Blog Posts by Redbook

As much as we'd love to agree with Elle Woods that the rules of hair care are simple and finite, there are plenty of ways you may be harming your precious strands without even knowing it. Here's how to stop the damage. By Alyson Penn, REDBOOK.

Using old styling tools
You want to make sure to clean out those hairy brushes, which are breeding grounds for germs and old residue - things no one wants in their hair. "Remove the hair from the brush after each styling session," advises Elizabeth Cunnane Phillips, a New York-based trichologist. Once a month, clean brushes and combs with a little baking soda and water, dissolving well, soaking for a couple of minutes, and rinsing thoroughly. The baking soda removes oils and products that can get stuck in the bristles.

Using a rough elastic
It's not 1995, but the scrunchie could be making a comeback. The best type of elastic to use in your hair is something covered in fabric - a dense, thin hair tie can irritate your strands causing breakage if

By Lauren Le Vine, REDBOOK.

Kindling Quarterly is a new magazine for cool dads. Seriously. And when you read founder David Michael Perez's mission statement, it's actually quite sweet: "We offer no dramatic manifestos or grand theories about what it means to be a father, just simple explorations of creative individuals whose role as a parent - whether stay at home, working full time, or everywhere in between - is intrinsic to their life, and often their career." In other words, they profile men who make other fathers say "I don't know how he does it!"

Related: 50 Ways to Stay Bonded with Your Kids

And before you go thinking "No male would ever say that," hear this. On a recent episode of Jeff Garlin's podcast, By the Way, the comedian sat down for a conversation with his friend J.J. Abrams - a.k.a. the creator of Alias, Felicity, and Lost and director of Star Trek and Star Wars. Garlin wasn't really interested in talking about Abrams' ridiculous résumé, though. What he most wanted to

By Lauren Le Vine, REDBOOK.

Breaking news from France: That bra you're wearing? It might be having the exact opposite effect on your breasts that you'd want. Professor Jean-Denis Rouillon, who has a background in sports medicine, conducted a 15-year study to analyze whether wearing brassieres (to get French and fancy about it) actually makes breasts sag more. His findings: "Medically, physiologically, anatomically - the breast derives no benefit from being denied gravity. On the contrary, it becomes saggier with a bra."

Related: 100 Colorful Looks Under $100

Don't go burning your bras yet, though. Although one participant reported that she breathed more easily and had better posture and less back pain after she ditched her boob cage, the study's findings aren't quite universally applicable. "It all depends on the structure of each breast. An overweight, 45-year-old woman with three kids has no business not wearing a bra," the professor bluntly noted.

Related: 50 Knockout Date-Night

There's something in the air, it seems. Celebs are stepping out with drastic dye jobs, prompting us to wonder, is it time to switch up our locks and looks? By Ava Feuer, REDBOOK.

• 50 Knockout Date-Night Hairstyles

• 100 Colorful Looks Under $100

• The 25 Best Hairstyles for Curly Hair

SWUG lifeAh, college. You enter a starry-eyed freshman, dreaming of getting that hunky older guy's attention at frat parties. If you're lucky, you'll meet your future husband, because (per a Princeton alum who made headlines last week), that's the only time in your life you'll be surrounded by a suitable dating pool. By the time you're a wizened senior though, you'll know the cold, hard truths: Those frat boys want freshman, not you. That husband you went to college to find isn't going to materialize.

Related: 100 Colorful Looks Under $100

So what's an empowered woman who requires male validation to bolster her self-worth to do? Navel-gaze about the paradox in that last sentence? Not if you're a senior at Yale. The women of New Haven's storied Ivy will turn their single girl senioritis into a portrait of strong female identity, thank you very much. In fact, they've even got a name for it: SWUG, which stands for "senior washed-up girl."

What exactly is a SWUG and why would anyone want to be

By Lauren Le Vine, REDBOOK.

Yesterday was Equal Pay Day, which marks how far into 2013 women have to work to earn as much as men did in 2012. Might I remind you that it's April, meaning that women earned in 16 months what men do in the usual 12. The Huffington Post marked Equal Pay Day by quoting a startling statistic from the Center for American Progress: "As late as 2011, 97 percent of full-time working women were in jobs that typically paid men more."

Related: 25 Little Life Hacks to Make Life Simpler, Saner and More Fun

What's more, certain professions have a higher wage disparity than others. Female personal financial advisors earn only 61.3 percent of what their male counterparts do. Of the 534 professions listed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women out-earn men in seven of them. Yes, seven out of 534.

The wage gap starts at the very beginning. Sarah Jane Glynn, senior policy analyst at American Progress, told HuffPo that research shows women are less likely than men to

Or how I learned to let go and make peace with Gmail categories. By Meghann Foye, REDBOOK.

I haven't always had such an uneasy relationship with my email inbox. But after a few job changes over as many years, things have gotten a little nutty. At first I rationalized it - 2,279 unread personal emails aren't so bad, when they're mostly coming from places like Rue La La, Banana Republic and Expedia. But then I had another thought: I've been feeling a little overwhelmed by the tide of life lately - letting gym appointments slip, forgetting to send back shower RSVPs on time, canceling plans with friends because I'm too pooped. Maybe it's normal to move slower coming after a long winter, but it's not like me to be in constant apology mode. So when Sheree Wu, my friend and co-founder of Solution Mavens, offered to consult with me on an email clean-up, I sent back a resounding, "Yes!" Can I well-organized inbox result in a fully working life? I think maybe it can.

Consider using her

By Lauren Le Vine, REDBOOK.

All parents have moments when they question their decision to have children or dream about the days when it was just the two of them. For most of us, though, they're just brief, passing thoughts brought on during stressful times like "let's everyone have a temper tantrum at once" and "this trip to Disney World with a three-year-old and six-month-old may have been a mistake." This isn't the case for Isabella Dutton. She freely admits that having two children is "the biggest regret of her life." What's more, England's Daily Mail did an entire story about her wish that she'd remained childless.

Related: 50 Ways to Stay Bonded with Your Kids

"My son Stuart was five days old when the realization hit me like a physical blow: having a child had been the biggest mistake of my life," the article begins. It wasn't a matter of needing to settle into motherhood or maybe that infants don't provide as much entertainment as older children, either. Dutton had never wanted