Personal Growth and Health Awareness in Modern Life

Have you ever felt the weight of putting everyone else's needs before your own? Tune in as I open up about a chaotic Monday and the rejuvenating power of connecting with like-minded women. You'll hear how a simple decision to sit out of a family pool day allowed me to recharge and return as a better partner and parent. I'll share my struggles with saying no to family and the incremental steps I'm taking to foster my children's independence, a journey many can relate to.

In this episode, we also confront the unsettling health risks associated with hair relaxers, especially their link to uterine fibroids in African-American women, as revealed by Linda Villarosa's groundbreaking study. We discuss the broader issue of lax regulations in the health and beauty industry and touch on evolving vaccine schedules and the potential connections between Tylenol use and ADHD. To wrap things up, I provide an update on my well-being and preview our upcoming fall series featuring a dynamic group of inspiring women. Your engagement and support truly uplift this community—thank you for your invaluable reviews and interactions!

Link to video interview discussed in episode

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting Boundaries for Self-Care
• 10:13 Health Risks of Hair Products
• 17:50 Building Community Through Podcasting

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Everybody. This is Still Rose's podcast. This podcast was created for women, by women, to elevate women's voices. I'm super excited because I'm actually making time to prioritize recording this week. As you all know those of you who have been with me through the summer it's been a lot of twists and turns and pivoting to make it through with my sanity intact, still working on it. But the good news is it's, as I record this, august 14th and we're nearly there. Watch now mid-September. I'm going to be sad for the summer, but in any case, I'm making it work.

Speaker 1: 0:43

Now, something really important that I did that I wanted to share with all of you, cause I have never done it before and that's going to sound nuts as soon as I say what it was. I've never done this before. I most recently noticed on what was it? Monday was a pretty awful day for me, um, and I recorded for you guys and you heard about it already, so I don't have to go into detail there. But Monday of this week, as I record, was god awful, and I had to run out on Monday evening for a meeting, for something else unrelated to work or podcast or anything, and being able to connect and engage with other women really lifted me up after such a terrible day. So Tuesday comes around and the end of the day Tuesday wasn't as God awful, but still had some stressful work related moments, which I will also talk about in a minute. But at the end of the day, you know I'm making dinner, things are not awful. And you know my husband said to me, hey, like let's all end of the day. You know I'm making dinner, things are not awful. And, um, you know my husband said to me, hey, like let's all get in the pool. Let's, let's all go in the pool with the kids and I normally will take any opportunity for us to do something together as a family, like any, because I always want my kids to see me participating and my husband participating together. I want them to see us, um, all together as a family unit. I want them to see us all together as a family unit. I want them to have those memories, those beautiful memories of all of us jumping in the pool together, all of us just hanging out together. Like I want all of that, I live for that and I want them to have all these memories.

Speaker 1: 2:16

I often, often, before I make decisions for the kids or for myself. Think about that from a lens of a older woman in her forties. Now, what do I remember about my childhood? What do I want my kids to really be focusing on? So I really try to think of things like with that lens. Normally I always say yes.

Speaker 1: 2:35

Yesterday I said no and you know the kids all jumped in and my husband was like come on, like just, we'll just take a couple laps, and I was like you know what, I'm already kind of still on edge and I have to. I think I just need a break from from everybody. So I went outside like I was in the backyard still, but it did not get in the pool I stayed off to the side and I sat on one of the you know outside furniture and I just kind of zoned out, looked at my phone, did dumb you know online shopping, whatever. That little break was, maybe about 30 ish minutes, 45 minutes. I again was still outside. I love being outside when the weather's nice and permits. So I was out there, we all were all together, but I just wasn't engaging in the activity, which again never happens.

Speaker 1: 3:29

Can I tell you the difference that this made in my day? It was it's not like I left the house, I was still here, but to have that moment of separation where my husband was playing with the kids in the pool and I was able to just take some time to breathe. Because when I tell you and I'm certain that some of you listening to this already know like what I'm going to say but when I tell you that I end my day sometimes and I feel like I haven't even had a moment to take a breath and had a moment to take a breath, and it's just total chaos or not chaos, but it's like just so much. All the time I'm on a constant overload. So taking that moment made me a better person, because had I gotten in the pool, I would have been snapping at the kids for sure, because I was already kind of cranky.

Speaker 1: 4:23

It's also the week before, you know. So I my hormones are a little bit raging this week. But you know, I knew I was going to be a little cranky and I already knew I was going to be snappy with them. I didn't want to be like that with them and I and I do. I really don't want them to remember that, but I'm sure they will. So I did what I had to do and I took that breather to myself and it really, really made a huge difference. And so today I did the same thing and I have to tell you I was just so proud of myself because I never decline, I always say yes, even when I know that I'm like don't really want to, I'm not in it now. And this is interesting because for anybody outside of my my little, my little crew um, I have no problem saying no, but my little crew, I have a problem saying no to. I need to work on that. Now that I'm talking about that out loud, I need to work on that.

