THAI SECRETS TO HEALTH AND BEAUTY -- THE NATURAL WAY

Thai culture boasts a herbal health and beauty tradition that reaches back for centuries, woven into of the country’s roots as an agricultural society that lived and thrived close to nature. Generations of Thai women have been plucking nature’s beauty ingredients from their own backyards using traditional beauty recipes that date back to ancient times. The natural botanical extracts that are so popular in department store shampoos and soaps today stem from ingredients used in the folk remedies used by their mothers and grandmothers.

In olden times, people who lived on the land knew which plants, flowers and fruits had real curative properties. In Thai folk culture, there are certain legends and lore concerning Thai herbs and their beautifying properties. One intriguing example is a herbal concoction called Luuk Blak Mae, or ‘daughter and mother’, a youth-enhancing potion that’s said to make a mother look as young as her daughter! Legend has it that a mother who once ate the leaves of its ingredients immediately had fresher, younger skin.

While the esoteric formulas and techniques were the secret realm of traditional medicine healers, there was general level of herbal knowledge that was known to all local folk and practiced in daily life. Thus generations of Thais have long known that certain herbs, roots and flowers have specific abilities to rejuvenate the body and nourish the skin and hair. The double benefit of Thai herbal products is that herbs used in Thai beauty treatments can nourish the body both inside and out – for example, some the same herbs used in typical Thai beauty treatments are those used in everyday cooking in soups and curries, such as lemongrass, kaffir lime, galangal and turmeric. This elevates ordinary Thai food to the level of health cuisine!

Some of nature’s most effective health and beauty remedies might already be in one’s refrigerator, or are easily found at the supermarket, such as the herbal helpers mentioned below.

THAI HERBS

Turmeric
This rhizome is member of the ginger family is easily recognized by its bright orange-coloured flesh and is a common ingredient in Thai and Indian curries. With its powerful curative properties, turmeric is one of the key ingredients in traditional Thai natural beauty treatments and you’ll find a wide variety of herbal soaps and skin products made of this miracle root. It is used powdered and crushed in skin healing concoctions. Turmeric oil is also known as an efficient moisturizer and has antiseptic properties to heal skin ailments.

Prai
Another relative of the ginger family, prai looks like a bigger and more bulbous version of ginger. It’s recognizable by its bitter, soil-like smell. Prai has long been used in traditional Thai body treatments as ingredient in hot compresses to relieve muscular aches and pains. As a beauty product, it’s been used by generations of Thai women as a natural moisturizer to tone and soften the skin. Prai oil is also used as a traditional scalp conditioner.

Galangal
This rhizome is often mistaken for ginger, but can be distinguished by its whitish colour with a pinkish tinge on the ends. It’s the popular ingredient that gives certain Thai soups and curries to their familiar tangy aroma. It was used traditionally to cure skin diseases and is now used in spa treatments as an ingredient in body wraps to soothe and nourish the skin.

Kaffir Lime
This bumpy green lime is a familiar ingredient in Thai cuisine and its leaves are one of the key flavourings in the famed Thai Tom Yum soup. While the fruit itself is inedible, it’s a well known beauty ingredient to Thais. Traditionally, the lime was cut and rubbed directly onto the hair like a shampoo. The juice and oil from the peel help prevent against dandruff and hair loss, and leave the hair silky soft and shiny. It’s still one of the most popular botanical extracts used in modern day shampoos.

Asiatic Pennywort
Thais have long drunk the juice of this plant, called Bua Bok in Thai, as a fresh health tonic. Its vitamin-rich, dark green juice relieves heartburn, and is said to help heal internal wounds and bruising. It was once a common sight to see vendors ladling fresh juice from carts heaped with fresh pennywort plants, but these days it is more easily found sold in plastic bottles on the skytrain station and in supermarkets.

FRUITS

Papaya
Luscious ripe papaya is one the most abundant fruits in Thailand but most people don’t realize that this common fruit is also one of natures’ most effective beauty products. The ripe fruit contains vitamins A and C and a high level of Alpha Hydroxy Acid, and is used to exfoliate and brighten the complexion. Fresh papaya pulp used as a mask and rinsed off leaves the face feeling surprisingly soft.

Tamarind
The incredibly sour tamarind fruit is eaten in a variety of ways in Thai cuisine and is found in various forms in Thai supermarkets – fresh, dried, candied, as a juice, and as a paste. It’s known for both its medicinal and beauty uses. The bark is used as an astringent and the fruit has a laxative effect. A refreshing tamarind drink can relieve constipation. The fruit has a very high Alpha Hydroxy Acid content and tamarind paste has been used as a beauty product for centuries by Thai women as an effective natural exfoliator to brighten the complexion and lighten the skin.

FLOWERS

Butterfly Pea Flower
This dark purple flower can be found dried in packs in herbal product stores and as an ingredient in shampoos. When added to water, the dried flower immediately gives off a deep indigo colour. Centuries of Thai women have used the juice of this flower to promote dark, lustrous thick hair. It was also rubbed into babies’ eyebrows to make the brows grow thick and long. The flower is rich in Bioflavonoid, an ingredient in modern-day hair products that stimulates hair growth.