Comments by Rob Hardwicke.

Dog handlers (let alone trainers, breeders, groomers, walkers and owners), whether they’re involved with the family dog or with working dogs, are willingly exposed to all kinds of extreme weather and rigorous working & show conditions in order to achieve the excellence they desire of themselves and their dogs. There are no shortcuts to competing and performing seriously and safely, only professionalism and perseverance.

The reason I’m blogging on this topic is because I’ve been encouraged to do so by dog professionals and pet owners who are totally pleased with the relief I’ve provided to them.  For instance, Dr. Carmen Battaglia, AKC director, internationally-recognized judge and noted author of books and articles on the subjects of dog behavior, breeding, training and showing is a fan and advocate of how the natural products that we formulate for hands and feet help him with his work.  The care he gives his dogs is world-class, but he also takes great care of himself, too (which is why he can do the long hours of standing without tired feet or the handling & grooming without hands that are wrecked).  Click here for specifics that are cruelty-free, vegan and totally non-greasy.

Happy hands = Better handling

If you are a handler, you already know and understand the challenges — and you know that it’s all worth it:

• Dog groomers have water-soaked hands with stressed, red irritated skin;

• Kennel techs wash hands all day to keep from spreading illness and bacteria;

• Professional dog walkers walk nonstop out-of-doors, click on & off 20 to 50 leashes per day, throw balls, grab collars and key into 10 to 20 houses twice daily. (Not to mention the picking up of serious quantities of dog droppings);

• Good owners of pet dogs will walk the dog twice a day come rain or shine — let alone after a really hard day at work;

• Search & rescue people practicing tracking and scent detection work out in nature for days. And then comes the “for real” work at a disaster site which may require weeks on end;

• Schutzhund handlers train out in the field tracking and doing obedience during rain, wind, snow and every imaginable condition — A LOT;

• Hunters with field labs and retrievers are almost always wet, cold, hot or tired;

• Herders who tend to cattle, sheep & goats with their dogs are about as weather beaten as a human can be. And herders who herd for a living camp continually;

• Dog show competitors travel extensively and end up holding training lines and leashes all day, which is tough on hands (and feet). Then there’s the carrying of heavy crates around airports and into and out of vans;

• Agility people run all over the course endlessly;

• Police dogs pull forcefully on lines during aggression work;

• And mushers suffer big-time in the cold (and heat), holding those lines and putting dogs into and out of harnesses and boots — over and over.

Bottom line: Dog handlers pay their own physical price for their devotion to their dogs. The hands and feet of dog people suffer unquestionably more than most. Relieving that suffering might even make the difference between second place and first, but I sure can’t guarantee that.   What I can guarantee is that hands and feet will be happier and in better shape by the end of the day — something we back up with our reputation and our money, no questions asked.

Dog handlers and breeders have become some of our most outspoken advocates. The feedback received frequently is that handlers with healthy hands & feet (read this as meaning no dry, chafed or cracked fingers & palms or soles & heels) are happier and more productive. Furthermore, the natural aromas that we use are subtle and don’t offend dog sensibilities (or those of their humans, for that matter).

For instance:

Dr. Battaglia puts it succinctly: “I recommend Awakening Hands because it works.”

For 14 years now, Awakening’s products have been finding wider and wider markets with dog (and horse) trainers simply by word-of-mouth. Laurie Page in Northern California has been one of those friends who tells friends: “Awakening is a schutzhund trainer’s delight.  You have sore feet?  You won’t after this.”

Whether you’re working a lead, mucking out a kennel or giving an ‘atta-dog’ heartfelt canine compliment (most often in the form of a biggggg hug), getting skin protection for yourself that stays focused on healing and hydrating isn’t a bad idea.  No greasiness or stickiness — and no “frou-frou” aromas. Healthy happy hands. Healthy happy feet.  Even happier handlers and trainers.  Just click here for more information.