Speaker 1: 5:18

I have I'm very proud of this too started to point out areas where, like if somebody asks me for something, you know when the kids are little, they say mommy, get me some water, you're going to get it, you're going to jump up, are in the cabinet. Like you know, making that small tweak is helping my sanity so that I don't feel like a 24-7, like I don't want to say slave or servant, because I don't think either of those words apply, but 24-7 at somebody else's mercy. Basically, that shouldn't be. No one should feel that. I don't think all women feel that way, I think I just feel that way, but I like to talk about it in case someone else feels that way too. So setting just mild boundaries and that's why I wanted to point this out when we talk about setting boundaries on this podcast, you don't have to go bananas, you don't have to say every night I need to leave the house from 7 to 9pm and I need to be out there.

Speaker 1: 6:17

When I say to you guys, it just takes that moment of you know what. No, I'm going to take a step back. Even if you pretend you're doing the dishes and you're just kind of standing there, just pull back a little. I wish someone had talked to me about this a little bit more when I was younger. But pull back a little and it really I mean it really really will have a tremendous impact. So I'm trying to think of a scenario when these guys were little. So like, for example, when these guys were little once I would get them all you know bathed and all that stuff or whatever.

Speaker 1: 6:52

Um, I could have very well taken probably 30 minutes to myself to reset my sanity. I could have. I just never did to my own, to my own fault. I never will promote that to anybody. I don't think anybody should live their life like that. But um it it just. Sorry, my child passed me my phone. Um, I don't think anyone should live their life like that. I don't think anyone should be trying to do everything by themselves, unless you, unfortunately, don't have any. You know anyone to help. But trying to set those little moments, and even, you know, not for nothing, but even the, even if it means like getting everyone into bed and then, if you are a single parent, just taking that moment, that hour, right after they go to sleep, to just sit in silence. Just sit in silence. Don't look at your phone, put your phone down, don't turn on the TV, don't listen to music. Just sit in silence and take some deep breaths. It will do wonders for you.

Speaker 1: 7:54

So I wanted to talk about that. I wanted you guys to know about that. I was actually proud of myself for doing that, because I never do it and I'm like, oh my God, I practice what you preach, girl. So I made sure I'm doing it. So I want you guys to do it too. Now, the other thing I want to talk about with you is actually more health related. So this has actually come to my attention before and I didn't talk about it on the podcast At least I don't think I did, but in any case I'm going to repeat it.

Speaker 1: 8:17

So there are a lot of products and stuff that are sold to us in the open market that are not good for us. I normally focus in on food products because that's where I'll talk about, like, dietary issues. You guys know I'm a vegetarian, so I go through. You know I've gone on my own health journey. What I'm actually going to talk about today is hair chemicals and what that could potentially do to you. So there have been links to certain products causing diseases in women. Obviously, cancer is one of them, but there's other specific diseases that can be caused from products. So if you go down this rabbit hole, there are harmful ingredients in your hair products. So there's like a whole list parabens, formaldehyde, alcohol, triclosan, dimethicone, sulfate, silicones like the list is deep. My friends, the list is deep.

Speaker 1: 9:17

There has been a greater movement towards organic health products for your hair and organic hair products that you can use, so that way you're not getting all of these bad things in your hair when you're getting your hair colored and everything. But there are still products out there that do cause these big issues. One of these products in particular is hair relaxers. So hair relaxers, if you're not, if you don't know what this is, it's a product that you put in your hair If your hair is very coarse and tight and it's meant to help, like, straighten out your hair and it's meant to just help, um, I guess, straighten it, flatten it, make it a little bit smoother and, you know, and brushable and all that. You've probably noticed there's this whole movement towards natural hair lately. That's a big deal because the movement itself is actually awesome. I'm pretty enthralled with that movement.

Speaker 1: 10:13

But there's a deeper underlying issue here. I've have been, I've seen posts randomly. I'm a big fact checker. So, guys, if you see a post and you're like I don't know about this and you want them to look into it, like you can send it my way. I will deep, I will dig deep and then I'll do an episode on it, so feel free to send it my way.

Speaker 1: 10:30

Um, this one in particular chemicals really in in hair relaxers are linked to serious health issues. So there's roughly 90% of black women have used have used relaxers at some point in their lives to chemically straighten their hair. There's new reporting in the New York Times Magazine highlights the severe and often unknown health risks these products can pose. Linda Villarosa was on CBS News on June 18th of this year and she conducted a very deep, massive study on this and she came out the other end and basically came to the conclusion that these products are heavily marketed to Black women. They're heavily marketed to women of minorities, marketed to women of minorities, and if you are using this consistently which most women are you have a 1.23% higher risk of developing uterine fibroids than those who do not use hair relaxers. Now why is this significant? Okay, well, because uterine fibroids is a predominantly African-American woman disease. The statistics don't lie. So that means that this hair product that has been marketed to them specifically to straighten their hair is actually causing infertility. They need surgery, incredibly incredible amount of pain, heavy, heavy menstrual bleeding, I mean. The list really goes on and on, and it's like insane because these products are still on the market.

