After 16 years of dying my hair, I was fed up with the high-maintenance routine that went into covering up my blazing white streak. From the ages of 26 to 42, I spent hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars on upkeep. The only thing that stood in the way of quitting was my fear of looking…well, old and unattractive. But after weeks of soul searching and scrolling through countless Internet photos of confident women with gorgeous silver ’dos, I found the courage to show off my own sparkly strands. Freeing myself from this unnecessary chore seemed like a no-brainer. Do the scary thing, and the rest will follow, right?

It wasn’t that easy. As it turns out, nothing about hair and beauty standards is simple, and that includes caring for grey hair. Growing out my long, dark-chocolate-coloured locks took an agonizingly long time. Styling it was still work. And I was never going to look like British Vogue editor Sarah Harris, no matter what products I tried. Everyone’s hair is different and that includes a multitude of shades, patterns and textures.

The age at which you go grey is also highly individual, and mostly depends on genetics, according to chemistry professor Joe Schwarcz, director of McGill University’s Office for Science and Society. If one or both of your parents went grey at a young age, he tells me, you’re more likely to start earlier as well. Disease and smoking are also known to speed up colour change, but there isn’t good evidence that stress alone can do it. What is clear is how it works: Hair follicles gradually lose their pigmentation, which is made by a complex protein called melanin. Around the same time your body stops making melanin, your hair follicles also start producing less sebum, a naturally occurring oil that hydrates hair. The result is strands that can be drier and more wiry in texture.

Here’s what else I learned about growing out grey hair and how to keep it looking its best.

Consider how to ditch the dye

There are a few ways you can go grey, and it may depend on how much of it you have and what your tolerance is for this totally awkward phase of embracing it. (If you never dyed your hair in the first place, yay, you can skip this part.) You can quit colouring cold turkey. That’s the cheapest and easiest option. You’ll have to live with the demarcation line where your coloured hair and your roots meet until your natural colour reaches your desired length (this can take years)—or until you decide to chop off the dyed part and wear it in a pixie cut.

Another way to go is “grey blending,” says Ruby Fernandes, a stylist and colourist who specializes in light shades at Sekt Hair Studio in Toronto. Grey blending involves adding highlights or lowlights to both your natural roots and your artificially coloured hair to either camouflage or accentuate your grey strands.

You might also consider a more radical “grey transformation,” which involves a long day of having any artificial colour stripped out of your hair, bleaching everything but the roots and then applying a new colour that matches your natural shade of grey. Find a colourist who has expertise in blond and grey hues. “They know how to get the highest level of lightener while keeping the integrity of the hair, as well as how to get the right tone of grey,” says Fernandes.

Quench your greys

As your grey hair is growing in, it may feel dry or bristly, but that doesn’t mean it’s unhealthy. “Grey hair is as healthy as any melanated hair,” says Renée Beach, a dermatologist at DermAtelier in Toronto. “It is just unfortunately associated with age and a lack of upkeep and glamour.” But even that stigma is starting to disappear, thanks in no small part to a pandemic “silver lining” that has seen more women of all ages ditch the dye. To help deal with a change of hair texture, notes Beach, look for products that contain humectants and protein derivatives, which can help make grey strands softer, shinier and less prone to breakage. With drier hair, you can also get away with less frequent washing, adds Fernandes. Win-win.

Deal with discolouration

Many people notice that their grey hair—especially lighter shades—can also take on a yellowish tint. This can be caused by anything from minerals in water to heat damage to residue from hair products or even natural oils from the scalp, says Schwarcz. Protective measures include using a cleansing shampoo to remove any buildup or yellowish cast, using a heat protectant when styling and keeping your hair covered from the sun when UV exposure is at its highest.

(Related: Should You Be Using Clarifying Shampoo?)

Experiment with toners

A popular trick that helps get rid of brassy tones in grey hair is using a purple or blue shampoo. The way it works is simple: On a colour wheel, purple is opposite yellow and blue is opposite orange, so adding blue or purple pigments to your hair works to cancel out yellow or orange discoloration. Schwarcz and Fernandes agree that knowing which one will work best for your hair requires trial and error, but a good rule of thumb is that, as your hair starts to grey, purple shampoo is good for blondes and blue shampoo is better for brunettes.

You can also try toning with a semi-permanent silver dye or gloss, at home or in the salon. Having your hair professionally clarified and toned every six months is still far less of a commitment than regular root touch-ups. Regardless of your hair colour, toned hair “just feels fresher, brighter,” says Fernandes. “So does finding a cut that looks great on your face shape.”

Shop our picks

Here are six silver-friendly products that clarify, tone, nourish and more.