Cruelty-free. Vegan. Totally natural minerals. Entirely slime-free. Concentrated & lasting.  And although my team and I almost for sure have a less physically demanding line of work than just about any dog handler — we, too, work hard to do what we do professionally and to do it right.

Comments by Rob Hardwicke, president and product master at Awakening Mineral Therapies

Healthy gardener's hands

When it comes to spending time outside, leisurely hours in the garden are like no other.  Whether in the cool, damp solitude at dawn or the warm, still moments at dusk in summer, feeling the rich earth in your hands stimulates not only the senses but also your soul.  With gardening season in full swing, I thought I’d pass along a few tips to guard you against some of the nuisances that tend to affect all of us gardeners from time to time.

Here are five tips we all can take to make our gardening healthier (in reverse order, of course):

5. Garden in moderation — Gardening can be good exercise, but be careful.

We all get excited during springtime for the warmer months ahead and the pleasures of the outdoors. Spending only 30 minutes of cultivating and weeding will burn up to 120 calories.  That same 30 minutes spent on spading, raking and more physical activity can burn nearly double that.  Crouching, kneeling and (we hope) standing back up again all can be beneficial to joints and the muscle fibers that hold those joints together.  Four hours of any of this, especially if you’re not accustomed to all that contorting, tugging and digging, can lead to sore backs, sore knees and sore hands.  Be sure you’re active enough to burn those calories yet not strain your back.

Tip: Breathe deeply; admire your work.  While admiring and harvesting flowers and vegetables may not burn a lot of calories, they are excellent ways to reduce stress.  Fresh air fills the lungs with new life as well as a sense of accomplishment.

4.  Protect yourself from bugs — itchy bumps are not the only risk

Bites from the little “winged vampire”, otherwise known as the mosquito, and other bugs can leave you more than an itchy bump.  With the West Nile virus gaining a stronger foothold each year (not to mention Lyme’s Disease from ticks), the onus is on the gardener to seek protection. While West Nile and Lyme’s Disease are comparatively rare, they are not to be trifled with.

Tip: Discourage those who would fly aware with your blood.  DEET is the most surefire method of protecting yourself.  DEET, developed in World War II by the US military, has been in commercial use since the introduction of the Ford Edsel (1958), and is used in most mosquito repellents, such as Cutter’s, Off! or the little bottle of Bug Juice from REI.  While it’s perfectly safe for adults, kids shouldn’t use it in concentrations over 30%, and everyone should wash it off once they’re done in the yard.  Avon’s Skin So Soft also is a classic.  One of my nephews suggests eating copious quantities of garlic (but he may be discouraging all social interaction in addition to mosquito bites).

3.  Beware of bacteria — and many fertilizers: Take precautions.

In addition to nurturing your prize tomatoes and turnips, fecund soil can grow tetanus-causing bacteria, too.  Take care not avoid problems with smaller critters such as parasites and bacteria.  Cuts on your skin allow parasites to take root in you and should be avoided (as though you were out seeking them, right!)?  And with pesticides of the chemical variety, keep the stuff away from your bare skin — and from your lungs.  Inhaling these substances will place it directly into your bloodstream and then throughout the body.

Tip(s):  a) If you haven’t had a tetanus shot in the past 10 years, it’s time for a booster, and b) keep your hands covered and wear long sleeves and long pants when messing with chemicals.  Better yet, try organic gardening — it will save money and you won’t have to use potentially harmful chemicals at all.  But regardless of whether you’re organic or chemical, always, always, always wash your hands when you’re done.  Sure, you don’t want to be dirty in the house, but more importantly, you want to guard against toxoplasmosis.  This is an infectious disease brought about by a parasite in contaminated soil, and can be a very serious problem if you have a weak immune system or a pregnant.

2.  Wear a hat — sun protection is serious business (even for nudists).

We’ve learned a lot about protecting the skin from uva and uvb radiation over the past 40 years, and there’s no excuse for you not to protect yourself.  Damaged skin becomes cracked, red, painful and dry, not to mention the long-term accelerated wrinkling process and potential for skin cancer.  If you’re planning to be out in the sun for more than 15 minutes, you need to have some type of skin protection.

