In Conversation: Why You Should Rethink What’s in Your Shampoo

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For decades, shampoo has been marketed around shinier hair, bigger volume, and fewer bad hair days. Rarely has the conversation focused on the scalp itself or the ingredients behind those promises. But as ingredient transparency becomes a bigger priority across wellness, more people are starting to rethink the products they use every wash day.

Carly Ferrarese, founder of Under Luna, has built her brand around that very idea. Ahead, she shares why the future of healthy hair starts with the scalp, how she approaches formulation differently, and why she believes it's time we all paid closer attention to what's in our shampoo.

Why You Should Rethink What’s in Your Shampoo

You’ve said your own non toxic journey began with questioning the lack of transparency in beauty. Why do you think shampoo ingredients have largely escaped the same scrutiny people now give skincare ingredients? Great question. Somewhere along the way, hair care became framed as cosmetic, while skincare became synonymous with self-care and ingredient awareness. But before shampoo was commercialized, hair care and the rituals around the scalp  were part of daily life.

For me, skincare and scalp care have always been tied together. The scalp is skin, and it has many of the same needs as the skin on our face: a healthy barrier, balanced oil production, and thoughtful, supportive care. For decades, we’ve been taught to focus on facial skincare while largely overlooking the scalp. As a result, many people don’t realize how much the scalp influences the health of the hair. Once you begin viewing the scalp through a skincare lens, the entire conversation around hair care changes.

Haircare has historically been marketed around shine, volume, or repair, but recently there’s been much more conversation around scalp health. Why do you think that shift is happening now? Hair care has traditionally focused on surface-level results: more shine, more volume, less frizz. But scalp care asks a different question: what’s happening at the root?

People are becoming less interested in quick fixes and more interested in understanding the underlying causes of the issues they’re experiencing. We know there can be a strong connection between hormones and hair growth, just as inflammation, gut health, stress, and diet can often show up through the scalp, whether that looks like excess shedding, irritation, oil imbalance, or flakes.

As these concerns become more common, it feels important to start connecting those dots. The reality is, if we want real shine, real growth, and real repair, we have to look at the scalp first.

A lot of consumers are starting to realize that “clean” doesn’t always mean transparent. How do you personally define truly non toxic haircare? Unfortunately, “clean” doesn’t mean much on its own anymore. Many of these marketing claims aren’t clearly regulated, which is why transparency matters so much.

For me, truly non-toxic hair care starts with the ingredients. Under Luna was born from my own need for shampoo and conditioner I could truly feel good about using. I felt like real transparency was missing from hair care, and that became part of the mission: to create formulas where every ingredient had a purpose, and nothing was hidden behind vague claims.

We don’t add ingredients as fillers, and we don’t choose something because it looks good on a label or happens to be trending. We work closely with trusted suppliers, source many locally grown herbs, and put a tremendous amount of care into finding ingredients that are both safe and effective. We aren’t interested in performative clean beauty. We’re interested in formulas that are transparent, thoughtful, and truly support the scalp and hair. That level of quality is something you can feel.

What are some of the biggest “greenwashing” tactics you see in the haircare space today? One of the biggest forms of greenwashing I see is brands relying on buzzwords instead of transparency. Words like “clean,” “natural,” or “non-toxic” can sound reassuring, but they often have no clear definition behind them.

I also see brands highlighting one hero plant-based ingredient on the front of the bottle, while that ingredient may make up only a tiny part of the formula. True transparency means being willing to talk about the entire formula: where ingredients come from, why they’re included, and how they support the scalp and hair.

The most honest brands aren’t just selling an image of nature, they’re willing to show their work.

Under Luna’s formulas lean heavily on herbs and roots like white willow bark, horsetail, yarrow, chamomile, and yucca root. What drew you to these particular botanicals? I did a tremendous amount of research before creating my first shampoo samples. I kept coming back to the same questions: What is shampoo, really? How did we get here? What were people using before hair care became commercialized?

That curiosity led me into the origins of scalp and hair rituals across cultures and traditions throughout history. What drew me to these herbs is that many of them have been used for generations to cleanse, soothe, strengthen, and support the scalp and hair.

I love that they carry a story, but they’re not in our formulas just because they’re beautiful. They’re there because they have function. Each one brings something purposeful to the formula, whether it’s helping create a gentle lather, relieving an itchy scalp, calming flakes, or strengthening the hair. Plants are incredibly powerful when you understand how to work with them.

Yucca root is one ingredient that appears throughout your shampoos and isn’t something most consumers are familiar with. What makes it so special as a cleansing ingredient compared to more traditional surfactants? Yucca root is so special to me. It was one of the ingredients that opened up my entire scalp care journey. Once I began studying yucca, the formulas started to come together piece by piece.

Traditionally, yucca root was crushed or worked against stone to release its natural saponins, creating a gentle, soap-like lather for cleansing the scalp and hair. What makes yucca different from many cleansing agents is that it helps cleanse without stripping the scalp of its natural oils, which is so important when you think about the scalp as skin.

Our shampoos are designed to remove dirt, buildup, and excess oil while still protecting the scalp barrier and supporting pH balance. That’s why yucca appears throughout our shampoos. It’s gentle, effective, and foundational to the way we formulate.