This clarifying shampoo helps lift product buildup, excess oil and mineral residue with a formula of apple cider vinegar and hair-smoothing keratin.
Ouai Detox Shampoo, $39, sephora.ca

A light blend of olive oil and argan oil in this blow-dry cream helps smooth and protect hair from styling heat without weighing it down.
Marc Anthony Nourishing Argan Oil of Morocco 3 Day Smoothing Cream, $14, shoppersdrugmart.ca

Kim Kardashian and Jennifer Lopez’s hair stylist, Chris Appleton, raves about this spray for shiny, sleek and “glass-like” strands.
Color Wow Dream Coat Supernatural Spray Anti-Frizz Treatment, $14.50, sephora.ca

This pigment-depositing shampoo and conditioner set helps neutralize brassy tones to get rid of unwanted yellow streaks while adding brightness to colour-treated and natural grey and white shades.
Matrix Color Obsessed So Silver Duo, $38, matandmax.com

Envelop your hair in a hydrating mask that promises plumper and bouncier hair for 72 hours.
L’Oréal Paris Hyaluron Plump Moisture Wrapping Mask with Hyaluronic Acid, $8, walmart.ca

Next: Why You Should Tell Your Derm About Hair Loss

I’ve been in talk therapy for nine years (and counting!). It’s lead me to a greater awareness of what I need to work on. But recently, therapy alone hasn’t been cutting it. I have the tools to acknowledge what bothers me, but it isn’t helping me move past physical trauma responses. I needed a change.

So, on a friend’s recommendation, I turned to Othership, a Toronto bathhouse specializing in emotional and physical wellness. Here, the cold plunges are accompanied by guided meditations and group sauna sessions.

My experience with water circuit therapy

When I first stepped into Othership, I was in awe of how beautiful the space is. There are rooms with tubs with stone features and a wood-panelled sauna, setting the stage for a grounding experience. Earthy incense and herbal teas are incorporated throughout. As an employee circulated around the ice baths with a water quality device in one hand and an incense stick in the other, I couldn’t help but raise a brow. Of course, Eastern practices are common in wellness spaces. However, without acknowledgment of their origins or purpose, it can feel like they are just being whittled down to aesthetics.

A starter pack of three sessions for “new journeyers” is $110. The water circuit therapy class I attended alternated between a sauna and cold plunges up to three minutes long. This is all accompanied with guided group meditation, which focuses on emotions and acknowledging the bodily sensations that come with them.

My goal was to work on my anxiety around heat. I tend to avoid humid spaces because I feel like I can’t breathe, and the sensation of heat is associated with a negative moment in my life. (I can thank talk therapy here for the self-awareness about this!) Throughout the sauna session, the instructor encouraged us to sit in the uncomfortable sensations of heat instead of running away. Surprisingly, despite the numerous conversations in talk therapy about why the heat bothered me, we never developed ways to tolerate it. But at Othership, I made it through the entire session. I felt so proud to conquer that fear.

The health benefits of a cold plunge

Then it was time for the cold-water plunge. My curiosity with cold as a way to regulate emotions first came up when my talk therapist. She taught me that holding ice cubes in my hand can help when I’m feeling overwhelmed. Aimed at decreasing my feelings of panic, cold water has a variety of health benefits overall, as any obsessed cold-plunger will tell you. In a study by the European Journal of Applied Physiology, a test group of young men were immersed in a variety of different temperatures of water. The results showed a decrease in heart rate and blood pressure. Additionally, there was even an increase in metabolism and dopamine as the water got colder.

The physical benefits of water circuit therapy, cycling between cold and hot water, are a bit murkier. J. Sawalla Guseh, a sports cardiologist at Mass General Brigham in Boston, says that “the short and long-term benefits of cold-water immersion therapies for the regular population are unproven, especially beyond their impact on the musculoskeletal system.”

And there are short-term physiological responses to cold therapies, like an increase in adrenaline and elevated blood pressure, to keep in mind. “If you have [arterial disease] or heart muscle disease, extreme cold immersion may not be the best approach,” Guseh says. He also warns patients about the risk of hypothermia and certain rheumatologic conditions.

The health benefits of hot saunas

Resting in a hot sauna can boost serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin, says neuroscientist Friederike Fabritius . The combination of all three—dopamine is the happiness hormone, serotonin encourages a sense of calm and oxytocin helps you relax—is what results in that post-sauna good mood.

While the physical and mental benefits of water circuit therapy may vary from person to person, one thing is for sure: The shock of immersing yourself in a tub of cold water is an unforgettable experience. Although I was hesitant about whether Othership was a gimmick, I was proven wrong. When I emerged from the cold water, I felt proud of my resilience. My internal monologue of racing thoughts was silenced and I stepped away feeling calm.

Othership helped me find a level of healing I wasn’t able to reach with talk therapy. I appreciated the space to not just work through things in my head, but also to get in tune with my mind and body.

And if you’re my therapist and you’re reading this? Don’t worry, I’ll still make it to our next session.

Next: My Phone Makes Me Anxious—Can a Meditation App Help?

I’m an active gal. When I run or do yoga, my thin little bob gets sweaty, so I’m tempted to wash it every day. But I also swim laps, so washing plus chlorine dries my hair to a crispy mess.

The rising ‘no ‘poo’ movement caught my attention. Followers are ditching their shampoo bottle and using brushes and talc. They profess to having gorgeous locks and say hair in its natural state is healthier, better for the environment and looks fabulous with little work.

(Sign up for our Must Reads newsletter for more feel-good tips, beauty product recommendations and delicious recipes!)

