Photo: J Muckle/Studio D

If you've been graced with baby-fine hair, you probably already know that it's best to avoid products full of silicone, which can weigh your hair down. So you'll appreciate two new ways to go silicone-free in the shower: Shu Uemura Art of Hair Cleansing Oil Shampoo ($55; shuuemuraartofhair-usa.com) conditions with lightweight avocado oil, which doesn't weigh hair down or make it greasy. And gentle cleansers in Pantene Pro-V Aqua Light Shampoo ($4; drugstores) wash away dirt without stripping hair of moisture, so you can skip conditioner and still get silky. On the other hand, if you're fine-haired and frizzy, a little silicone is a good thing. In that case you'll want to try John Frieda Frizz-Ease Sheer Solution ($10; drugstores), which contains ultralight silicones to smooth and soften hair, and glycerin to moisturize and help repair it.

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Photo: Courtesy of LifeSoap

Buy soap, bring clean water to a community thousands of miles away. That's the premise behind LifeSoap, a new company that sells trios of organic bar soap—which it calls Boxes of Joy—and pledges 90 percent of the after-tax profits to fund clean water and sanitation projects in developing countries.
For $20 a month, LifeSoap delivers a fresh Box of Joy to your door every four weeks, along with an update on their humanitarian projects. The company's 25-year-old founders, Juwon Melvin and Aaron Madonna, are passionate about solving the clean water crisis—and making great soap. Their bars combine organic oils with soothing ingredients like oatmeal and shea butter (and skip synthetic fragrances, colors, and preservatives). LifeSoap's first project, rehabilitating wells and building latrines at a school in Nicaragua, is already under way.

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Photo: Thinkstock

Happy Friday! Here are a few things that make us smile.

One very helpful hobby: a girl's mission to spread (literal) warmth and kindness

Go fish: A robot that schools us all in the art of difference.

Is eyebombing come to your hometown? Check the doorknobs and fire hydrants.

A last! A cupcake vending machine

How to be happy...anywhere.

Photo: Thinkstock

The long-running campaign to eradicate wrinkles has taken a new, sci-fi turn. LaVív, an injectable wrinkle filler made from your own skin tissue, has been approved by the FDA for the treatment of smile lines. The procedure requires removing small pieces of skin from behind the ear with a circular blade called a punch; the skin is then shipped to a lab where the fibroblasts (collagen-making cells) are multiplied and frozen until you're ready to have them injected back into your face. Three injection sessions (three to six weeks apart) are necessary, and results last six months.

LaVív is being called a custom-made, more natural approach to line filling (you're simply using your own skin cells, after all). But only one of a half-dozen dermatologists we spoke with is planning to offer it. Because LaVív is more invasive, time consuming, and expensive than the fillers already available—and hasn't been shown to last longer—doctors aren't that impressed.

Bottom Line: This concept could inspire a new generation of wrinkle fillers in the next several years, but for now it's a work in progress.

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It's another glorious Friday, so we're getting out the old gratitude journal and saying thanks for...

It's not Father's Day, but this wedding video still makes us thankful for our dads.

Believe it or not: Oil company makes nice with cyclists

At last: A museum for "the beauty, excitement and wonder of mathematics."
 
The photographer who shows you how to silence your inner "It's not possible" voice.

The New York City Marathon gives this woman a spark of hope but memory loss caused by a stroke gives her an unbeatable strategy for finishing.

Photo: Thinkstock

"A woman at a cosmetics counter told me in my teens: "Every treatment you do to your face, do to your neck as well." Great advice. Unfortunately—even after becoming a dermatologist—it was more than 30 years before I actually started following it. So my neck has definitely aged more than my face. It's never too late, though: In my 50s, I've been diligent about applying a retinoid and sunscreen to my neck. (And whatever your age, you should be, too.)"—New Orleans Dermatologist Mary Lupo, MD


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It's Friday! This week we're oh-so-grateful for...

Life in a Day, a documentary film of videos taken from people around the world on a single day, is now available to watch on YouTube.

On October 31st, there will be 7 billion people in the world. This tool from the BBC shows where you fit in the scheme of things.

Stop what you're doing and listen to the ocean for 2 minutes.

Listen to Mindy Kaling read from her new book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns).

Just in time for Halloween: these pumpkin sculptures are intricate works of art.

Scientists who study sleep tell us that the best way to wake up on a dark morning is to immediately turn on all the lights. Here's another way to bring alertness-boosting sunshine into your home this weekend: tune in to Super Soul Sundays, Oprah's thought-provoking, inspiring new show about spirituality and mindful living. This Sunday, she'll be talking to Jonas Elrod, a filmmaker who swears he developed an ability to see spiritual visions and energies. Even if you're feeling a little skeptical, it's worth tuning in to hear his conversation with Oprah and then watch the premiere of his eye-opening film, Wake Up, about a regular guy (and his girlfriend) who stumbled into spirituality almost by accident. Get a sneak peek of this week's episode by going to the show's web site.
Super Soul Sunday premieres Sunday, October 16th at 8am/7c on OWN

You see them every day, pulling out of the driveway in their cars, mowing the lawn, playing with their kids. At night, you see their shadows passing behind the drawn blinds of their homes. They're your neighbors, and you think you have a pretty good idea of what they're all about.

But as Lisa Ling reminds us in her OWN documentary show, we never know what goes on behind their closed doors. Take the couples in this weekend's episode of Our America (it's the Season 2 premiere). One middle-aged husband, Patrick, wears spectacles and golf shirts, and like many men his age, he enjoys photography. His favorite subject these days is his 50-year old wife, Ciara, who dresses up in sheer wraps and Lucite stripper shoes---and then takes everything off (except for the stilettos, that is). Patrick and Ciara are amateur pornographers, and when they're not relaxing by the pool, they're setting up XXX-rated film shoots on the patio and in the boudoir and charging Internet viewers money to watch them. Check out this clip to learn more about the unconventional business that is attracting thousands of unlikely entrepreneurs, and also to get a peek at Ciara's costume closet (regardless of how you feel about her day job, you'll no doubt envy her dressing space):

In future episodes, Ling will examine other American subcultures, like military families dealing with PTSD, and the sex traffickers-next-door (it's not just a big-city problem). After getting a peek into these people's lives, you'll have a hard time talking to your neighbors without looking for clues about their secret life (what's up with all those Diapers.com deliveries, anyway?).
 
Season 2 of Our America with Lisa Ling premieres Sunday, October 16, at 10/9c on OWN

In that backwards way that the world sometimes works, workbooks for adults seem like a novelty--a luxury, even. How something that once seemed like drudgery (math in the summer? Really, Mom?) could later become an enriching experience is right up there with why we'd really love it if someone made us eat every morsel on our plate if we want dessert, and force us to go to bed at 8:00 every night.

So it's no wonder that we're really excited about the Daily Life Work portion of Oprah's Lifeclass. It's a guided workbook with questions curated by O magazine columnist Martha Beck. The questions go deep--e.g., What is the one thing that you most identify yourself with (your looks, your job, your family, etc.)? Who would you be if that were to disappear? How do you think others see you? How many of your choices are made to maintain this image?--but that's the point: To continue the conversation from that night's class, and go deeper into the lesson. Your answers are private and no one else can see them, and every class has its own workbook. And you don't even need to have your pencils sharpened.