Speaker 1: 12:13

Now, I don't know a lot about I don't know anything about black hair care Like I'd really have to phone a friend on this one but what I do know is that if this statistic is out there and studies are showing this, this message needs to be spread. And whether you use hair relaxers or not, you need to start looking at your hair products. We have to really become educated on what we're putting in our bodies, because it is becoming more and more apparent that the regulations that are currently in today's society are really not working for the actual average person. They're not keeping us in mind, they're keeping the bottom dollar in mind. You have to really look into these things yourselves.

Speaker 1: 12:59

Now, outside of the hair care products, which is incredibly important, I'm actually going to I'm going to link in the episode description the video that Linda did where she was on with CBS news and she talks through her study. Take a look at it. It is incredibly interesting and honestly, pass it along. I is incredibly interesting and honestly, pass it along. I don't care I mean, I care about you passing along this episode, but pass along that video. That's really important information. And then, even outside of hair care products, I've talked about this before on the podcast, but my cousin, who was formerly one of the hosts for this podcast, she's going to send over some information to me about how the regulations are actually changing for vaccines.

Speaker 1: 13:39

So when my kids were little, the approach to vaccines my kids are, I'm I am a advocate of vaccines. I do think they have their place. I think they're important. However, unfortunately, what they're finding now is that the way that they were scheduling vaccines for young children was actually at their risk. Now, at the time quote unquote they didn't know this, quote unquote. But what they're finding is that because they're grouping the vaccine so closely together and they're putting it all into your child at once, like there were a couple instances where my kids would go for vaccines when they were, they were babies they're about one. Kids would go for vaccines when they were, they were babies they're about one or two years old and they would want to do three shots at once or four shots at once. And they and they said, oh, it's the vaccine schedule. And, to be perfectly honest with you, I didn't question it because, again, I think vaccines are important.

Speaker 1: 14:33

But now we're seeing that those vaccines, there is actual links to ADHD, there are links to other diseases. We have to educate ourselves because people, this is happening real time to us, to our families. All of my kids have attention issues and they all were vaccinated completely. And I'm not saying that it causes, I'm not saying that was the only thing, but I think it's a factor, because here's the other factor. Like I'll hit you with this.

Speaker 1: 15:04

A study came out, I think, a couple of years back that noted that Tylenol can cause ADHD. I didn't know that. Did you know that? I was told when I had kids oh, tylenol is the safest thing that you can take while you're pregnant. It's the safest thing you can give your child. Don't give them anything else, no problem. Okay, they have a fever, they have a high fever. I have to give them Tylenol. Guess what? There was several studies released, not just one. Several studies were released that said Tylenol is linked to ADHD. Guess what my kids struggle with?

Speaker 1: 15:39

Like it's wild to hear this, because when you trust in a system that's supposed to look you out and make sure that these products are being released to you in a way that's safe and not detrimental to your health, it's broken. It's a broken system. There are products that are sold here in the United States that are not allowed are sold here in the United States that are not allowed to be sold in other countries because of safety and health issues. There are products that are sold in New Jersey that are not allowed to be sold in California because of health-related issues. Let's let that sink in for a minute.

Speaker 1: 16:14

So we have chemicals and hair relaxers causing cancer, neuter and fibroids in African-American women, so it's like they're like wiping everybody out. Let's cause infertility in African-American women. Like this, literally. Like I mean I cannot, I can't, I cannot go deeper on this than I. I mean it's just insanity that we have medicines that we are told are safe. It actually is not and it's actually causing other diseases. Like, look at things, you have to question things and you really have to look into everything yourself, because people, I'm telling you a system that I even used to tote as like oh, this is the greatest system, everything's regulated. This is great. I've been on these calls with the FDA. They're really thorough. I have to retract all my previous statements now because I don't think this is accurate anymore and I think we really need to be doing our own research.

Speaker 1: 17:08

If you see something on social media that you think is important to note that you were like I'd like to know more about this, please send it over to me. You can DM Steel Roses podcast on Instagram. Steel Roses podcast also has a Facebook page. You can message and I will take a look at your message and I will send you research. Don't feel like, well, I don't understand these studies, or send it my way. I will look it up for you, because we really have to be helping each other out here and we have to really look into this for ourselves, for our kids, for our future. This is a huge deal. So, again, if you have anything like that, you see something, or even if you want me to podcast on something that you see, send it over to me so I can take a look at it because I will podcast on it.

Speaker 1: 17:50

I appreciate you all hanging with me. Obviously, I sound better today, less in distress, than the real talk episode on Tuesday, and fall series is coming together very nicely. We have the fall schedule already up and running. You guys are really going to love these guests. They are a tremendous group of women that are trying to make a difference and it is incredible a very wide range of topics and it really is just such an amazing thing to be able to bring everyone together. So look out for that. And again, if you need anything, please message me, feel free. I appreciate all of you guys leaving reviews in whatever platform you listen on, following on Instagram and Facebook, like I appreciate all of you guys. I really, really, truly do Um, so I hope that you got something out of this episode and I will see you on the next one. Take care everybody.