I gave the shampoo-free life a try for a little while. Here are five reasons why you might want to ditch the ‘poo, too:

1. Avoid chemicals

Many of the unpronounceable ingredients on shampoo and conditioner labels come with safety concerns. Possible carcinogen and hormone disrupter diethyl phthalate (DEP) helps hair products hold fragrance. Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) makes shampoo foam up, but it irritates skin and could be cancer-causing. Parabens work as a preservative, but they’ve been found in breast cancer tumour tissue, says Rick Smith, executive director of Environmental Defence, and coauthor of Slow Death By Rubber Duck. He suggests washing less often or buying products without these ingredients.

2. Use less water

When you’re not washing your hair every day, you reduce your water consumption, which has environmental benefits. (I’ve found, on non-hair-wash days, a quick splash on my body from the tub faucet is all I need.) But also, reducing how much water your hair is exposed to is good for your locks, especially if you colour as the heat and minerals in your shower water strips colour from your strands. “Water alone can be responsible for 80 percent of colour fade,”  says Jeni Thomas, principal scientist for P&G Beauty and Grooming in Cincinnati, OH. She recommends that when you do wash your hair, you expose it to as little water as possible.

(Related: Is Hard Water Ruining My Hair?)

3. Save time

Washing, conditioning and styling takes up a heck of a lot of time in the morning. When you wash your hair less often, you gain time to do other healthful things like taking a morning jog or sleeping in. Having some tricks to extend the time between hair washings lets you be more flexible. For instance, hold off on washing before a midday swim (a favourite trick of mine) or take a full shower after an evening tennis game.

4. Get healthier hair

The folks who don’t wash their hair for months on end claim that when they stop washing, their hair eventually produces less scalp oil, which is called sebum. The result: hair that’s shiny, moist and healthy ‘ never greasy. Thomas agrees that sebum is good for your hair: “Scalp oils have a naturally protective quality — they’re nature’s conditioner.”

However, Thomas says there are no published studies showing sebum works on a supply and demand model. “What you do when you remove oils is more of an external effect,” she says. “I don’t know of any proof that this can impact the underlying biological process.”

5. Get to know your locks

In the end, I was able to go just two weeks without washing my hair. But brushing and talc was enough to keep grease at bay for about a week at a time. After a summer of infrequent washing, I improved my scalp health (all that brushing removed traces of dandruff), but I mainly learned a whole lot about my hair and let go of my own rigid rules about when it needed to be washed. I found my locks had more body when dirty than clean, and I could easily go three days without washing. But as a regular lap swimmer with thin hair, I also found that shampoo was something I did need, at least a few times a week.

How you can stretch the time between washes

• When you do wash, Toronto hairstylist Harry Josh says to really clean your scalp to rid it of oils.
• Brush your hair nightly with a boar bristle brush. This redistributes the sebum in your hair, moving it from your oily scalp down to the dry ends.
• Use dry shampoo on bangs to tame oil. Find a coloured talc so you don’t get a funny white residue at your roots.
• When things get nasty, “wash” your hair with a baking soda and water paste and rinse it out with diluted vinegar.

Next: Can Some Hair Products Actually Give You a Fuller Mane?

Known by a variety of names—including Jerusalem artichokes and earth apples—sunchokes are neither from Jerusalem nor an artichoke, but rather a species of sunflower. The edible roots look like ginger roots, and while you can eat them raw, they’re absolutely dynamite when roasted in the oven. Sunchokes can be harvested at various times of year in Canada but taste best after a hard frost. If the ground remains unfrozen in winter, you can dig these gems up in January. Most often, you’ll find them at farmers’ markets between November and February. Roasting them until crispy turns these knobby tubers into orbs of glory; great on their own but even better when dipped in an herbed aioli.

(Related: A Recipe for Sea Buckthorn and Thyme Posset, Excerpted from “Prairie”)

Crispy Sunchokes with Herbed Aioli

Serves 4

Ingredients

Aioli

• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ tsp kosher salt, plus more for seasoning
• 2 egg yolks
• 1½ Tbsp apple cider vinegar 1 cup canola oil
• ½ tsp white pepper

Main

• 2 Tbsp canola oil, divided 1½ lb sunchokes
• ½ cup Aioli
• ¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 2 Tbsp chopped tarragon
• ¼ tsp Maldon sea salt, for finishing

 Directions

Aioli

Add the garlic and salt to a mortar and use a pestle to grind into a paste.

To a large bowl, add the egg yolks and vinegar and whisk until blended. Add the garlic paste and blend. Slowly whisk in the oil until the mixture emulsifies and thickens into a sauce. Add the pepper and whisk to incorporate.

Taste the aioli and season with a bit more salt (if needed). Store in a lidded container in the fridge, and mark the date on the label. Because this recipe contains raw egg yolks, it should be consumed within 4 days.

Main

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and pour 1 Tbsp of the oil over the surface. Use the back of a large spoon to spread the oil evenly on the sheet.

Rinse the sunchokes and cut off any blackened parts. Set a large pot of salted water to boil. Add the sunchokes, cook until fork-tender (about 15 minutes), and drain.

Place the sunchokes on the prepared baking sheet and, with the back of a coffee cup, gently press down on each sunchoke until it cracks and flattens to about ½ inch thick. Drizzle with the remaining 1 Tbsp oil. Bake for 15 minutes, and then turn the sunchokes over with a spatula and bake until they’ve reached a desirable crispy texture, about 10 minutes more.

