Author: HairWeavings Editorial Team

Alcohol is linked to 7 types of cancer and more than 60 diseases. Earlier this year, Canada reduced its “low risk” guidelines to just two drinks a week. The WHO states that to be healthy we should not drink any alcohol at all.

But what about our looks? What about the vanity argument?

Celebrities like Jane Fonda, Helen Mirren and Meryl Streep are proving that we can look great into our 70s and beyond. I’m not sure how much alcohol these ladies consume, but I’m guessing it’s not a great deal.

Many of us non-celebs do our best to follow a healthy lifestyle. We exercise daily, we eat organic, we do yoga and have regular facials.

Then we drink wine.

An alcohol-free lifestyle has many benefits, including improved mental health and increased energy levels, but it can also provide some unexpected beauty benefits.

5 Ways Sobriety Improves Your Looks

Here are five ways that sobriety can help you look and feel your best.

Better Skin

The diuretic effect of alcohol will lead to dry skin and premature wrinkles, leaving your skin looking dull and grey. Facial redness and broken veins are common in drinkers. Americans spend an average of $1,754 a year on beauty products and treatments when a cheaper and more effective strategy would be to simply eliminate alcohol!

Within just a few weeks of not drinking, your skin will improve. Your complexion will be more hydrated, and any redness will fade. Body skin will plump up, and you’ll find you need less body lotion.

Without the negative impacts of alcohol, toxins don’t have the same chance to build up in your system, leading to healthier-looking skin. Taking this step away from drinking not only helps with skin health but also gives your complexion a natural and healthy glow – setting you up for looking your best!

Better Sleep

We need 7 cycles of REM sleep each night to feel refreshed and energetic the next day. A drinker will get only 2 or 3 cycles, and if you drink every night, the fatigue will build up over the years. Quite simply you are never getting a decent night’s sleep. That fatigue will show up in your face however skilfully you apply your make-up.

You may feel that alcohol helps you to feel sleepy, but even if it helps you get off to sleep, you will experience poor quality sleep. Not only will you miss out on REM sleep, but you may wake-up at 3 a.m., feeling anxious as the alcohol leaves your system.

Admittedly, it can sometimes take a while to get off to sleep if you are used to drinking in the evening. Hang in there and your normal sleeping patterns will reset, and you’ll soon be sleeping like a baby!

Getting better quality sleep at night is a great way to boost your energy levels. Ditch the booze and you can ensure that you’ll get the restful and uninterrupted sleep you deserve.

Better Shape

Alcohol hampers our efforts to lose weight in several ways. Not only is it full of sugar, but it stimulates our appetite and can lead to snacking on unhealthy foods. An experiment showed that a group of people drinking wine with their meal consumed far more calories than the control group who were drinking water.

Exercising and dieting to stay slim is a losing battle if we are drinking. Alcohol is a poison, and the body’s job is to remove it from your system as soon as possible. That’s why your body will not even begin to burn calories from food until it has metabolised those glasses of wine that you drank with dinner.

Alcohol is high in calories which provide no nutritional benefits, so replacing this calorie intake with healthy food options will make a significant difference to your general health and your figure.

Better Face

The effects of alcohol on the skin go beyond an immediate flush or puffiness – it can also cause premature aging over time. If you’re a drinker, you may suffer from chronic inflammation which can worsen wrinkles. You’ll also increase your risk of developing rosacea, an inflammatory skin condition that causes redness and swelling in some regions of the face.

Within just a few weeks of sobriety your skin will look clearer and more hydrated, and your face will lose its dryness, redness and puffiness.

Once you become aware of the effects drinking has on the face, it’s quite easy to spot the heavy drinkers when you look round a room full of people!

Better Hair… and Brighter Eyes

The diuretic effect of alcohol can dehydrate our hair as well as our skin. Damage easily occurs to dry hair such as split ends, hair breakage and hair loss.

So, alcohol contributes to dry and brittle hair. Sobriety will lead to improved nutrient absorption which will benefit hair health and promote shinier, stronger hair.

Excessive drinking can result in bloodshot or tired looking eyes. Alcohol causes bloating and puffiness, and of course, the fact that our sleep patterns are disrupted leads to dark circles around our eyes.

Within a couple of alcohol-free weeks, your eyes will become brighter, clearer and regain their sparkle!

Try the 100-Day Selfie Test!

Not convinced that an alcohol-free lifestyle will improve your looks? Then put it to the test.

When people join Tribe Sober, we recommend they take a selfie and then another one after 100 alcohol-free days.

The results are amazing!

Clearer skin, sparkling eyes and no sign of puffiness.

Try it and see.

Alcohol and Our Mental Health

Our mental state also has a big impact on our looks, of course. Just think about the way that you can assess most people’s mood by a quick glance at their face!

Anxiety, depression and anger all show in our facial expressions.

Some of us spend years in therapy, discovering ways to deal with our social anxiety and low moods, and we drink wine…

Yet what’s the one thing we can do to improve our looks and our mental health?