Are there any ingredients commonly found in conventional shampoo that you personally avoid entirely when formulating? Yes, there are many ingredients I avoid entirely when formulating, but the biggest categories are synthetic fragrance, harsh surfactants, silicones, and preservatives that don’t meet our standards.

Fragrance is a big one because it can hide so much under one word, including undisclosed aroma compounds. I also avoid harsh cleansing agents that can strip the scalp barrier and leave people stuck in that cycle of dryness, irritation, and overproduction of oil. Silicones are another category I avoid entirely because they can create the temporary feeling of softness and shine, while masking what the hair and scalp actually need and contribute to buildup.

For me, it always comes back to the same questions: Where does this ingredient come from? What is it derived from? Is it something the body can recognize? And how does it benefit the scalp and hair?

Under Luna’s shampoos each seem to support different scalp needs and hair textures. Can you walk us through how you think about matching formulas to specific concerns? We always start with the scalp. Our shampoos are designed around scalp needs, while our conditioners are designed around the needs of the hair itself.

Because our shampoos are built around these intelligent plants, I’m able to layer in different herbs depending on the type of support the scalp needs. For someone who is more oily or dandruff-prone, we created Warrior Shampoo with herbs traditionally used to decongest the scalp and help rebalance oil production. For someone experiencing dryness, sensitivity, or irritation, Luna Clear Shampoo leans into herbs known for their soothing and restorative properties.

For balanced or fluctuating scalps, especially during periods of hormonal change like pregnancy, postpartum, and perimenopause,  we created Tulsi Bloom Shampoo. In those cases, the goal isn’t to aggressively correct the scalp, but to help bring it back into balance.

That’s really at the heart of how we formulate: shampoo based on scalp needs and conditioner based on hair needs. Together, they support each other, helping the scalp and hair return to balance.

Warrior Shampoo has become one of your most recognizable formulas. What specific scalp or hair concerns were you trying to solve when creating it? Warrior was our very first shampoo formula, and it was created for the scalp that feels oily, congested, itchy, or dandruff-prone.

I wanted to create something that could deeply cleanse and help rebalance the scalp without stripping it. So often, people with oily or flaky scalps reach for harsh shampoos that over-strip the scalp, leaving it feeling tight, irritated, and even more reactive.

Warrior was designed to support that cycle differently: to help lift buildup, calm a flaky, itchy scalp, and leave it feeling clean, balanced, and like it can breathe again.

If readers take away just one thing from this conversation, what do you hope it changes about the way they think about their shampoo routine? If there’s one thing I hope people take away, it’s to become more in tune with their scalp.

The scalp tells a story. Just like we learn to read our skin, a breakout, dryness, irritation, congestion, we can begin to read the scalp in the same way. Oiliness, flakes, itch, buildup, sensitivity, or shedding can all be signals worth paying attention to.

When I’m under stress, I often notice a small dry patch appear right at my hairline, front and center, so I get the message loud and clear. It’s a reminder that the scalp is part of an incredible system, and often, it can be a reflection of what’s happening internally.

When you have a routine that is nourishing and supportive, washing your hair isn’t something to avoid. It becomes something you can turn to when your scalp feels out of balance.

For so long, we’ve been told not to wash our hair too much, but the issue isn’t shampoo itself, it’s what’s in the shampoo. I hope people begin to see their shampoo routine not as a chore, but as an opportunity to care for one of the most overlooked parts of the body.

The more we learn to listen to the scalp, the more we understand what it needs and what our body may need, too.

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What Is Somatic Healing? A Nervous System Expert on How the Body Holds Stress

We've all felt it: the stress that lingers long after the moment has passed. A tension headache that won't quit, a lower back that flares when life feels like too much, an exhaustion that no amount of sleep seems to touch. The idea behind somatic healing is that this isn't random, it's the body holding onto what it couldn't process, and waiting for us to finally listen.

To understand what that really means, we sat down with Dr. Carli Axford, founder of the Spinal Flow Technique and a nervous system expert with more than 30 years in holistic healing. Here, she explains what somatic healing actually is, how the body stores stress, and the signs that we're carrying more than we realise. She's also the author of the forthcoming Awaken Your Spinal Flow (Hay House, May 2027).

What is Somatic Healing?

You trained at leading Western institutions like the Texas Back Institute, but you also studied wisdom traditions in India. How did those two very different worlds come together in your work? For a long time they felt like separate worlds, and like two separate parts of myself. I started out purely scientific; as a chiropractic student I'd roll my eyes whenever anyone mentioned energy or emotion. That focus led me to the Texas Back Institute, where orthopaedic surgeons, neurosurgeons, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, nutritionists and science-focused chiropractors all worked under one roof. I watched people with devastating spinal injuries recover without surgery. During my time there, 85 per cent of surgeries were prevented. It showed me what becomes possible when many modalities work together rather than in competition.

India gave me what science hadn't. It was there I learned how energy moves, where emotion stores stress inside the nervous system, and how to trust the wisdom of the body more than anything a textbook had taught me. The two worlds stopped competing and became one lens: the West gave me the how, the spine, the nervous system, the physiology of stress, and the East gave me the why, that the body holds the story of a life and everything it needs to heal, that healing comes from within, and that our symptoms are messages we're meant to listen to.