While the sunchokes are baking, place the aioli in a small bowl, add the parsley and tarragon, and mix well with a fork.

Finish the sunchokes with Maldon sea salt and serve them warm on a platter with a small bowl of aioli in the centre.

Excerpted from Prairie by Dan Clapson and Twyla Campbell. Copyright © 2023 Dan Clapson and Twyla Campbell. Photographs by Dong Kim. Published by Appetite by Random House®, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.

Next: Crispy Shrimp Cakes with Smoky Tomato Aioli

Last year, at age 52, I finally had a hysterectomy for adenomyosis, after three decades of incrementally increasing pain for two weeks of every month. For the most part, removing my uterus rid me of the severe pain I was having (both when ovulating and during my period). Although it was a relief, it’s still hard for me to process that there were options all along—I just didn’t know it. I didn’t even believe I had an issue worthy of medical intervention.

In my 20s, I first asked my GP about the weird, sudden-onset bloating I would get. “I wake up with a flat stomach but within a few minutes, without even eating anything, I look like I’m four months pregnant,” I told the doctor. “I don’t know anyone else who has this.”

She asked a couple of questions: “Does it only happen around your period?” No; always before my period, but at other times too—I didn’t notice a pattern. “Is it painful?” At the time, I categorized it more as discomfort than pain, though it was a rare month when I didn’t use any painkillers. She dismissed it as normal. The bloating was inconvenient, sometimes embarrassing, but the pain would rarely last more than a few days, so I started dismissing it, too.

My Adenomyosis Symptoms

Other symptoms—which, I now know, were all related to my troublesome uterus—started to creep in over time. I needed to pee frequently, and I had difficulty fully emptying my bladder (which led to chronic UTIs). I also experienced discomfort during sex, as well as heavier periods and continuously increasing pain and bloating. The worsening of these symptoms was steady but slow, so I waved it away as just one of those things most women have to deal with. And because period pain comes and goes, it was possible to forget about it once it subsided.

Here and there over the years I would ask my doctors about solutions, but each time I was told “there’s nothing to be done,” or that I should focus on managing my stress. Even the urologist who was advising me on my chronic UTIs quickly moved on to the next routine question. I didn’t want to be labelled as a “problem patient,” so I stopped pushing it. Even as the pain got more debilitating, I avoided talking about it with the people I love most. I just relied on ibuprofen, acetaminophen, a heating pad and the knowledge that it would get better in a few days.

Of course, when my period pain first began—as a teen in the 1980s—there was no Dr. Google to consult. And it was only a few years ago, thanks to a cycle tracking app, that I even realized my symptoms were arriving and ramping up like clockwork. That’s when I noticed it wasn’t just before and during my period, but also when I was ovulating, mid-month. Knowing that the pattern was mostly predictable helped me cope.

What wasn’t predictable was a half dozen episodes of additional, intense pain that was so excruciating I would writhe on the floor for an hour or two. This was likely the rupturing of ovarian cysts, I have since learned, and it feels as agonizing as appendicitis (or so I’m told). I was about 16 the first time it happened; the last was while I was waiting for my hysterectomy date.

For reasons that don’t make any sense to me now, I had always rationalized that it was just terrible cramps combined with a bad reaction to taking ibuprofen and acetaminophen together. After about an hour, the meds would start to work and the pain would begin to ease. The next few days would always be difficult, but then it would be another five years or so before another episode. So, I would forget about it and go back to my life.

Downplaying Menstrual Health Concerns

We’re all conditioned to downplay symptoms related to uteruses—both period-havers and our doctors, whether they’re male or female. When I would mention my pain, people close to me would be sympathetic. But they couldn’t do anything, and doctors didn’t seem to think it was an issue. (I wonder, though: If I’d wanted children and was having problems getting pregnant, might they have listened to me a little more?)

What was the point of talking about it? Periods are painful. Suck it up, buttercup.

According to many studies, women’s pain is not treated as seriously as men’s. It’s often attributed to psychological rather than physical causes. This dismissing of female pain is especially true for racialized and marginalized groups, including queer, trans, Black, brown and Indigenous women. When women suffer heart attacks, for example, it’s often missed, or downplayed as stress.

A 2019 study by the BC Women’s Health Foundation found that 51 percent of women “felt a doctor or physician had diminished or overlooked their symptoms.” We also know that women’s health issues have also been chronically underfunded for years. Should we be surprised that the word “hysterical” comes from the Greek for “suffering in the womb?”

The dismissal of women’s pain can also be internalized. Now that I know I had a legitimate medical problem all along, one that’s worthy of attention and resolution, I wonder what it might have taken for me to honour my own symptoms, instead of discounting and dismissing them just as my doctors had. How bad would the pain and bleeding have had to get before I insisted on more treatment, or at least demanded some tests? Would I have pushed harder if “periods are painful” didn’t apply? Or if the pain was emanating from a body part that men have, too?

Finding Fibroids

Things changed for me only with the discovery of something physical and measurable—fibroids—during a routine pelvic exam at age 50. (Canadian provinces transitioned what used to be annual pelvic exams to every three years in 2013. I believe that had I been checked yearly, my diagnosis would likely have come sooner.)