Tip: Wearing a wide brimmed hat, long sleeves and pants certainly will protect you.  If it is a warm day and wearing long pants seems like a terrible idea, then a good cream with a sun protection factor (SPF) between 12 and 30 (the spf strength depending on the body part(s) you are protecting) is a good idea.  Reapply sunscreen every two hours or so to be well protected.  You don’t have to burn to get a tan.

and…

1. Take care of your hands — apply a naturally healing cream when you’re done (and before).

For the really grotty work, most people will choose to wear gloves.  But for the rest of the work (and for the rest of us), gloveless gardening is the choice.  And even with the nicest and richest of soil — say, the awesome black earth of California’s Salinas Valley made famous is the Grapes of Wrath — there still can be a great need to hydrate and restore the skin.  While it’s great to garden, it’s also great not to have hands that look like the backside of an armadillo and feel like a wood rasp.

Tip: Applying a therapy cream that’s both hydrating and healing to your hard-gardening hands doesn’t need to a sign of weakness!  If you’re a serious gardener, you need a serious hand therapy — one that’s isn’t sticky or slimy so you can still turn the doorknob; one with an aroma that won’t compete with your bouquet of gardenias or suggests to your neighbor that you just left a house of ill-repute; one that turns your nicks, scratches, rose pricks and other hard-earned injuries from the gardening wars into happy hands and happy skin (which usually leads to happy ’significant others’ when those hands reach out to them)!

As a friendly gesture from gardener to gardener: I’d like to offer you 10% off any of the natural mineral gardener’s hand therapy cream that we formulate here at Awakening.  It has received the Gardener’s How-To seal of approval, so you know that it’s been subjected to a thorough in-garden review!  It’s totally non-greasy, fresh scented, long-lasting and flat-out healing.  Shh, this offer is for gardener’s only!

Comments by Robert Hardwicke, President and Product Master of Awakening Skin Care.

©Oleg Chernovoltsev/Dreamstime.com

As I’ve never encountered a person living well (let alone living at all) without the benefit of the skin of a scalp upholstering their skull, my conclusion is that scalps are fundamentally essential equipment for us homo sapiens.   Yet how many of us ever hear of someone really paying attention to the health of their scalp?  Sure, the Cheyenne expressed their annoyance with European incursions into their neighborhoods by relieving the incurees of their skull skin.  In these instances, the importance of the scalp is yet again highlighted in simply another way: The Cheyenne “counted coup” with scalped scalps — the more, the better — items of substantial value.  [And this was even before Adam Smith propounded his economic treatis on the distinction between "value in exchange" (the Cheyenne approach) and "value in use" (what I am sure the former European owners would have considered the infinitely more important use)].    

This post addresses only scalps still in their original locations.  This post addresses why people should care about their scalps.  This post addresses what people can do to care for their scalps.  

But ’skin care’ almost never, ever is associated with ’scalp care’.  The antioxidants of this world that help skin so much, rarely find their way upstairs from the complexion.

But there’s much more than just emphasizing that scalps are a basic body accessory.

In several earlier posts, I’ve written about the life cycle of a hair follicle, what menopausal alopecia is and what it does, what makes for healthy, happy hair — and what doesn’t — along with other related topics.  ’Hair’ is always the center of attention when addressing the very top of the body.  The old saying is that “beauty is only skin deep” — well, so is hair (being skin deep, that is).  And the scalp is that skin.  No skin in the game; no hair on the head.

The healthier the scalp, the healthier the hair.  And even in the absence of any hair at all, the healthier the scalp can be, the better off life will be for the human living beneath it.

The hallmark of all of our Awakening products for skin health is what we call the Mineral Moisture Factor™.  At the core of this ‘Factor’ are the hydrating and healing elements of concentrated natural potassium and concentrated natural magnesium.  Our mission here at Awakening is to formulate natural, vegan, mineral-rich products that make peoples’ skin far more healthy —and to do so in ways that leave the skin feeling like silk (that is, neither greasy nor sticky).

