I have been away in Eastern Europe for most of the past month and now I am back. Photo diary to follow.
Since I am also bedridden with the flu, I have been lolling around on Pinterest (for the first time in three years). It's made me remember why I disengaged from the site in the first place. It feels very homogenous--the same things pop up over and over again. There are also a lot of nonsensical myths on there.
Myths make me angry because they trick people. They trick people into buying things they don't need. So, rather than just yelling "Charlatans! Thieves!" to my computer forever, I have culled from like half an hour of hopping around on Pinterest some flagrant myths, and debunked them:

1. You can get your hair to grow super long super fast if you take supplements or eat better.
No. Hair growth and length, like so many other things, is largely determined by genetics. Example? Myself and my college roommate and BFF. She treats her body as the temple it is and eats so well she doesn't even need vitamins but she still takes them anyway. Her hair, of course, is also shiny and healthy and strong like the rest of her, but it grows slowly. When I was in college I ate terribly (and sometimes I still do), only started exercising junior year, and never bothered with deep conditioning or quarterly haircuts. I counted the citric acid in Coca-Cola as Vitamin C. (Well, almost.) My hair has grown about eight inches since February. It will grow all the way down to my hips. You wanna know why? Both my grandmothers have incredible, thick, coarse, wavy hair. There are steps you can take to take better care of your hair, but how long it grows is something you can't really control.

2. You can get flat abs by doing nine thousand crunches. 
There is no such thing as targeted fat loss. When you burn fat, it happens all over your body. Additionally, crunches are sort of a lousy exercise, I think. You can and will strengthen your core with all of the major lifts, like deadlifts and squats. Far more effectively, too, since you have to use muscles in the front and back of your body to stabilize yourself during these lifts, rather than just the six-pack muscle in the front of your body. 

3. You can get rid of blackheads by doing something with Vaseline or charcoal or whatever the hell else. 
Blackheads are hard to get rid of. The only reliable method is to have them extracted by a facialist who's really good at it. If you try to do it yourself, you could scar, and all that those homemade treatments succeed in doing (or those pore strips) is inflaming your skin. You can reduce their occurrence with the right products, like AHAs.

4. Cellulite creams work. 
This one isn't from Pinterest, this is from Kylie Jenner. She claims that she uses butt plumping creams that stimulate fat cells. Okay. NO. Whether you're trying to get rid of them or stimulate them, no topical cream is going to do anything to the fat cells in your skin. It doesn't penetrate deep enough. Don't let anyone make you believe you shouldn't have cellulite, or that it's abnormal. The majority of women do. The outer layer of our skin is thinner so the connective tissue and fat beneath it is more visible. Even slender people have it. Any boyfriend who complains about it is a douche canoe, unworthy of beholding you in all your glory. Throw him out, and then send him an invoice for all those cellulite creams and years of psychological damage because, let's face it, if he's judgmental about cellulite that's probably the tip of the iceberg.

5. Detox ANYTHING. 
Detox is this buzzy buzzword applied to everything from tea to body brushes (first of all, what?? what's wrong with a washcloth?) and I hate it. Your body already flushes away the junk that you don't need, that's what your liver and kidneys spend all day and night doing. And the word "toxin" implies that we constantly ingest massive amounts of formaldehyde or something. Which we don't. I'm as wary as anyone about bizarre substances companies may put in our food or skincare, and there needs to be more transparency and rigor in the FDA's standards, but what bothers me about this trend is that the products that claim to be detoxing don't work. Is herbal tea, or hot water with lemon and cayenne pepper, going to magically flush any tiny molecules of BPA from your system? No. If you chronically drink to excess, is some detoxifying mask going to be able to reverse the dehydration that alcohol causes? No. It's total snake oil and scaremongering.

6. You can get rid of dark eye circles with tea bags.
Ah, genetics rears its ugly head again! If you have chronic darkness under your eyes, it could be due to sinus problems, anemia, or just having more pigmentation under your eyes. The likely truth is that those shadows won't go away unless you treat the underlying cause. Even then, you may not be able to get rid of them. Take heart. I leave mine uncovered whenever I need to appear especially serious and studious. Does it work? Who knows. Do I feel more like the heroine of a Victorian novel set in Yorkshire? Absolutely.

Now if nothing else you can walk free in the knowledge that most of the time the stuff people are selling you is junk. I hope this was useful for you. I'll be back with something prettier soon.