This was when I was finally sent for some diagnostic tests and referred to a gynecologist. It was the first time any doctor, even the urologist, had ever mentioned seeing a specialist. She suspected both fibroids and adenomyosis, a condition where endometrial tissue grows on the outside of the uterine wall instead of staying inside, where it’s supposed to be. I’d only heard of endometriosis before, which is when which is when tissue similar to the endometrium, the lining of the uterus, grows in the abdomen.

Not only did I now have validation and recognition of my symptoms, I also had a cornucopia of options: medications, an IUD, uterine artery embolization (cutting off the blood supply to temporarily shrink the fibroids), myomectomy (removal of the fibroids) or a hysterectomy. Each had varying degrees of side effects and effectiveness, and some were faster to schedule than others.

The only cure for fibroids and adenomyosis is to remove the organ they grow on—the uterus. This is why my decision to have a hysterectomy was easy, even though it meant the longest wait. If I needed an invasive procedure, I wanted only one. And I wanted it to work.

My Hysterectomy for Adenomyosis and Fibroids

The pandemic delayed my hysterectomy, but I finally had it in May 2022. Once the surgery began, it turned out to be more complicated than expected. Not only did I have several fibroids and adenomyosis, they also found ovarian cysts and endometriosis that had fused my uterus to my bowel. The uterus is normally plum-sized and squishy. During the operation they found that my uterus was so large and rigid and I needed a 10-centimetre incision up to my belly button to remove it. They initially planned to operate through my cervix, then switched to laparoscopic mid-surgery. Finally, they ended up having to do the vertical abdominal incision. Even the typical “bikini cut” C-section wouldn’t have worked.

I felt vindicated when, explaining everything she’d found, my surgeon commented, “You must have incredible pain tolerance!” I guess I’d gotten good at sucking it up.

More than a year post-surgery now, I feel pretty great. I still get minor bloating and cramping twice a month. The symptoms start when I’m ovulating and during the week when I would have gotten my period. Currently, I still have my ovaries. As far as I can tell, I haven’t gone through menopause yet.

Of course, I do worry whether the endometrial tissue that had to be left on my intestine is still growing. I hope that if I have another painful ovarian cyst rupture, it will pass quickly, like the others. And as I approach menopause, all of this should diminish. Though I realize I may be in for a whole other set of notorious symptoms that are often minimized.

Advocating for Your Reproductive Health

Hindsight is 20/20, of course. Still, I wonder what could have happened if my doctors had looked into my symptoms when they first started, or when they worsened. What if I hadn’t accepted “it’s normal” for an answer, time and time again? Would they have found the fibroids, cysts, adenomyosis and endometriosis then? Could my life have been free from decades of discomfort and pain? Would I have known at an early age that I was infertile anyway? Maybe I could have avoided the side effects and expense of birth control pills. Would an early hysterectomy for adenomyosis have been simpler, without all the complications? Or would I have been outright denied a hysterectomy when I was still of childbearing age?

I’ll never know. I wish I’d taken my symptoms more seriously decades ago, and had better advocated for myself to get the help I needed.

Women’s pain is valid, and it matters: It’s telling us something is wrong. We shouldn’t hesitate to demand more attention and to ask all of the questions until we get answers. Knowing our own bodies and wanting our medical concerns addressed doesn’t mean we’re problem patients. I’ve learned that toughing it out and living with pain for decades is neither acceptable nor something to be proud of. We have to speak up, and keep speaking up, until we get the care we deserve.

Related: The Pill is Good. Why Isn’t it Better? 

Before she pokes around in her patients’ brains, Gelareh Zadeh tries to put herself in their shoes. Brain cancer is a devastating disease: Glioblastoma, the most common and most lethal type of tumour, has an average survival time of just eight months, a length that hasn’t budged in decades. But delivering the news of this diagnosis isn’t so much a science as an art, one that Zadeh, a neurosurgeon at Toronto Western Hospital, and co-director at the Krembil Brain Institute, part of the University Health Network (UHN), has honed over 15 years in the field. Understanding who a patient is, how they were raised, whether they’re someone who prizes control—it all shapes the way she interacts with them. “How we manage the situation for patients impacts how they manage their disease,” she says. “We hold a unique position, because we’re engaged with them at the most sensitive time in their life.”

Zadeh, who left Iran as a teenager and landed in Winnipeg on a frigid Boxing Day in 1988, emphasizes that she can’t predict the future for any patient with brain cancer. But her research is, finally, moving the needle on the outcomes they can expect. Working with a colleague at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, she developed a blood test that can not only detect brain cancer but reveal the type of tumour and its likelihood to recur. And in a recent, groundbreaking clinical trial at the UHN, she helped identify a new combination therapy that may give patients with glioblastoma months or even years longer to live. Here, Zadeh discusses neurosurgery’s razor-thin margin of error, how to predict the risk for brain tumours and the value of staying in the moment.

What does the brain actually look like?