Awakening SCALP is our patented product formulated specifically for the needs of the scalp as well as for the needs of the roots of the hairs.  We could call this product “Awakening ROOTS” or “Awakening FOLLICLES” just as appropriately as Awakening SCALP, but we haven’t.  Root awakening is a by-product of cleansing, hydrating and nourishing the pores and tissue of the scalp.

Dead Sea mud forms the foundation for SCALP’s efficacy, but our product is much more than just a mud masque.  We sought and achieved a scientific balance of mud minerals, essential oils and botanical extracts in a concoction carrying a pleasingly subtle aroma.  But as with any mud masque, the proper use of our product will involve some attention to detail to realize best results.  The following testimonial comment from one of our customers is fairly typical:  ”A pain in the #%%$. but absolutely worth the effort!” — V.M., Reno NV.  [While I'm not exactly sure what V.M. had in mind with "#%%$", I do note that it is a place with one less letter than "scalp", such as "feet" or "hand"].

And just why is our product considered by some as “a pain in the #%%$“?  Awakening SCALP looks like mud, feels like mud, doesn’t smell like mud, needs to be applied carefully to the scalp as opposed to the follicles themselves, must be allowed to dry, and lastly must be shampooed out.  This entire task need not take more than 10 minutes.  Allowing SCALP to dry for an excessive period of time (say, anything more than 30 minutes) can make it harder to rinse out — but even then, the end result is, as V.M. in Reno wrote, “absolutely worth the effort”.

We always like to encourage those who are not already familiar with Awakening’s products to give them ‘the old college try’ (probably a rugby term, but without all the bruising and bloodshed).   The bottom line: People who try Awakening products typically love them.  And that’s why we hand craft all of these remarkable formulations at our little lab — we do it so that people will discover a truly superb, natural, vegan source of skin care products with which to hydrate and heal.   Of course, our “guaranteed to delight, or your money back” policy makes the process even sweeter.

C

"...the lady on the left is my mother, who's 100 and an avid user of Awakening."

Comments by Rob Hardwicke, president and product master at Awakening Mineral Therapies.

All kidding aside about what the Financial Times did or did not know, FT.com, the Times’ web edition, came out just recently with an excellent article, “Dead Sea Brings Life to Skincare”, on the ascendancy of Dead Sea minerals in the world of natural skin care.  The article observed that new formulators recently have entered the market pioneered by Ahava nearly 20 years ago.  The industry newcomers include Butai Cosmetics (at the expensive luxury market end) and Yes to Carrots (at the mass market end).

There always has been a fairly extensive list of Dead Sea skin care manufacturers.  Some have done it right; some haven’t.  Some use the minerals in concentration (Ahava and Awakening); some prefer to use simply “Dead Sea water” (Yes to Carrots).  Some manufacturers use whatever olus (the medium that holds the overall formulation together — some call it the formulation’s glue) that will hold the products’ price points at the lowest possible level (while rather conveniently holding the products’ profit margins at the highest).   The cheapest olus typically is “mineral oil“, and I suspect that you, the reader, would be surprised (or more likely ‘aghast’) at how many very well-respected cosmetic and skin care brands use this stuff.

It seems that “mineral” anything is increasingly hot in today’s personal care market.  Well, almost.  While ‘mineral oil’ does indeed contain the word ‘mineral’, it is about as effective as pumping out your swimming pool with an eye-dropper when it comes to its healing efficacy.  ’Efficacy’ is a term often used in our industry to describe a product’s ‘health-giving’ properties; the greater the efficacy of a product, the more healing and health-giving it will be.  For a pneumonia patient, the efficacy of antibiotics is greater than the efficacy of being blend with leeches by a barber.  Baby oil makes an infant smell nice, but its efficacy for repairing irritated skin is low.  Our Awakening BODY&MASSAGE natural mineral lotion’s efficacy is high in that it addresses any irritation head-on (and also smells nice, thanks to the biblical wildflower, the Rose of Sharon).