The simple (if a little scary) answer is that we need to stop or at least moderate our wine habit.

Even a couple of glasses of wine a night will add up to more than the so called “safe” limits of alcohol which works out at just one and a half bottles of wine a week.

Getting older is tough enough without pouring ethanol on our symptoms.

So many of us self-medicate with wine. Using it to numb our feelings of depression and anxiety. Well, here’s the thing. Alcohol is a depressant so, although you may experience a brief chemical high, there will be a price to pay, whether it’s a 3 a.m. wake-up call or a hangover the next morning.

As for anxiety… drinking alcohol is like pouring gasoline on your anxiety.

Sobriety is the secret to staying younger longer – it’s the best thing we can do for our health, happiness and appearance as we age.

So, ditch the drink and let sobriety be your springboard to a healthier and happier (and better looking) future.

Ready to Try an Alcohol-Free Lifestyle?

When we make a major lifestyle change, we need to connect with others on the same path. We need a Tribe! Tribe Sober has an international community of 400 members – all supporting and encouraging each other as they build their beautiful alcohol-free lives. Use the coupon code “sixty” for a 20% discount on Annual Membership. More info here.ac

Listen to the weekly Tribe Sober podcast – available on Apple & Spotify.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

How many years have you been drinking? Do you drink consistently – a glass or two of wine most evenings? Have you ever tried to take a break to test your dependence? Have you noticed an impact on your looks after a taking a break? Do you ever worry about your drinking? Are you aware of the health dangers of alcohol as you get older?

Where did October and November go? Disappeared while I was reading these 12 books, most of them worth considering for your book stack. Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash by Jean Shepherd (First Broadway Books, 1966)

In my recent reading, someone referred to this classic book of short stories and I thought, there’s another of the most heralded books that I’ve not read. Easy to remedy as there was no waiting list at the library.

There is nothing that Jean Shepherd could say in 10 words that he does not expand to 15, using the most wonderful, descriptive prose. You must fall into the rhythm of the writing reflecting life in Hammond, IN in the early 1950s. This book is the source of the movie The Christmas Story and the esteemed Red Ryder BB Gun.

I was captivated because Hohman, as the town of Hammond is fictionally referred to, is close to Chicago. It’s part of The Region, the section of Northwestern Indiana (Porter and Lake Counties) included in the Chicago Metro Area. My husband and his family were from The Region. Their economic improvement was marked by a move to Cedar Lake (not the lakefront, thank goodness). You’ll understand when you read about Cedar Lake in the book.

There are lots of smiles, a few guffaws, and many fond memories in Shepherd’s stories. Great light reading.

White Teeth by Zadie Smith (Vintage Books 2009)

Zadie Smith has a new book, so I thought I’d start by reading her first book. Unfortunate decision. White Teeth didn’t cut it for me. It’s long. 500+ pages tucked into 445 because of tiny type and uncomfortable crowding on the page. The characters, old or young, didn’t develop in interesting ways. I felt cheated, investing so much time.

Then, talking with a friend about Ms. Smith, I remembered I’d read her novel, On Beauty, and felt the same. Ms. Smith puts the words on the page nicely, but they didn’t rise to meet me.

Jerusalem: The Biography by Simon Sebag Montefiore (Knopf, 2011)

Sebag Montefiore is a well-known historian. I’ve read his two Stalin biographies: the early life and the later life. Sebag Montefiore’s books are not for the faint of heart. Jerusalem weighs in at 2 ¾ pounds, 543 pages, augmented by maps, dynastic records, picture sections, copious notes, bibliography, and index –650 pages in total. Not easy to read in bed.

I wish I could tell you it was worth the slog, but it wasn’t, unless you love reading big history or will be visiting Jerusalem. There is so much here, from the Bronze Age to 2010. Why Jerusalem? Because this non-descript town sits on a rise in a great plain, the Judaean hills, that is the main land path between what became known as Russia, Europe, and North Africa to the riches of the East – and there was good water fed by an underground spring.

Great civilizations met and clashed in the 150 x 100 square miles centered by Jerusalem. Jerusalem focuses on the triumphs and failures of the three People of the Book: Muslims, Jews, and Christians. The winner equals none.

I was smug in my knowledge on October 6 when war broke out again between Palestinians and Israelis along the Gaza Strip. Because I read Jerusalem, I knew where, when, why, etc. regarding this never-ending tragedy.

Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog by Lisa Scottoline (St. Martin’s Press, 2009)

This woman writes funny! This is a collection of her newspaper columns from the Philadelphia Inquirer and a reason why we subscribed to print newspapers. Each essay is about 600 words so you can easily budget your time. Highly recommended for a fun read.

Scottoline is a prolific writer of legal mysteries. I’ll be trying one shortly.

March by Geraldine Brooks (Penguin, 2006)

Brooks also has a new book, Horse, and as I often do, I went to her bibliography for one of her older books – this one the winner of the Pulitzer Prize. I didn’t do any research, so was surprised to learn this is fan fiction based on Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. March is the story of the father who is an abolitionist Christian minister serving in the Civil War, and away from the home of the Little Women in Massachusetts.