It’s incomparable. The layers that are there to protect our brain, the way the different structures of the brain reflect light—it’s just really beautiful and intricate. You can see the bundles of nerves that connect to each other and allow us to be who we are. I think that’s the part that really fascinates me. All of this intricate anatomy makes us uniquely who we are.

And what happens when something goes wrong in there?

We’re still in the infancy of understanding how we repair the brain. You can put stents in a heart, you can replace joints. But what’s the equivalent of a joint repair for the brain? Because once brain tissue is damaged—whether it’s through a stroke, neurodegeneration from Alzeheimer’s, aneurysm, brain cancer—the ability to restore that function is not there.

How is treating brain tumours different from treating other types of cancer?

Because of the eloquence of the brain, you have little margin of safety to reach a tumour. And it’s essential to remove the tumour without damaging brain tissue, because the likelihood of restoring that function is very low. That adds a degree of complexity and, I would say, stress to what we do. This is not to diminish what other surgeons do, but if you lose a few centimeters of your bowel during bowel surgery, the impact to the individual is not as tremendous. We have maybe a few millimeters that we can work in. The cranial nerves that allow us to talk, to move our eyes, to make facial expressions are so sensitive—in our world, we say that if you just look at the third nerve, it stops operating, because it’s such a sensitive nerve.

How has brain tumour diagnosis changed just in the time you’ve been in the field?

At the start of my career, we still relied on clinical exam to determine where the lesion was. Then magnetic resonance imaging came out, and it was one of the biggest evolutions in seeing, diagnosing and surgical planning. And on the research side, genomic analysis of tumours has really expanded our understanding of where these tumours come from and what are the potential targets.

What happens once we know the potential targets?

That provides us with a therapeutic approach. I also think we’re beginning to understand how we can use this data to come up with predictive modelling— meaning, what is the test that tells the average person whether they’re at risk? We all get a mammogram on a routine basis. There’s a PSA test for prostate cancer. So what is the single test that’s going to tell me I will be at risk of developing glioblastoma? What is the profile of my tumour that will distinguish whether I’ll respond to the standard treatment? Right now, we give radiation to everybody. And not everybody responds the same way.

Well, walk me through the blood test you’ve developed. What does it allow you to do?

The concern has always been that the blood-brain barrier, which protects [outside] material from going into our brain, also prevents us shedding material from the brain into the blood—like DNA evidence of cancer. In fact, we’ve demonstrated that, regardless of the type of brain tumour, it sheds pieces of DNA into the blood in a sufficient amount for us to study. We can detect brain cancer— and we can discriminate between the types of brain cancer, because you can have up to 150 types. And when you know what kind of tumour you’re dealing with, you can give the patient reassurance or give yourself direction. Then there’s the potential to use blood tests to tell when a tumour is coming back. Right now, we rely heavily on MRI, but MRI has limitations: You can only see pathologies that are bigger than, for example, 10 million cells, by which point it’s too late because the cancer’s already been quite active. So can a blood test tell us—faster, more accurately, earlier than an MRI—that cancer is coming back?

How likely is recurrence?

For glioblastoma, the likelihood of recurrence for a two-year period is 100 percent. It’s the most lethal adult cancer. The standard of treatment is surgery, followed by chemoradiation, but then, inevitably, recurrence. But we have a clinical trial that’s really remarkable. At recurrence, we inject an adenovirus [a weakened common-cold virus] into the tumour. The adenovirus is designed to attack cancer cells, but not normal brain tissue, and it’s delivered through a needle in a very slow, pressured process. After that injection, the patient goes on immunotherapy by oral intake of the drug. The adenovirus infects the cells and induces an immune reaction, and the immunotherapy comes in to really attack those cells and take away the dead cancer cells.

What results have you seen? It’s beyond exciting. For those who responded—who have signatures in their tumours that respond to this treatment— we have a 50 percent increase in survival. Some of our patients have lived for longer than three years. But also, I do want to encourage patients to focus on things outside of how long they have to live. You have to help people get to a place where they can enjoy the time they have.

Has this work made you more present as well? So much of our health can turn on a dime. I think the events that determine our lives and shape where we end up are moments we can’t actually predict or control. So I truly, firmly believe that I have to live in the moment.

Next: What Therapists Think About Neuro-Linguistic Programming for Mental Health

The late chef Gail Hall was one of Edmonton’s most outspoken supporters of seasonal eating and small-scale producers. This clafoutis recipe was one of the first dishes she taught people to make at her loft cooking school in downtown Edmonton, located on the same street as the farmers’ market. After picking up the fresh ingredients, Gail would take her students back to the loft to eat, cook, and laugh together for most of the day. Her clafoutis recipe was made with plums, but we’re making this beautiful dessert with a different summer fruit, letting raspberries be the stars of the show. Gail would have been totally fine with that.

(Related: A Recipe for Sea Buckthorn and Thyme Posset, Excerpted from “Prairie”)

Raspberry Clafoutis

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

• 2½ cups fresh raspberries
• 5 Tbsp granulated sugar, divided
• ¾ cup whole milk
• 3 eggs
• 1 Tbsp amaretto liqueur
• 2 Tbsp melted butter
• ¾ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 cup heavy (35%) cream
• 2 Tbsp icing sugar
• ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
• ½ tsp cinnamon

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375°F and butter a 10-inch pie plate.