The hallmark of our Awakening formulations derives from the success of our efforts ten years ago to isolate those Dead Sea minerals we feel convey the highest efficacy rating to every product we make.  In our industry, we aim to  allow minerals that are applied topically to end up doing good things for the dermis.  ’Topically’ means that the minerals are applied to the surface of the skin, and from there they transfer into the layers of the skin, the dermis.  While topical applications of minerals are just dandy for the dermis, they don’t do much at all for the body as a whole.  In other words, applying a potassium-rich cream to the skin is a lousy way for a person low in potassium to correct that deficiency.

On the other hand, a person who’s been placed on a low-potassium diet by their physician needn’t worry that a potassium-rich cream like Awakening will aggravate their blood pressure or heart condition.  The size of mineral molecules typically determines what gets absorbed through the skin (let alone throughout the body).  Mineral molecules naturally are big.  Efforts by a number of major, international formulators have focused on particles that are infinitesimal, the so-called ‘nano’ technologies.  But the web is loaded with blogs and sites that assert the dire consequences of micro-fine stuff mucking up the body’s inner workings.

Rather like Goldilocks determining which of the 3 bears’ porridges was ‘just right’ for her, we’ve spent time evaluating which forms of minerals are best-suited for you (or y’all, when I’m in Alabama) — or for me.  We call this general realm of skin care technology at Awakening our Mineral Hydration Factor.  Whatever we’ve done, it’s working because more and more folks are findin’, tryin’ — and then lovin’ — Awakening products.  They’re ‘just right’.

Old or young.  Male or female.  Big or small.  Carnivore or Vegan.  Awakening natural mineral skin care products are just right in that they hydrate & heal in effective and very pleasant ways.  And, what’s more, they are pro-active in terms of helping to maintain skin health into one’s future — what we call a skin health maintenance regimen.  Of course, 2-year old toddlers aren’t particularly concerned about anti-wrinkle, anti-aging and antioxidants, but the sooner that someone starts thinkingly taking care of skin health, the better they’ll be (and look) at 100 [the wrinkle-free image of the lady on the left in the photo above is my Mom, a centenarian who celebrated her 100th b.d. a few months ago.   Since we don't test on animals here at Awakening, we tend to test on our mothers, brothers and others — obviously with good results].

Mr. David Kaufman, the journalist for the Financial Times who wrote the very excellent article to which I refer in this blog posting, hit the nail on the head in commenting about the Dead Sea mineral sector of Israel’s cosmetics industry: “This may seem like an industry in its infancy compared to the dominant international players, but the sector’s sheer determination is impressive considering Israel’s tiny size and modest population.”  While Awakening is mostly what you’d call a California corporation, we do hand craft every single one of our products in small batches at our lab in Israel, and we, too, are both tiny and possessing of sheer determination to make the very best, natural, organic, vegan mineral skin care products on the planet.  And while David Kaufman missed referring to us in his article, we’ve become accustomed to being overlooked by the big guys in our 14 years of operations.  Just goes to show the power of word-of-mouth-chitchat when one or two people stumble across a true ‘find’ like Awakening and then tell others!

A note from Rob Hardwicke, President & Product Master of Awakening Skin Care Products

"I use a product normally that begins with 'K' and ends with 'ase'..."

It’s always awesome when someone likes what we do for the health of skin!  I’m not suggesting that LOTS of people don’t love the healing, non-greasy richness of Awakening’s mineral skin care products — they indeed do.  But it’s truly encouraging when a respected, widely read blog starts using terms like “so RICH and EMOLLIANT! … Not only did [my face] feel great, but when I looked in the mirror, my skin was glowing!” and “I just LOVE these products”.