What is the Spinal Flow Technique, and what led you to develop it? The Spinal Flow Technique is a gentle, hands-on modality that works with the spine and nervous system to release the stress and trauma the body has been holding, often for years. When something overwhelms us and doesn't get fully processed, that stress doesn't simply vanish. It settles into the body as a blockage: a headache, low energy, an aching lower back, a wave of anxiety that seems to come from nowhere. Spinal Flow works with the 33 access points along the spine to help that stored stress finally move, so the body can do what it has always known how to do, heal itself.

I didn't set out to create a modality. It grew out of decades of sitting with people with stress and pain and refusing to accept that some of them simply couldn't be helped. Every approach I trained in revealed only part of the picture. Chiropractic focused on what was blocked, the energy modalities didn't reach the deep blockages, the mind-based work didn't address the body, and the body-based work didn't address the mind. So I created Spinal Flow to work with all of it: the nervous system, the physical blockages I came to recognise through chiropractic, and the flow of wisdom that lives inside the body. I drew on Eastern modalities, craniosacral work, and Taoist understanding of what we each hold within us for healing, including that river of intelligence, the cerebrospinal fluid that flows up and down the spine. The blockage is the message, and Spinal Flow is the language I developed to help people hear and release it.

For someone who's never heard the term, how would you define somatic healing in the simplest way? And what does it mean to "release" stress somatically? Somatic simply means "of the body." Somatic healing rests on a truth we often overlook: we don't only think and feel our stress, we physically store it. Think of a time we were too busy to stop and listen to the body and simply had to keep going, a shock, a loss, a fear there was no time to feel. The mind moves on, but the body doesn't quite let go. Because it couldn't process the moment then, it holds onto it as a blockage, and that stored stress can't be resolved through thinking, because it was never a thought to begin with.

To release it somatically isn't something we force or figure out, it's something the body does in its own way, in its own time. The body placed the blockage there for a reason, and the body is the one that knows how to release it. With Spinal Flow, we don't chase the blockage or try to fix it. We switch the system out of fight-or-flight and into the healing zone, then engage the nervous system to bring awareness to what's held. As the body feels safe, it creates more flow, more ease, more cerebrospinal fluid moving through the system, and from that place its own wisdom finds and corrects the blockages, releasing what it no longer needs to carry. My work is simply to turn that process on, then trust, watch and allow the body to do what it has always known how to do.

When someone begins somatic work, what does the process actually look like? Is there a natural sequence the body moves through? There is, and it often surprises people, because it doesn't begin where they expect. The body is always talking to us. Every symptom, every tightness is stored for a reason, but knowing the story isn't what heals us. The first and most important step is to move the body out of fight-or-flight and into the healing zone, because repair simply isn't possible while the nervous system is braced for survival. And this is where my work differs from most approaches: rather than chasing what's stuck or blocked and trying to fix it, we do the opposite. We work at the level of the brain and nervous system to focus on what's already working, the places where there is abundant energy, flow and wisdom, and we grow that. As the body feels safer and that healing state expands, it naturally begins to release what it's been holding, in its own order and its own time.

And what this looks like, visually, is a river. There's a flow that runs from the sacrum all the way up to the cranium, the cerebrospinal fluid moving up and down the spine, and you can actually see that movement in the body. That's the end point of the sequence: full flow with no blockages, where the whole body moves and interacts as one rather than in separate, guarded segments. It's beautiful to watch, and it's the body doing exactly what it was always designed to do.

What are the most common signs that someone's body is holding onto stress, even if they don't feel "stressed" day to day? The most common sign is simply the way the body talks to us. It's always communicating, sometimes it whispers, sometimes it screams, and the first place to look is the symptoms we've learned to normalise: tension headaches, a stiff neck, a lower back that flares when life feels like too much, digestion that never quite settles, an exhaustion that sleep doesn't touch. Breathing is another early clue; when it's shallow and high in the chest, the system is already bracing. Most of the people I work with wouldn't describe themselves as stressed at all. They've simply grown so used to these signals that they assume they're normal.

Beyond the symptoms, with Spinal Flow we have two clear ways to see what the body is holding. The first is posture: when someone's posture has shifted, shoulders rounding forward to protect the heart, the chin pushing ahead of the body, it tells us stress has accumulated, sometimes over twenty or thirty years. The second is the assessments I've created for each of the seven gateways, designed to reveal exactly how and where stress is stored. The pause gateway, for example, is assessed by turning the head fully to the right and left to check whether there's full, free movement. Between the body's own symptoms, the posture and the gateway assessments, we can show someone precisely what they've been carrying in their bodies.

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Ellis Brooklyn’s New Vanilla Perfume Is Cozy, Creamy, And A Little Unexpected

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Not every summer fragrance needs to smell like sunscreen, citrus, or a very expensive hotel lobby. Sometimes the best ones are softer than that. A little warmer. A little stranger. The kind of scent you keep coming back to because you cannot quite place why it feels so comforting.