Distribute the raspberries in the prepared pie plate and sprinkle with 2 Tbsp of sugar.

In a small bowl, beat together the milk, eggs, amaretto, and butter. Add the flour, another 2 Tbsp of sugar, baking powder, and salt and beat to a smooth batter. Pour over the raspberries and bake until golden brown and set in the middle, about 30 minutes. The batter will puff slightly.

While the batter is baking, prepare the whipped cream. If using a stand mixer or hand mixer, pour the cream into a large bowl, add the icing sugar and vanilla, and whisk on medium-high speed for about 4 minutes, until medium firm peaks are formed. If using an immersion blender, pour the cream, sugar, and vanilla into a 4-cup jar and blend for the same time, until medium peaks are formed. Cover the container with plastic wrap and place in the fridge until ready to use.

When the clafoutis has finished baking, remove it from the oven and sprinkle it with the cinnamon and the remaining 1 Tbsp sugar. Let cool for 15 minutes before cutting into wedges. Serve with whipped cream.

Excerpted from Prairie by Dan Clapson and Twyla Campbell. Copyright © 2023 Dan Clapson and Twyla Campbell. Photographs by Dong Kim. Published by Appetite by Random House®, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.

Next: A Vegan, Gluten-Free Lemon Tart With a Silky, Citrusy Filling

According to veterinarian Annette Louviere, pets aren’t just good for your health. They’re great. It starts with your hormones: “Simply petting an animal helps to reduce cortisol levels, which is the primary stress hormone, while interacting with animals can increase oxytocin levels, the same hormone associated with feelings of love and bonding,” she says.

Dogs can also affect or health indirectly by encouraging us to move around, get outside, laugh and play. Research published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that owning a pet can decrease your blood pressure, lower your cholesterol and triglyceride levels, slow your heart rate, foster a stronger immune system and encourage better memory and cognitive functions. Pet owners also report less anxiety and lower rates of depression and PTSD than those without animals.

In 2008, the National Institutes of Health in the U.S. launched a 10-year research initiative to examine the relationship between pets and human health, and they uncovered some remarkable data. In one study, scientists looked at 186,421 heart attack victims—some dog owners, some not—a year after they’d suffered their myocardial infarctions. People with canine companions were far more likely to be alive than were those without, regardless of the severity of the heart attack.

Another study followed older adults and found that those who regularly walked a dog had greater mobility inside their homes (a boon for people who wish to age in place) than others who took part in the study.

And a study of more than 2,000 adults found, not surprisingly, that dog owners who regularly take their pooches for a stroll were more physically active and less likely to be obese than those who didn’t own or walk a dog.

Pet owners generally report a greater sense of well-being and happiness, too, and for dog owners, those feelings are certainly linked to the social connections they forge on walks and in dog parks. Newsflash: Dog owners love to chat about their pooches. And studies show that more conversations with acquaintances help you stay socially connected, which in turn leads to living longer with fewer mental and physical declines as you age.

(Learn more about why the secret to a healthy heart is having a dog—or cat!)

We asked a few people on the streets of Toronto what they love about their pups:

Bernard with Oscar, a four-year-old cocker spaniel. “He’s very outgoing… he’s all about the hang. I can’t go a block without people smiling or saying something to me about him. It took a little getting used to. I have an autism disability and I spend a lot of time alone, so his companionship is really important to me.”

Jess with Lucy, a two-and-a-half-year-old French bulldog and pug mix. “She’s a loving dog, and she’s also unhinged and can be a big brat. But she makes me laugh so much. My husband and I walk her together every morning, and it’s a really nice time to hang out, talk about work and decompress. It’s an incredible way to start the day.”

Ernie with Benny, a two-year-old poodle mix. “Benny is bilingual: He understands Portuguese and English. He’s so bubbly and full of energy. I love dogs because there’s nothing phony about them. When they’re mad, they’re mad. When they’re good, they’re good.”

Dianne with Oliver (left) and Charles, an eight-year-old white golden retriever and a three-year-old Bernese mountain dog. “Charles is big in every way. He’s in your face, and he’s all about himself. Oliver is laid back and a total people pleaser. He’s been with me through a lot. My kids are all grown up now, so my dogs are everything. My husband says he’s in third place.”

Anabel with Benji, a one-year-old Maltipoo. “Sometimes I don’t feel like going out for a walk, but once I’m out here, I’m always so grateful.”

Next: Walking This Number of Minutes Will Boost Your Mood

Pop culture eras can be measured in eyebrows. The ’90s and 2000s were dominated by Pamela Anderson’s over-plucked lines. In the 2010s, model Cara Delevingne’s grown-out bushy brows became the grooming standard. Now, after entering a new decade (and trend cycle), high-profile brows are transforming yet again, with model Bella Hadid repping ultra-tiny arches and musician Doja Cat shaving hers off completely. Through each fad, eyebrows remain an inextricable part of our beauty routines—and an ongoing emblem of self-expression. This is why it can feel particularly disheartening when they start to dwindle over time.