These wonderful (to my own ears, certainly) comments of praise came from none other than Zipporah “Zippy” Sandler, the guru on all matters ‘living rich for less’.  Zippy’s blog, ChampagneLiving, emanates from the sun-blest realm of Port Saint Lucie, Florida, where “skin” and “sun” coexist in a state of very delicate  balance.  ”Sun” can be essential for the health of skin (think Vitamin D); it also can be the worst thing to happen (think excessive uva/uvb radiation and the dried prune-like skin that can result).  Sun damaged skin screams out the age of the bearer, and that “sun” age is more often than not a great deal older than the person’s actual chronological age in years.  Wasn’t it Marilyn Monroe who stated: “Age is a number.  Mine is unlisted“?!

Yes, Zippy Sandler loved every one of the Awakening products that she tried, applied and evaluated, but there were two of our products that really and truly struck her most discriminating fancy.  Those two were Awakening MUDFACE and Awakening FACE&NECK.  [We at Awakening name our products in simple ways for what they do or where they go.  For example, Awakening HANDS is for the hands, Awakening FEET is for the feet, Awakening FACE&NECK is for the face & neck ... you get the idea.  We don't leave much to the imagination.  But then there's Awakening MUDFACE, which, to no one's great surprise, is a mud masque for the face].

Well, Zippy ripped into a small amount of MUDFACE and was awestruck.  She proceeded to inform the readership of her blog: “I probably haven’t had a spa facial in a good lone time, so I decided that the first thing I’d try is MUDFACE.  Just so you know, I hadn’t used a mud mask since I was a teenager and had been afraid to use anything like this on my “aging” skin, but because the ingredients included things like aloe vera, chamomile, myrrh, zinc oxide and tea tree oil, I assumed that it wouldn’t be too harsh.  …after 5 minutes to dry I was rinsing it off.  Well, I felt like I had just had an anti-aging facial at the spa!  My skin felt wonderfully clean and baby soft.  You know, I live in Florida and have terribly sun-damaged skin (I grew up in the days when we’d lie out in the sun, drenched in baby oil & a little iodine to get a VERY dark tan), so this is MAJOR!”

Zippy’s words unquestionably resonated with a lot of sympathetic ears, since our entire North American supply of Awakening MUDFACE evaporated within days after her blog appeared, and even now, months after that posting, we’re STILL struggling to keep enough tubes of MUDFACE in stock to meet demand.

Then came ChampagneLiving’s first experience with Awakening FACE&NECK, our revolutionary mineral hydration and anti-aging cream for the neck and the face — and the crown jewell of our Awakening mineral skin care product line.

“Now, I need to tell you that I am LOYAL to my face creams and lotions, so it was VERY difficult for me to rip open the packet of FACE&NECK and put it on.  The ingredients seemed a little unusual — ivy, myrrh, grape seed oil & amino acids to shield against wrinkles and “turkey neck”, and it’s supposedly the only product in its category to use Yerba Mate (which I SWEAR I just saw them drinking on Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations” a few weeks ago).  I was cautious, to say the least.  OK, so this stuff felt really heavy and thick on my fingertips — but my-oh-my when I began to spread it over my skin, it was so RICH and EMMOLIANT!  Not only did it feel great, but when I looked in the mirror, my skin was glowing.  Did it reduce puffiness?  YES!  Do I look better?  YES!  Did it erase my wrinkles?  Well, I’m giving it more time…”

“Back at the computer, I went to the Awakening Skin Care site to check out their prices.  Most of their items were in the $10 - $20 range, with the exception of the anti-aging “FACE&NECK Mineral Anti-Wrinkle Cream” (but I use a product normally that begins with a “K” and ends with an “ase” at more than DOUBLE the price).”

And the above quotes excerpted from the ChampageLiving blog were only a portion of the kind comments made about Awakening.  To read the entire posting, just click here.

So just why is it that the Awakening products that Zippy loves so much do what they do?