That is the feeling behind Ellis Brooklyn’s newest launch, Vanilla Rice, a creamy Eau de Parfum that takes vanilla in a more delicate direction. Instead of leaning into frosting, caramel, or anything overly sweet, this one pairs vanilla with toasted rice, coconut milk, sakura blossom, jasmine nectar, and skin musks.

It sounds a little unexpected at first, but that is the charm.

The Toasted Rice Twist

Vanilla has been everywhere in fragrance lately, but Vanilla Rice makes the note feel softer and more personal. The toasted rice gives it a gentle warmth that feels cozy without being heavy. Think warm rice steam, clean skin, and something creamy on the stove.

The fragrance opens with mandarin, freesia dew, and toasted rice, so there is a little brightness before the softer notes settle in. It is fresh for a second, then slowly turns creamy and comforting.

Creamy, Floral, But Not Too Sweet

At the heart of the scent are sakura blossom, coconut milk, and jasmine nectar. This is where Vanilla Rice starts to feel pretty and romantic, but still easy. The coconut milk gives it that smooth, milky softness, while the florals keep it light instead of dessert like.

It is sweet, but not sugary. Floral, but not powdery. Cozy, but not sleepy.

The Part That Stays With You

The dry down is all skin musks, tonka bean, and vanilla, which gives the scent that warm, close to the body finish. It is not the kind of perfume that walks into the room before you do. It is more of a “you smell really good” perfume, the kind someone notices when they are near you.

There is something nostalgic about it too. Not in a literal way, but in that soft, familiar, hard to explain way that good vanilla scents can have.

Why We’re Into It

Vanilla Rice feels like a quieter take on the gourmand trend. It has the comfort people love about vanilla, but the toasted rice and coconut milk make it feel more interesting and less obvious. It is creamy, soft, lightly sweet, and surprisingly chic. Basically, vanilla grew up, got a passport, and started ordering dessert somewhere beautiful. SHOP HERE

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The Quiet Rise Of Head Spas And The Japanese Brand That Won Us Over

If you have spent any time scrolling lately, you have probably seen it: someone reclined in a salon chair, eyes closed, while warm water cascades over their hair like the world’s chicest shampoo commercial. That, friends, is a head spa. And in much of the world, it is not a trend at all. It is just Tuesday.

In parts of Asia, scalp care is a regular part of the beauty and wellness conversation. Across Japan, Korea, China, Vietnam, and beyond, head spa rituals have long been treated as more than just a very luxurious wash. They are about circulation, relaxation, scalp health, hair health, and the kind of nervous system exhale most of us are desperately trying to schedule into our week.

Here in LA, the head spa is still a little under the radar. It is the kind of thing your most in the know friend mentions casually, and suddenly the entire group chat wants the address. But it is starting to make noise, and after our visit, we get why.

A Little History, Because This Is Not Just A Fancy Shampoo

The head spa as we know it traces back to Japan, where the connection between beauty and overall wellbeing has always run deep. Early rituals drew from practices like shiatsu massage, which applies pressure to specific points to encourage relaxation and energy flow, along with nourishing oil treatments meant to care for both the scalp and the mind.

The idea is that, much like reflexology maps pressure points on the feet, the scalp holds its own network of tension, sensitivity, and release. Anyone who carries stress in their temples, jaw, or crown already knows this without needing a diagram.

By the 1990s, head spas had become staples in high end Japanese salons, where massage techniques, scalp treatments, and premium haircare came together as a full beauty ritual. From there, the experience traveled. Over the last two decades, head spas have made their way into luxury spas and wellness spaces around the world as self care became less of a Sunday night afterthought and more of a lifestyle category.

Which brings us, finally, to a salon chair in Los Angeles.

Enter YOLU

Plenty of head spas have been popping up around LA, and honestly, we have been watching the category with interest. But YOLU caught our attention for one very good reason: it is Japan’s number one haircare brand, and now it has a physical space in LA where you can actually experience the philosophy in real life.

Instead of just admiring the bottles on a shelf, you get to lie back and let the whole thing happen to you. Which, frankly, is our preferred method of research.

We booked the Sayo, YOLU’s sixty minute signature ritual, described as a complete journey to purify, nourish, and restore from scalp to soul. The treatment includes:

+ Head, shoulder, and décolleté massage
+ Shampoo massage
+ Purifying healing head bath
+ Hair treatment
+ Final nourishment with scalp serum and leave in treatment

If that reads like a lot, it feels like even more in person. The head bath alone is worth the trip. It is warm, weightless, and oddly emotional in the way only a really good wellness treatment can be. The kind of experience where you start by thinking about your to do list and end by wondering why you have been accepting regular shampooing as enough.

We walked out softer, calmer, and weirdly clear headed, with hair that stayed touchably good for days.

Let’s talk products

The in salon experience is built around YOLU’s hero range, but the good news for anyone not ready to commit to the full treatment is that the ritual can also come home with you.

YOLU recently arrived at Olive Young in the US, the Korean beauty retailer that opened its first US flagship in Pasadena and launched a dedicated US ecommerce platform in late May 2026. And yes, people lined up around the block for the opening. We were not surprised.

