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A few days ago, when I was driving to dance class and put on a podcast (The Beauty Brains, sadly discontinued) to keep me entertained, I learned that in case of radioactive fallout you should NOT condition your hair.

Uhm.

I admit that I don´t often think about what to do in case of a nuclear attack (actually kind of funny given that I love dystopean movies), but if I do, my beauty regimen does not have priority.

So why on earth would a government make this statement part of their official advice when even a Beauty Blogger hadn´t thought about it?

I guess because we, as ingredient crazy as we are, never really take into account what our products can actually do.

Of course I know that conditioner smoothes down the scales of my hair when applied, for more shine, a soft touch and less knots when brushing through. The fact that this means that any kind of particle sitting underneath these scales pre-smoothing is going to get trapped there, basically sealing radioactivity in, didn´t occur to me though.

And it is not only that, the oily components they contain (my current one, HASK Repairing Conditioner, lists argan oil and coconut oil), made to stick to your hair, act as a magnet for dirt and nuclear fallout and let it stay on even longer.

Now if you think about it that way, same is true for many of our skin and body care.

Body creams.

Face oils, a product that I use almost daily.

Primer, foundation, lipstick… Although I admit I would probably not reach for those when dealing with the aftermath of a nuclear attack.

Is it comforting to know that when facing a nuclear attack you are way more likely to die a quick death from the brutal force of the initial explosion than you are to die slowly from radioactive pollution?

Not really.

But at least I know now that, just in case, I should always have one of these foaming, stripping cleansers in my drawer. Just to make sure even the last bit of oil is gone from my face.