Photo: Greg Kessler

Are you one of those people plagued, as I am, by hyperpigmentation (dark spots) caused by sun exposure even when they're very careful about sun protection? (As my dad used to say, no good deed goes unpunished. But for the probable reason you're still seeing spots, I've found help: For about three weeks, morning and night, I've been using Glytone SunVanish with Sunscreen Rx and Clarifying Gel Rx ($64 and $62; lovelyskin.com), which contain 4 percent hydroquinone. The two stubborn spots on my cheek? Fading fast.

Photo: Thinkstock

We've all had that dislocating experience of paging through a women's magazine, reading an article on how we should be comfortable with our bodies and maintain healthy lifestyles, turning the page, and, lo and behold, coming eye-to-eye with a gaunt girl-child threatening to cut you with her razor-sharp cheekbones. It's all so...confusing.

So I was gratified to read that Vogue is launching an initiative to promote healthy body images in all its many editions. The Vogue Health Initiative pledges to portray models over the age of 16 who do not appear to have eating disorders. I know what you're thinking: how will everyone agree on what constitutes "healthy" or even "does not appear to have an eating disorder"? But... at least the conversation continues.

Read More:
Body Image Quiz: Would You Rather Be A Whale Or A Mermaid?
Supermodels Dealing With Their Body Issues

Photo: Thinkstock

A full-body massage usually leaves me feeling so blissed-out that I can barely get myself home. But I recently discovered a type of de-stressing treatment that can be done in the middle of the workday, when I'm feeling overwhelmed and tense but still need to get things done. 

It's called Indian head massage, and while some therapists use essential oils, it can be done on dry heads, too (crucial for when you can't go back to work with greasy hair). I was a little worried about scheduling my first-ever appointment during the middle of the day, but Denise Galon, a certified massage therapist based in New York, told me that she'd tailor my treatment to include moves that made me nod off as well as some that helped me snap to attention. Galon practices a type of head massage called "champissage," which is a cross-cultural hybrid that involves both the frictional moves that are part of traditional head massages Indian people get from their families and at the barber shop, as well as the usual shoulder and neck squeezes.

When Galon had finished, I felt relaxed yet also surprisingly focused. Because I had a feeling that my circuits would be overloaded again in no time, I asked Galon for a takeaway exercise I could do on my own back at the office. This is what she calls the "occipital rub." Try it the next time you need to be calm and focused enough to settle into working at your desk, but not so relaxed that you want to put your head down on it.

1. Place your first three fingers behind your head at the spots just behind the ears where the neck connects to the head.
2. With your elbows bent, push your fingers toward and away from one another, creating a rubbing movement on the base of the skull (Galon calls this "flapping your wings").
3. Do this for 30 seconds, or for as long as you need to ease the tension.

Keep reading: More tried-and-true ways that people in other countries relax and refocus.

In this month's "Adventures in Beauty", the O beauty team—director Valerie Monroe, executive editor Jenny Bailly, and associate editor Alessandra Foresto—test-drive nine products and treatments (like skin-plumping fillers, threading, and "comfortable" waxing) to determine whether they make the O grade. It had been two years since the editors' last big beauty road test—Monroe decided the time for a sequel was now. "This is an important story for us," she says. "The only way we can be confident we're making good recommendations is to try things ourselves."
            
Since the beauty team is constantly on the lookout for groundbreaking techniques, each editor had already picked a few favorites by the time they sat down to plan the story. "I heard about a new spray tan for darker-skinned women and was immediately interested," says Monroe. "Our Latina and African-American readers might not know this product is out there." Foresto, whose skin is a natural bronze, gave it a try. "I thought my clothes would get stained, my skin would be smelly and orange—but nope. I loved it!" Foresto had only one reservation about her new tan: She'd have to pose in a bikini in the magazine to show it off. "I did some extra workouts the week before," she says with a laugh.

Photo: Shawn Campbell

We were reading the Frog and Toad story "The Swim", and Toad, silly thing that he is, was worrying about looking funny in his swimsuit. My daughter didn't get it. "Why would someone think they look funny in a swimsuit?" she wondered aloud. It was as incomprehensible to her as my insistence that holding open the refrigerator door lets all the cold air out -- just another weird grownup mystery.

Kids, right? How I wish I felt this way! It is certainly a part of my mothering-a-girl-plan to teach her to feel confident in her own skin. And yet, my excitement about summer plans -- the pool! the beach! the sprinkler! -- is, let's admit it, tempered by my Fear of My Black Suit. You know, that same unassuming black thing I've sequestered myself in since puberty. Usually with a cover-up. And pants. And a portable tent. I'm kidding. (N,o I'm not.)