The answer to this question can be a long story or a short story.  The long story would involve a lot of natural chemistry mumbo-jumbo — exciting stuff if you are into that sort of thing.  But the short story is the best one to describe here:  Awakening mineral skin care is so effective because of the way in which we handcraft each and every formulation batch at our small lab located in the vicinity of the spectacularly beautiful ancient port city of Caesarea, Israel.   What we do there is to isolate two natural minerals from out of the hyper-concentrated sea salts of the Dead Sea: Potassium is a topical hydrator that allows skin to maintain moisture within the dermis.  Magnesium is a topical anti-allergen that facilitates skin health. To this mineral base — the hallmark of every Awakening product we make — we then add organic essential oils and botanical extracts, such as the ingredients that Zippy raved about in MUDFACE and FACE&NECK.  And these natural oils and extracts serve to add another layer of ‘healing’ on top of the foundation laid by the minerals.

What’s more: Every Awakening product is vegan and cruelty-free.

So, the moral of this story is that you can indeed ‘live rich for less’.  You just need to know where to look, and that’s the sort of guidance that ChampagneLiving can provide time and time again for its readers.  And when it comes to keeping your skin as healthy as possible, the place I personally hope you will (always!) look is www.awakeningskincare.com!

A note from Rob Hardwicke, President and Product Master at Awakening Mineral Therapies.

Awakening for "Dark Knights" in Iraq

One of the nice things about making mineral skin care products that are designed for the rough & tumble of life is that they are suitable for just about everyone who has hands, feet — or simply skin — and that they’re easy to pack up and mail to people who really need them — such as our U.S. Army troops in Iraq.

The “Dark Knights” hailed from California, and since we’re a California corporation, we were sympathetic to a request from a group of kind-hearted citizens from the Carmel, CA area called the “Preservists” who wished to send a care package to Iraq to make life a little better for the Knights.  Included in that package were many tubes of Awakening HANDS and Awakening FEET — natural, ‘industrial strength’ healing power for totally abused hands and aching, boot-weary feet — serious skin care — very serious.  

Back from Iraq came this comment from Cpt. David V. Schulz, MIL USA FORSCOM:  ”We absolutely love these products — they give us a “pampered” feeling despite the harsh living and working conditions we are in.”

Sure, if you’re stuck in a desert environment half way around the world from your home, probably just about anything received at mail-call will make you feel better, but the Knights did us an even bigger favor.  They have provided one more data point to demonstrate that Awakening’s creams are not just another one of the mango-scented lotions or creams from the mall — creams whose main claim to fame is that they ‘protect’ the skin (and protection is what the Dark Knights understand, since their sole mission is to protect us and our freedom).  What soldier wants to be slipping around in his/her combat boots?  Or have blowing sand and dust cling to a slimy pair of mango-scented hands?

The reasons the Dark Knights liked our products are the same reasons why Dead Sea based Awakening skin care is the first choice of so many ranchers, nurses, horse riders, bikers, gardeners, dog trainers, teachers and artisans: Our concentrated natural minerals absorb into the skin, aren’t slimy, aren’t stinky and flat-out heal.

Elephant Pharm is gone.  This natural pharmacy will be missed in the San Francisco Bay Area.

We all try to take those extra steps to keep our bodies and skin healthy, and to do it naturally.  Sadly, one of the best, first prototype commercial efforts in America towards that natural goal passed from the scene on February 4th when Berkeley, CA-based Elephant Pharmacy decided to liquidate all of its operations under Chapter 7 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Rats!!

All of us at Awakening Skin Care are saddened by this loss.  We lost a retailer who was a strong advocate of the good that Awakening’s mineral skin care products lent to the health of skin, and Elephant Pharm’s customers lost a novel way to chat with credentialled health care consultants who bridged the divide between western and eastern medicines and practices; between chemical pharmaceuticals and natural, chemical-free alternative solutions.

