The winter solstice is in two days and my hair is protesting by being static-y and my skin is parched. Let’s talk about my skin, my cat, The Sickness, and humidifiers.
So – about me: since I started using it a few years ago, argan oil hasn’t let me down. Four drops a night, historically, has been enough for my skin. As temperatures have plummeted and heaters have been on, though, my skin needs more. During the day on weekdays I’ve been cocktailing B-Hydra (came with my Come C About Me set) with C-Firma. On weekends, I’ve used a couple drops of argan in its place – but I was considering using a, “full dose,” of argan oil TWICE a day. That’s how dry my skin was getting – and yes, I’m staying hydrated!
As for my hair, winter means more blow-drying for me. I never blow dry without product (I’m finally nearing the end of my Paul Mitchell Super Skinny), so imagine my surprise when I ended up with staticky hair last Friday. I deep condition once a week so I didn’t think it was an issue – but this year, it evidently is!
Poor Little Cat
I’ve never understood how people could just not like cats. (Close friends who take time out of their day to read are probably laughing and shaking their heads, “Here we go…”) It literally does not compute in my brain the same way not liking ice cream or Cowboy Bebop don’t compute. So if you’re one of those people, sorry, but you’re going to suffer through a cat photo and a brief story.
This…
…is Taiga, and she is majestic but sensitive. Her stomach can get finicky if she eats too fast or if it is Tuesday or if Mercury is in retrograde. Unlike her sister but like me, her skin tends to get fussy and dry if humidity in our apartment isn’t up to snuff. Poor thing will scratch herself senseless trying to mollify her itchy, dry skin. It hurts my heart – after all, I can’t just slap some argan oil on her the way I can myself.
The Sickness
We were already wondering, “Will a humidifier to help her?” when The Sickness struck. We woke one morning with painful, dry throats and threw in the towel. My husband took to Amazon to find and order a highly-rated humidifier.
It soon arrived and we started feeling better with it on full tilt. After our conditions improved, we’ve kept it running on its lowest setting for the benefit of our finicky-skinned feline. Lo and behold…she’s doing better. Thank goodness. I can manage my own skin and hair with product, but I can’t do that for her.
The Aftermath
A month in, I’d say it does a good job of keeping our home comfortable. My hair still requires some TLC but not as much. My skin doesn’t need a full, extra dose of moisturizer (a little extra, but definitely less). The cat is definitely nowhere near as itchy and her self-inflicted scratches are healing.
Can I recommend the one we bought? Jury’s still out on that even though we’re all feeling better. We rushed into the purchase and didn’t give the process our usual level of research diligence because we were both miserable. It succeeded in giving us relief, but now faced with clarity, we would approach it with a bit more thoughtfulness first.
Making Informed Purchase Decisions
But how the hell do you evaluate humidifiers? I’m sure the majority of them manage to add humidity to the air of a space, so Amazon reviews probably aren’t the best place to start. Later, once my rationality returned, I found Reviews.com to have conducted a fairly exhaustive assessment across multiple price points, technologies, and feature levels.
They cover whether the devices:
- Can identify and maintain a set humidity level
- Ease of operation
- Ease of cleaning (so important – a dirty humidifier can have health implications!)
- Safety (for pets and little ones)
–and they even take critters into consideration!
The Bottom Line
In short, I’m glad:
- To be feeling better
- That my cute, striped cat is feeling better
- That my skin is not as dry and that I don’t have to go through product as quickly.
I’m disappointed that we didn’t do more research sooner to avoid making a rash decision. We very likely would have made a different purchase decision. For now, we’re happy with what we have but if it reaches the end of its wee little electronic life I’ll go back to that article and check it out.
Finding that led me down their rabbit hole, too – I also found that my favorite gel liner from Maybelline made Reviews.com’s Top 5 eyeliners.