At the center of YOLU’s US expansion is its four step overnight collection: shampoo, conditioner, scalp serum, and hair oil. The system is designed to work in sync with the body’s natural nighttime renewal cycle, helping support a healthier scalp while restoring moisture, softness, and shine overnight.

Powered by the brand’s proprietary Night Cap Serum and Alpine Willow Extract, the collection targets scalp discomfort and dryness while helping protect strands from the stressors that happen while we sleep. Think friction, dryness, pillow chaos, and whatever else your hair is apparently dealing with at 2 a.m.

The full lineup lives here for the curious.

The bigger idea

What makes YOLU more than a pretty bottle is the philosophy underneath it. The brand is rooted in yōru no biyō, or nighttime beauty, built on the belief that beauty begins the night before.

It is a very appealing idea, especially for anyone who loves a morning payoff but has limited interest in doing more in the morning. YOLU is designed to turn an everyday routine into a small ritual of rest and renewal, supporting scalp and hair health while the body is already in repair mode.

By morning, the result is softer, smoother, more balanced hair. The kind that makes you feel like you did something impressive, even though the most important part was going to sleep.

But more than haircare, YOLU is really about the pause. The head spa takes something we usually rush through and turns it into a full body reset. The products bring that same sensibility home, making the shower feel a little less like a task and a little more like a ritual.

Whether you book the full Sayo treatment or simply swap in the overnight collection, consider this your sign that the best thing you can do for your hair might just be falling asleep.

Where to Book

YOLU Beauty Salon Head Spa & Blow Dry Bar is located at 8118 W 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90048. https://yolubeauty.com/

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Sleep Hygiene Mistakes You Might Be Making Every Night

This piece comes to us from Lola Mark, a freelance writer specializing in women's health and wellness

You've got the silk pillowcase, the blackout curtains and maybe even a magnesium routine. But if you're still waking up foggy or lying awake longer than feels reasonable, the problem might not be obvious. Some of the most common sleep hygiene mistakes are so woven into everyday habits that they barely register as habits at all. Here's what might be working against you.

+ Your Bedroom Has an Identity Crisis

The bedroom does many jobs for many of us now. It's a home office, a streaming room, a scroll zone and sometimes a place to eat dinner in peace. The problem is your brain is paying attention to all of it.

When you consistently do stimulating things in bed like working, watching or debating whether to text back, your nervous system stops associating that space with rest. Over time, lying down stops being a cue for winding down and becomes just another activity.

The fix is refreshingly simple: keep the bed for sleep. If you can't drift off, get up and do something quiet in low light, like listening to calming music or reading a book, until you feel genuinely drowsy.

+ Your Wind-Down Routine Starts Too Late

Most of us don't start winding down until we're already exhausted, but that's too late. Your body needs time to shift out of high-alert mode, and that transition doesn't happen the moment you decide you're ready for bed.

Cortisol, your main alertness hormone, doesn't drop on command. If you've been replying to emails, watching something intense or doom-scrolling until 11 p.m., your nervous system is still running warm when your head hits the pillow.

Build at least 45 minutes to an hour of low-stimulation time before you want to go to sleep. Dim the lights, put on something undemanding or just sit quietly. The goal isn't to feel sleepy immediately, but to stop adding fuel to the fire.

+ Weekend Sleep Feels Like a Treat, but It's Costing You

Sleeping in on Saturday feels restorative. In reality, it's quietly shifting your internal clock, and by Monday morning, your body has no idea what time zone it's in.

This is called social jet lag, and it's more disruptive than most of us realize. Even a two-hour difference between your weekday wake time and your weekend wake time is enough to affect sleep quality, mood and energy for the first half of the week. You don't have to be rigid about it, but keeping your wake-up time within about an hour of your usual time makes a real difference over time.

+ Your Room Is Too Warm

Your body needs to drop its core temperature to fall asleep and stay asleep. If your room is warm, that process is harder than it needs to be.

The sleep-friendly temperature range is between 60° and 65° Fahrenheit. If that feels cold, consider taking a warm shower or bath before bed. It brings blood flow to the surface of your skin, helping release heat and nudging your core temperature down afterward. Cooling the room, keeping your feet uncovered or using a lighter blanket can all support the process, too.

+ You're Treating Sleep Like a Luxury, Not a Health Priority

It's easy to see sleep as the first thing to sacrifice when you're busy, but treating sleep as a luxury, rather than a nonnegotiable part of your health, is a mistake.

The impact goes far beyond feeling tired. Research links poor sleep to an elevated risk of heart disease, including high blood pressure and cholesterol. When you cut sleep short, you're interrupting crucial maintenance work that your cardiovascular system relies on. Over time, this can also negatively affect your metabolism, contributing to weight gain and other health issues.

This isn't about scaring yourself into better habits. It's about understanding that the hour you lose to your phone at midnight isn't neutral. Instead of seeing sleep as passive downtime, try framing it as one of the most powerful and straightforward things you can do for your long-term health.