But you know what? It's National Swimsuit Confidence Week, darn it, and I think we should celebrate. Okay, so it's an ad campaign for Land's End. But it's an ad campaign with a valuable message: Land's End has teamed with the Curvy Girl Guide to encourage women of all sizes to feel confident this summer, and I think it's an idea we can all stand behind. In swimsuits, no less.  And let's hear it for these brave ladies who put photos of themselves in their swimsuits online, over at the Curvy Girl site -- and on the Today Show (as pictured). If they can do it, so can we. I mean, I'm totally not going to do that. But public pool... brace yourself. Mama's leaving the cover-up at home. (Or maybe in the car. You know, just in case.)

Read More:
7 Ways To Find a Swimsuit That Looks Great
The Best Bathing Suits for Every Body

Photo: Greg Kessler

Q: The skin on my upper lip has suddenly turned dark, like a 5 o'clock shadow. Help!

A: At least you can be grateful that it's not an actual 5 o'clock shadow, right? What you've got sounds like melasma, which is commonly caused by genetics or an excess of estrogen or sunlight, says Wendy E. Roberts, MD, a dermatologist in Rancho Mirage, California. (Roberts also mentions a host of other possible causes, among them a course of tetracycline, waxing, or a harsh microdermabrasion treatment.) She recommends using a prescription skin-lightening compound containing either hydroquinone, kojic acid, alpha hydroxy acid, retinols, or Lumixyl. A series of Fraxel laser treatments may also help fade the discoloration.
            
Keep in mind: Wearing an SPF 30 sunscreen every day will help prevent your 5 o'clock shadow from reappearing.

Keep Reading
How to read the new sunscreen labels
The 7 best new sunscreens
4 different approaches to aging gorgeously

Photo: Greg Kessler

Q: I have very fine hair, but a ton of it—which makes every haircut wind up flat. What's the best style for me?            
            
A: Though I'm sure many of your fellow Ask Val readers will be envious of your problem—a "ton" of hair isn't often among their complaints—I know that styles gone flat are no fun. But there's an easy solution. It's not about creating lots of volume, says stylist Rodney Cutler, founder of the Cutler/Redken salons. Rather, you want to create movement and texture by cutting layers in a style that sweeps to one side. Though this approach works on various lengths, a cut that falls between the chin and collarbone works best, says Cutler.

As for styling products, try a spray that gives hold at the roots. Cutler recommends Redken Rootful 06 ($15.50; redken.com for salons).            

Keep in mind:  Product on the ends of your hair will weigh it down, so avoid it.

Keep Reading
Which beauty products and treatments really work?
Reinvent your hairstyle—without a snip
Hair miracle workers: 11 quick fixes for blah hair days

Photo: Courtesy of Bffl Co.

When your mom, sister, aunt or friend goes into the hospital for a mastectomy, it can be hard to know what to say to her, never mind what to get her. You want to give her exactly what she needs, but...you're not sure what that would be. One clever idea would be to talk to her doctor and get a list of must-haves, and make a care package, like the kind that radiation oncologist Elizabeth Chabner Thompson, MD, used to put together for her patients. Another, even more clever (and easier) idea would be to order one of the Breast Bffl Bags that Dr. Thompson sells through her new company Bffl Co ("Best Friends for Life").

Each nylon duffel has beachy stripes and comes packed with supplies that Thompson, who also had a preventative double mastectomy, deems essential to a comfortable recovery. For example, Thompson explains that after a procedure involving tissue removal, some fluid accumulates at the surgical site, and patients are sent home with special drains they need to tend to. However, Thompson says that most of her patients were so woozy when they heard the instructions that they forgot what they were supposed to do. That's why her bag includes a little drain care kit with specific how-to's--not the sexiest Get Well gift, but one of the most useful, and therefore, one of the most thoughtful. The bag also includes a heart-shaped microbead pillow that women can put under their arms to ease the pressure on their incision, as well as surprises like slipper socks, earplugs (for creating silence in a bustling recovery unit) and high-end face lotion and eye balm. Thompson's company offers other bags designed for the unique needs of patients recovering from brain and gynecological operations and, soon, C-sections. (Fifteen percent of the net profit from each bag Bffl Bag will be donated to a related health charity.)

It will make you feel good to see your VIP (Very Important Patient) using Thompson's road-tested items in the bag during the first days after her surgery...and it will make you feel even better to see her tote the bag to the gym and the beach not too long after that.