Of course, the cause is not completely lost, since the Pharmaca chain of 23 stores is still waging the good fight.  Until Pharmaca can begin offering its own patrons the non-greasy healing goodness of our Awakening products — Awakening HANDS, Awakening FEET, Awakening SKIN, and Awakening BODY&MASSAGE — we welcome all who are interested in the natural health of their skin to visit us at https://www.awakeningskincare.com

I want to wish all of our former friends & advocates on the staffs of Elephant Pharm’s Berkeley, San Rafael, Walnut Creek and Los Altos stores every best future opportunity to keep working on behalf of better, more natural health for Americans.   — Rob Hardwicke, President & Product Master, Awakening Mineral Therapies for Healthy Skin

© Gruizza/Dreamstime.com

Comments by Rob Hardwicke, President & Product Master of Awakening Mineral Therapies

In this series of articles, I’ve been talking about Alopecia, which is the medical term for hair loss. In this post, I’d like to take a closer look at the issue of “androgenic alopecia” in women. And although menopausal hair loss, which falls into this category, is the type of hair loss that many our customers have struggled with, this is not problem that only comes with “middle age.” In fact, thinning can start as early as a woman’s teenage years. As I mention later in this post, the sooner treatment can be started to curb this thinning and loss, the better. And although hair loss during menopause is not the only kind of alopecia that women may encounter (or even the only kind of androgenic alopecia they may encounter), it is one type of women’s hair loss that Awakening’s products have had a dramatic, positive effect on.

If you are a woman going through menopause (or if you know someone who is), and you’re dealing with thinning hair as a result, it will be reassuring to know that other women in your situation have had great results using our Dead Sea Hair Loss Formula, called SCALP. I’ll be talking about how this product works in detail below. [Read more →]

Courtesy of Uh ... Bob

Hair Loss 101 with Rob Hardwicke, President and Product Master at Awakening Mineral Therapies

Hello all - This is the second article in a series I’m doing about Alopecia, which is the general medical term for hair loss. As I mentioned in the first article, your hair is a part of the skin organ, so the health of your hair is very much “intertwined” with the health of your skin. And as someone who has spent the last decade and a half helping people with skin problems, I realize that I haven’t talked as much about the issue of hair loss as I should. Especially since Awakening makes a Dead Sea Hair Loss formula! Over the years, I’ve gained some important insights into hair loss and other scalp conditions, and the articles in this series are my way of sharing these insights with you.

We at Awakening have made some very encouraging discoveries about the role of Dead Sea minerals in offering a new kind of alternative treatment for certain types of Alopecia, and I’ll be discussing those discoveries in a later article. I know that many of our female customers have been clamoring for more information about the benefits of using Dead Sea Mud products for menopausal hair loss, and I promise I’ll be going into detail about women’s hair loss in the next article in this series.

For this post, though, I’m going to talk about the different kinds of Alopecia commonly encountered. There are a lot of misconceptions about alopecia, and my sincere hope in this series is to dispel these misconceptions, and at the same time enable you to make informed decisions about how to approach your particular hair loss situation (and avoid the snake oil salesmen). [Read more →]

Photo courtesy of freeparking

Hair Loss 101 with Rob Hardwicke, President and Product Master at Awakening Mineral Therapies.

This blog is about hair loss in general; menopausal and stress-related hair loss with women in specific. Since many Awakening customers are women who have struggled with the issue of menopausal hair loss, and who are seeking alternative hair loss treatments, I thought it was time that we addressed this issue on the Awakening blog.

We haven’t focused on this issue as much as we should, since the hair and skin are 100% interconnected (and since we actually make a Dead Sea hair loss formula!). In fact, most people don’t even realize that hair is part of the skin organ, meaning that the growth and health of your hair are regulated by the same cells and general functions as your skin. Believe it or not, hair loss is technically a skin condition.

So today I’ll begin this series of articles by introducing the concept of Alopecia, which is the medical term for hair loss. Alopecia does not refer to a particular “hair loss disease.” Rather, any form of hair loss is referred to using the term Alopecia. I should mention right off the bat, however, that hair loss - even what seems like a lot of hair loss - is usually completely normal. At any time, as much as 20% of the hair on your head is either approaching or at the point of falling out, so please don’t jump to conclusions before getting a medical opinion! [Read more →]