In the digital age, millennials thrive in many ancient and well-loved beauty secrets have been forgotten. Many young people have no idea how to care for themselves properly. A lot of teens have dry, brittle or damaged hair. Some just aren’t born blessed. And a staggering lot have premature wrinkles from sheer incompetence. It’s very sad to see someone who ism in reality, 17 but looks to be in their mid-to-late twenties because they appear to not understand the concept of deep-conditioning. Beauty-bloggers and beauty-gurus everywhere state the facts but it seems so many turns a blind eye to basic hygiene and personal care. It’s frightening.

For the hair health, so many forget or don’t bother to use a proper or DIY heat protectant. Teens crank their flat irons to 500 degrees and fry their hair into oblivion. They pay no mind to the numerous split ends and the irrevocable damage they cause to their hair. People yank their hair brushes from root to tip and rip tangles out by dragging the knots from the scalp to the shoulder.

Please stop that.

Keep heat styling tools on the lower setting and take a little more time styling your hair. Use heat protectant before styling and just gently detangle your hair at the ends and work your way up with your brush.

If you have oily hair, stop washing it every day. Your body has to work overtime to produce the oils and nutrients you strip from your hair when washing every day. Try brushing your hair more too. Spread the oils on your scalp throughout your entire mane before nuking it with detergent and sulfate filled commercial shampoos.

Next, let’s discuss the lack of hygiene involving skin care. People attribute their acne to poor diet and soda, but that can be incorrect. The usual reason for acne is genetics, trapped dirt and oil, or stress. Occasionally hormone changes or imbalances play a part as well, but typically acne is a result of not washing your face, moisturizing and exfoliating.

To help your acne and/or overall skin health, exfoliating is a great option. When you exfoliate, you rub off the dirt and dead skin that causes some acne. It can cause breakouts to erupt, but that would only be due to the changes your skin is undergoing. When you regularly exfoliate, your skin because clearer and can breathe much easier. When trapped by oils and dirt your skin can suffer.

Exfoliating should be just about every 2-3 days or once a week for more sensitive skin. Warning though, over-exfoliating can lead to skin damage, premature wrinkles and redness.

Yet another tip for all you lovely adolescents is to make sure your makeup is well blended. Don’t just swipe or rub your foundation and other cosmetics onto your skin. The swiping and dragging motions make your makeup blotchy, caked on and streaky all over. The act of dragging the makeup tugs your skin unnecessarily causing, yet again, more wrinkles. When you fail to blend your makeup out evenly it sits caked on and creases in your skin aging you prematurely.

Before applying your makeup, make sure your face is moisturized and primed, as this will help your foundation sink in smoothly. Take a beauty blender or brush and dampen it with warm water and use that to apply your makeup. If you’re in a pinch, your fingers will work just fine because they’re warm and will blend well.

Now that you’ve been given a few words of wisdom, please try applying these to your daily life. Don’t get caught with dead damaged hair and clown makeup that may scare even Bill Skarsgård.