+ Your Caffeine Cutoff Is Too Late

It can take anywhere from 2 to 12 hours for your body to eliminate only half of the caffeine you've consumed. That means a 3 p.m. latte could still be doing its job at 9 p.m. A reasonable cutoff for most people is somewhere around 1 p.m. or 2 p.m., and earlier if you're sensitive to it. If you're relying on sleep supplements to counteract a late caffeine habit, you're making the work harder than it needs to be.

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Living Well with Moa Gürbüzer, Founder of Oddbird: on Alcohol-Free Wine and Changing Drinking Culture at Its Core

For more than two decades, Moa Gürbüzer worked as a family therapist and social worker in Sweden, closely witnessing the ways alcohol quietly shapes families, relationships, and everyday life. Over time, she began to see the issue not just as individual, but something much larger, rooted in culture itself.

That perspective eventually led her to create Oddbird, a dealcoholized wine brand built to challenge long held norms around drinking and offer a more intentional way to celebrate. With no background in business or winemaking, she built the company from the ground up into a globally recognized brand known for its craftsmanship, research, and thoughtful approach to wine.

In this Living Well, Moa shares what she’s learned from building Oddbird, how her background continues to shape the way she leads, and why she believes celebration is less about alcohol, and more about presence.

Living well with Moa Gürbüzer

You founded Oddbird after more than two decades working as a therapist and social worker. What experiences from that chapter of your life ultimately led you to create the brand? During my years in therapy, I witnessed the ripple effects of alcohol, not just on the person drinking, but on families, children, and communities. I often saw the same silent patterns, children tiptoeing, partners covering up, families pretending everything was fine, while alcohol quietly shaped everything around them.

I realized I could spend my career helping people rebuild after the damage, or I could try to stop it before it happened. Oddbird became my attempt at prevention.

Starting a wine company with no background in business or wine is such a bold move. What pushed you to finally say, “I’m doing this”? I came to the conclusion that I had to do something to offset the societal pressures when I began teaching social work at a Swedish University. I realized that my first day on the job looked exactly the same as my last, the same life stories, the same dead ends, the same problems that never changed.

Nothing was happening on a structural level. It struck me that the entire system of social services was built on placing blame on the individual, instead of working preventatively before addiction or dependency developed. When I stood there as an educator, looking at young students preparing to walk the same path, I reflected on my own work.

That’s where the seed was planted, the idea that I wanted to contribute to change on a larger scale. I believe that power lies in working preventatively and structurally. Because while support matters deeply once harm has occurred, I think we as a society have a responsibility to create a culture where fewer people end up there at all.

What were the earliest days of building the brand like? In the early days, when I shared my ambition to create high-quality wine without alcohol, most people were quick to dismiss it as impossible. I saw a problem that others weren’t willing to engage with, and made a conscious decision to pursue it regardless, learning to block out the skepticism and stay anchored in my vision.

At the same time, I needed funding to keep going. Banks turned me down, investors did not show any interest, and it felt like opportunities were slipping away one by one. Just when it seemed like I had run out of options, my hairdresser stepped in and lent me the money I needed. She believed in me at a time when very few others did.

Her support allowed me to continue from a financial perspective, but it also gave me a sense of confidence and determination that I really needed at that time. It reminded me that belief can come from the most unexpected places, and that sometimes all it takes is one person who truly sees what you’re trying to build. I will always be deeply grateful for her trust.

After working as a therapist for so many years, how has that background shaped the way you lead a company? It has shaped everything. As a therapist, you learn to really listen, to understand what’s not being said, and to meet people where they are. I try to lead in the same way, with empathy, clarity, and honesty.

It also made me very aware of how much people carry, both in their personal lives and at work. So creating a safe and respectful environment for the team has always been important to me.

Your team leads one of the world’s largest research initiatives around dealcoholized wine. What inspired you to invest so heavily in the science behind it? We actually lead the world’s largest research consortium on dealcoholized wine, working with universities, researchers, and winemakers across more than 16 countries to continuously push the boundaries of our category.

For the past 14 years, our mission has been very clear, we are here to change drinking culture, and it’s not something we can achieve without investing in research. We believe this transformation must be built on rigor, and rigor means science. For us, research is not an add-on, it’s a given. It’s something we see as essential, like part of the daily routine.

A lot of people still assume alcohol free wine can’t match the structure or complexity of traditional wine. What has your research revealed that challenges that assumption? The complexity of wine comes from the soil, terroir, nature, fermentation, and maturing. Ethanol is just a very harmful byproduct of that process. We are only removing a small piece of an intricate and natural process, and by doing so, we are keeping the complexity, flavor, and structure.

What has been the most meaningful moment for you since launching the brand? It’s really hard to pinpoint one single moment. But the most meaningful ones are when people tell us they chose our wines for important occasions in their lives, weddings, celebrating a newborn, birthdays, proposals, and moments like that.

It’s difficult to put into words how humbling it is to be part of something so personal. To be chosen as even a small part of someone’s important life moment means a lot to us.

For someone discovering Oddbird for the first time, which bottle would you recommend starting with and why? It really depends on what kind of wine you usually enjoy. We work with different regions, grape varieties, and terroirs, so each wine really has its own personality. But our Blanc de Blancs is our most popular wine worldwide, and often the one people discover us through, so it can be a natural place to begin.