This is a good book and tying it into Alcott’s parallel universe deepens its appeal. Brooks creates a fascinating, selfish, egotistical, loving, misogynistic father, husband, minister. Fortunately, he learns a bit from his mistakes. I appreciated the historical plot anchored to John Brown, the Concord pacificists, Lincoln and his proximity to the front lines, and the medical horror of the Civil War. I did find the interracial romance a bit contrived, but that’s fiction.

A Wrinkle in the Long Gray Line by Cary Donham (BookBaby, 2023)

This book interested me because Cary is the husband of a friend. It’s the story of a West Point cadet, who, after three years in the academy, finds himself in the moral dilemma of a conscious objector to war. The amazing part is that Donham persevered with his decision to leave West Point until he received an honorable discharge and did not have to serve in the regular army in non-combat to complete his service.

The story is interesting. Donham is a small-town midwestern boy who emerged a man of principle after struggles within the military and after leaving. Like many self-published books, it could be more engaging and concise, but this is an unusual story deserving attention.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan (Knoph 2013)

Ouch, this is a tough book! Along the lines of WWII in the Pacific books such as A Town Like Alice, Unbroken, and A Bridge on the River Kwai, this is about Australian soldiers who are Japanese POWs. The story jumps around from the protagonist’s pre-war history to the war, to post-war, to his death.

Excellent writing – I swam right through it. Winner of the Mann-Booker Prize 2014. Highly recommended if you can deal with the horror of war.

How Not to Be a Politician by Rory Stewart, (Penguin, 2023)

I love Rory Stewart. I first came upon him while reading travel books involving lengthy walks. Rory walked the breadth of Afghanistan and later Iraq as a traveler and as a UK government minister. He was appointed Governor of a British-occupied province in Iraq. He was and is a precocious middle-of-the-road Conservative politico.

All of this is recorded in his first two books, The Places in Between and The Prince of Marshes. Rory always takes his jobs seriously, those who work with him less so, whether they be British subjects or locals. His books speak truth to power, but no one who matters listens.

And so it is with How Not to Be a Politician. Rory returns to the UK, resettling in his native Scotland. His goal is to battle global warming and preserve the native beauty of Great Britain. He is unable to do anything through “proper channels.” So, he finds a possible district for election on the border between England and Scotland, Penrith and The Border, the largest district geographically in the House of Commons.

The book details his campaigns, elections, and ultimate defeat when he stands against Boris Johnson for Head of the Party/Prime Minister. By this time, lots of people like Rory, but he’s still a squirrely Member from the boonies, and Boris Johnson is, well …

I found it a great read. For us US citizens, Rory includes a glossary of Brit speak and the political structure of the UK. Enjoy! You can find Rory today on his weekly podcast, From Politician to Podcast.

Horse by Geraldine Brooks (Viking, 2022)

As a child, I read every horse book in the Kirkwood Public Library. My fav was King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry, and it still is. Horse is not unlike King of the Wind. An exceptional stallion, caught in unfortunate circumstances, attended by an enslaved child – and all’s well that ends well. There is a great story in between. I highly recommend that you read both books if you enjoy horse stories enshrined in historical novels.

The Tempest Tales by Walter Mosley (Black Classic Press, 2008)

I’ve always wanted to try a Mosley book and when I discovered his short Tempest series, I tried the first book. It does start with a murder of one Tempest Landry, who appears before St. Peter and refuses to accept Peter’s verdict that Landry is a sinner.

According to the rules of the hereafter, sinners and saints must personally accept their judgement. And thus begins an almost metaphysical tale of Mosley, an angel, and the devil.

Landry’s claim is that Black people sin because they must shortcut the system that is stacked against them. I appreciated the wry approach to morals, but I probably won’t continue with the series because it’s sure to have more of this battle that really didn’t hold my interest.

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023)

642 pages, but don’t be alarmed. After the first 100, you won’t want to put it down. It’s a dysfunctional family yarn that left me gasping as it jumped from generation to generation and story to story.

Each family member is a narrator, with exciting outside characters. Murray’s prose will captivate you. The sitting in recessionary Ireland is the perfect milieu for financial family stress. The ending will… well, then there is that ending. Highly recommended novel.

All Systems Red by Martha Wells (Tor, 2017)

No idea how I selected this book. Likely a reviewer mentioned its superior qualities in passing. It reads like a YA sci-fi novel. But I enjoyed the fast-paced story, the “character” development of the SecUnit (robot), originally programmed to be a MurderBot, but self-reprogrammed to enjoy a limited freedom of choice. It’s short and fun. If I had 8-12-year-old children at home, I’d be reading this aloud with them. I’ve already ordered the next book in the series.

For more book reviews, check out our BOOKS SECTION.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

How many books have you read this fall? Which of them was your favorite? What was it about? If it’s part of a series, would you be reading the sequel? Do you prefer to purchase your books or borrow them from a library?