bother'. Which woman do you think society is going to respond to more favorably. Which woman will more men find attractive? ;-)

After a certain number of tinted sealer applications, there is going to be a buildup of pigmentation. While on one hand this buildup can offer more protection, there is a point of diminishing return. In this case the buildup is causing aesthic issues for you. One way to avoid this is to use a cleaner that will remove a small portion of the finish/pigmentation each time you reapply your sealer. This is what we do on decks that we maintain by using our RAD cleaning system. Products that contain linseed oil or alkyds (such as ATO) are more susceptible to this type of buildup. There are two solutions. One is to apply a full bore stripper and start fresh. This is probably the path I would take. The other is to use something that will partially remove the finish and each successive coat you apply you dilute the pigmentation by using a clear (eg if first coat was 5 gallons of mahogany flame, the second coat could be 3 gallons of MF and two gallons of clear mixed together) At some point the deck will need to be stripped if you are using a finish that cures. The key is to lengthen the time betwen complete strips. John, ATO has also been reformulated often and the most current has had issues with massive color shift. On my last application of ATO to my mahogany rails and spindles I first did a thorough cleaning removing about 80% of the product. The initial application of the ATO looked okay but withing a couple of months began to turn very dark. I have since recommended people seek other products until Cabot's figures out what is worng with their current formula. One issue with Cabot's ATO is that it is very hard to remove once it is built up. You are going to need a heavy duty stripper and a PW'er. On one deck we restored recently our contractor grade stipper (very potent) still took tow applications to get down to bare wood. Cabot's makes a stripper but it is very pricey at $25 per gallon. Email me if you'd like and I can get you a 2 lb jar of the stripper we use. Your price per gallon would be about $8 at full strength and should do the job for you.

I think, like so many things in life, what will work well for one person is a disaster for someone else I have very fine, thin, frizzy hair. Back when I tried Wen, I was also exercising hard every day - and I sweat like a pig. :-) Wen was a fiasco in my hair. First of all, I second the comment above about it never feeling clean. My scalp sweats, and the Wen just never seemed to get the sweat off the way regular products do. My scalp itched like crazy. What made me finally give it up though was that my hair got progressively more limp and yet more frizzy with each passing day. I hung in there for a while and tried everything I could think of - more product, less product, leaving it on longer, rinsing it off quickly. Didn't matter, Wen and my hair were not meant to be. I was turning into Roseann Roseannadanna on the stuff. Wasn't the look I was after. Glad people out there like it, but it never worked for me. I understand how it may clog pores or whatnot, the stuff felt heavy to me in my hair - which is maybe why my fine, limp hair just kept getting more and more limp, all the while fanning out like a peacock strutting its stuff.