Do you have a favorite wine in the Oddbird collection? Oddbird C is my favourite, largely because of what it represents. It’s a wine I’ve envisioned since the very beginning of Oddbird, and seeing it come to life has been incredibly meaningful. SHOP ODDBIRD C HERE

As the product of five years of research, growing, aging, and dealcoholizing, C is our most complex creation to date and is a first of its kind dealcoholized champagne blend. It truly represents how far we’ve come.

If you were hosting a dinner party and serving Oddbird wines throughout the evening, how would you build the lineup? The food should guide the pairing. If you’re serving fish, seafood, or lighter dishes like fresh salads, you should opt for something fresh and crisp like our Blanc de Blancs.

If your menu includes acidity, spice, umami, or more savory and salty flavors, often found in cuisines like Japanese, Vietnamese, or Korean, you should pair it with our Riesling blend Presence. It brings high acidity along with floral and mineral notes that complement those profiles well.

If you’re serving grilled white meat, grilled fish, or seasonal vegetables, our Sparkling Rosé is a natural choice, thanks to its acidity and subtle berry profile.

If you’re serving dishes with higher fat, you need wines with good acidity and structure. In that case, our Low Intervention Sparkling Orange or GSM would be most suitable.

What has surprised you most about how drinking culture is evolving today? Only a few years ago, non-alcoholic options weren’t even considered part of the industry. Now, some of the world’s best restaurants, hotels, and events are starting to include Oddbird on their menus and wine programs.

This signals a real shift in recognition and creates dignified options for consumers that choose not to drink alcohol. As more people remove alcohol from their lifestyle, consumers have demonstrated that they want quality options that don’t compromise on taste or an intentional experience.

This demand is pushing the industry to innovate and expand in exciting ways to create products that were considered impossible a decade ago. We hope to be part of a larger cultural shift that questions why alcohol has to be the default in every social situation.

And finally, what’s a small piece of advice you’d offer someone who is rethinking their relationship with alcohol? Choosing alcohol free is not about giving something up, it’s about discovering new dimensions of taste, presence, and connection.

I encourage curiosity over restriction. Savor each moment more consciously, engage fully with friends, food, and experiences, and take pride in a choice that aligns with your lifestyle and values.

Dealcoholized wine can open the door to a richer, more thoughtful, and joyful way of celebrating life. It’s not the ethanol that defines how we connect, share, or rejoice, it’s presence, intention, and joy.

The post Living Well with Moa Gürbüzer, Founder of Oddbird: on Alcohol-Free Wine and Changing Drinking Culture at Its Core appeared first on The Chalkboard Mag.

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The At-Home Wellness Tech We’d Actually Stack This Summer (And What We’d Skip)

By the time summer hits, most of us have quietly given up on whatever we promised ourselves in January. The routine slipped, the gadget is in a drawer, and the low hum of I was supposed to feel better than this by now is back. The good news is that mid-year is the easiest time to course correct.

If you are not familiar, BON CHARGE is a wellness tech company built on a simple idea: modern life strips away the natural light, rhythm, and recovery signals our bodies are wired for, and the right tools help restore them. Think red light therapy, blue light blocking, infrared, and PEMF, all grounded in research rather than wishful thinking. With a Scientific Advisory Board that includes names like Dr. Rangan Chatterjee, they have become one of the most trusted names in the space. They are also running their biggest sale of the year right now. They are also running their biggest sale of the year right now: 25% off sitewide through July, no code needed

Full disclosure, we are fans. We have been testing their devices for years and keep coming back, which is exactly why we feel okay being picky here. This is not a catalog. It is the shortlist: what we would put in our own carts, what is worth it only if it solves a problem you actually have, and what we would skip.

Here Is How We Would Shop It

Start here: the Red Light Face Mask

If you buy one thing, make it this. It is the one with a payoff you can actually see, not the kind you have to take on faith. When our editor wore it five nights a week for a few months, her injector was the one who asked what she had been doing differently. We later had a doctor break down why it works, and the short version is that the wavelengths are the real, scientifically-backed ones, not marketing dressed up as science.

It runs 630nm red light to work the surface where fine lines and dullness live, plus 850nm near-infrared that goes deeper to support recovery. Ten to twenty minutes, cordless, contours to your face, eye holes so you can watch your show through it.

Buy it if you are tired of skincare that asks for faith instead of giving proof. At 25% off, it costs less than a couple of facials and keeps working long after those would have faded. SHOP HERE

The full body upgrade: the Red Light Therapy Blanket

This is one of the most impressive wellness devices we have tested, full stop. Most red light therapy means standing in front of a panel like a houseplant under a grow light. The blanket lets you lie down instead, wrapping the same clinically backed wavelengths, 660nm and 850nm, around your whole body at once.

The clever part is that it does not stay a blanket. It detaches into two separate red light mats, so you can target one area, share it with someone, or set it up however your space allows. Our editor's version is a post shower wrap up before bed, plug in, pick a mode, unwind. It also folds down small, which matters when your wellness space is the foot of your bed.

Buy it if you want full body recovery and skin benefits in one device. The sale brings a tool like this down to around what you would spend on a spa day, except you own it and can use it every night. SHOP HERE

For your hair: the Red Light Cap

Thinning hair is the wellness concern nobody likes to say out loud, which is exactly why this one moves. The Cap uses 650nm red light to energize follicles and support thicker, fuller looking hair, and it is FDA-registered, which is not a phrase you get to use about most hair products. Ten minutes a day, hands free, so you can wear it while you get on with your morning.

The science here keeps getting more interesting. There is ongoing research and a growing body of conversation around how red light therapy supports the scalp, helping strengthen follicles to boost hair thickness and density over time. It is the same wavelength logic we have written about before, now in a form you can wear around the house. Unisex, comfortable, and the kind of thing you wish you had started six months ago.

Buy it if you have noticed more scalp than you would like, or you just want fuller hair without a clinic appointment. At $449 it is an investment, so the sale is the moment to do it. SHOP HERE

The serious recovery pick: the Infrared PEMF Mat Max

This is the grown up of the lineup. The PEMF Mat Max stacks far infrared heat, PEMF, red light, and near infrared into one mat, so it supports skin, recovery, and deep relaxation in a single lie down. It includes a crystal layer (amethyst, onyx, tourmaline and quartz/silica) that warms during use. Tourmaline is known to emit far‑infrared when heated, and the crystal layer is included to enhance the grounding, calming feel of the experience.It is the closest thing to a full reset you can keep in a closet.

It is not an impulse buy, and we would not pretend otherwise. But it is not just for people who train hard. Low frequency PEMF settings have been studied for their ability to nudge the body out of fight or flight and into a calmer, rest and digest state, the kind of shift linked to lower stress, easier sleep, and a quieter mind. The Mat's settings map to different brainwave frequencies, Delta for deep sleep, the Schumann resonance for grounding, Alpha for calm, Beta for focus, so it works to wind you down at night or center you in the middle of a chaotic day, not just to recover from a workout.

Buy it if recovery is non negotiable for you and you want the most complete tool in the range. A sale this size on a device at this tier does not come around often. SHOP HERE

Want the whole ritual in one go? The Beauty Sleep Kit

If you would rather not piece it together, the Beauty Sleep Kit is the one stop shop, bundling the Red Light Face Mask and Red Light Toothbrush for the evening ritual, plus blue light blocking glasses and a blackout sleep mask for the actual sleep. Bundle pricing plus the sale makes it the best value way in if you want to cover several bases at once. SHOP HERE

The ultimate splurge: the Infrared PEMF Sauna Dome

If the Mat Max is the serious pick, the Infrared Sauna Dome is the dream. This is the one you climb inside, an actual infrared sauna for your home, no membership, no lock in, no leaving the house. It brings together everything the brand does best under one dome: far infrared heat that climbs up to a genuine sweat, PEMF with the same gemstone layer and brainwave settings, plus 660nm red and 850nm near infrared light, all wrapped around your whole body at once.

The difference from the Mat is the sweat. The Dome delivers a real sauna session, the kind that loosens tight muscles, supports your body's natural detox, and leaves you with that wrung out, deeply relaxed calm afterward, then layers recovery and skin benefits on top. It sets up in minutes, heats up fast, and folds away when you are done.

If you are already paying for a weekly infrared sauna session, this is the swap that pays for itself. Those studio visits add up fast over a year, and the Dome hands you the same sweat on your own schedule, at home, in your robe, no booking required.

Buy it if you have wanted a home sauna and want it to do far more than sweat. It is the biggest investment here by a distance, which is exactly why a sale is the time to consider it. SHOP HERE

What makes it all work better

The tech does the heavy lifting, but the free stuff around it matters just as much. Morning sunlight on your face within an hour of waking sets your circadian rhythm so everything else, sleep, energy, recovery, has a foundation to build on. A few minutes of slow breathing before bed shifts you out of fight or flight faster than any gadget. Consistent sleep and wake times, less late night scrolling, water before coffee. None of it costs a thing, and it is what turns a red light session from a nice ritual into results you actually notice.

What we'd skip

Not everything trending is worth your money. Skip the single use gadgets that go viral, get used twice, and live out their days in a drawer. Skip anything that leans harder on celebrity endorsements than on actual research, if the only proof is a famous face, that is a red flag, not a reason to buy. And skip the urge to buy the whole category at once. The fastest way to fall off a new routine is to start with five things instead of one. Look past the marketing to the studies behind a product, buy the one tool that solves a problem you actually have, and build from there.

We do not say this about most wellness tech, but we have tested these tools ourselves for years, not for a week long trial, and they have earned their place in our routines. That is the whole reason we feel good pointing you toward them.

So if this is the summer you finally get serious about feeling better, do not overthink it. It is 25% off sitewide, but only through July. 

Start with the mask. Thank yourself in a month.

[Shop the BON CHARGE Mid-Year Sale here.]

All material on The Chalkboard Mag is provided for educational purposes only. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider for any questions you have regarding a medical condition, and before undertaking any diet, exercise, or other health related programs. This story is brought to you in partnership with BON CHARGE.

The post The At-Home Wellness Tech We’d Actually Stack This Summer (And What We’d Skip) appeared first on The Chalkboard Mag.

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