“As we age, our hair follicles get weaker,” says Geeta Yadav, a dermatologist and founder of FACET Dermatology. Weaker follicles produce smaller and thinner hairs. Eyebrows are especially susceptible to thinning because of all the tugging, plucking and waxing they’re subjected to, which damages the follicles and can cause them to stop producing hair. This usually begins around perimenopause, which often starts in your 40s. But don’t assume dwindling arches are normal, says Yadav. They can also be a sign of autoimmune, autoinflammatory or hormonal conditions, so it’s important to take note of how your hair is disappearing and if there are any other changes happening alongside it.

FACT: Eyebrow sparseness can be caused by a number of factors, from autoimmune disorders like alopecia areata to hormonal conditions like thyroid disease. But brows can also thin out naturally due to age. 

Alopecia areata, for example, can impact eyebrows. The disease arises when the immune system attacks hair follicles, causing patchiness on areas like your scalp, arms and brows. Eyebrow sparseness can also be a sign of thyroid disease: The thyroid isn’t secreting the right amount of hormones, making the brows thinner. If you notice any irregularities, check in with a doctor.

When it comes to brows thinning naturally as you age though, there are ways to slow the process. To start, stay mindful of your skin’s sensitivities, don’t overdo your grooming and opt for shaping techniques that are less harmful to your skin. Beyond that, there are lots of treatments out there aimed at making fading brows look fuller.

Brow lamination

Like a perm for your arches, this buzzy technique has been hailed as a non-invasive way to spruce up your brows. The 45-minute treatment uses a chemical solution—usually containing thioglycolic acid, which breaks the bonds of the hair and allows them to be re-shaped—to brush follicles in a vertical direction, leaving them fluffy, full and slicked. It can last up to eight weeks, says Brittni Alexandra, an esthetician and owner of B. Beautiful studio in Toronto, who charges $140 for the service. Apart from keeping brows dry for two days after the appointment, there’s no heavy after-care required. But note: This distinct aesthetic of hoisted-up hair is not for everyone. “I call it the supermodel off-duty look,” says Alexandra. Before committing, she recommends trying the “soap brow” trend, brushing brows in an upward position and using pomade, gel or soap to hold them in place. If you do decide to get this treatment, keep in mind that it doesn’t create the look of hair on skin. So, if you have full-length brows that are sparse overall, lamination can make them look thicker. But it can’t bring back the tail-end of your arch.

Microblading

Pricier but more permanent, microblading is a roughly one- to two-hour procedure that simulates individual hairs by scratching the surface level of the skin in fine strokes. This works for people who have lost their brows completely, due to causes like alopecia or chemotherapy, or for those who simply don’t feel like filling in their arches. “When it heals, it looks like real hair; you shouldn’t know the difference,” says Alexandra, who charges roughly $650 for the initial procedure and $200 for a touch-up a few weeks later. The healing process is quick, as long as you commit to the before- and after-care. Twenty-four hours before the appointment, steer clear of substances that can thin your blood (alcohol; coffee). And for 14 days after, don’t wear brow makeup, avoid chlorine or salt water and forgo heavy exercise—sweat pushes the colour out. Microblading lasts up to three years on its own, and much longer with the help of annual touch-ups, so maintaining your new bushy brows is a yearly financial commitment. The payout? Naturally full-looking brows at all times.

Ombré brows

A less invasive alternative to microblading, ombré shading adds depth to wispy brows by applying very fine pigment dots onto the skin. Unlike henna, which yields a similar initial result but turns patchy as it fades, ombré brows give the long-lasting look of skillfully applied makeup. The two-ish hour procedure is best for those wanting filled-in powdered brows, as opposed to natural hairs. Because it’s applying more pigment, ombré brows hold to the skin better than other semi-permanent procedures, and Alexandra charges roughly $700 for the treatment, plus $250 for touch-ups. With the same upkeep as microblading, they can last for over five years.

(Related: How Safe Is Permanent Makeup?)

6 of the best makeup products to emulate naturally full brows

Elf Wow Brow Tinted Gel 
Enriched with tinted hair-like fibres, this wax-gel hybrid brushes, shapes and thickens for a naturally filled-in finish. Available in five shades, it has an easy-to-use brush that volumizes brows.
$5, elfcosmetics.com

Benefit Cosmetics Fluff Up Brow Flexible Brow-Texturizing Wax
Get the lamination effect at home with this clear wax that slicks up your brows and holds them in place for 12 hours. Jojoba seed and shea butter keep them feeling moisturized instead of sticky.
$34, sephora.com

Just for Men 1-Day Beard & Brow
This temporary eyebrow dye, loved by aestheticians, comes ready to use. Brush into brows, let set for five minutes, and you’re off. The product comes with 30 single-day applications and is available in five shades that cover greys.
$18, walmart.ca

Twenty/Twenty Full Brows Tinted Gel 
Available in three shades, this gel covers grey hairs while creating thicker brows both instantly and over time. Void of harsh dyes, this ophthalmologist-developed formula supports hair growth long term and won’t cause eye irritation.
$26, trytwentytwenty.com

NYX Lift & Snatch! Tinted Brow Pen
Thanks to a fine-pointed micro-brush tip, this pen can be used to detail individual strokes for a natural result. Available in 10 shades, the smudge-free formula offers buildable pigment for adding volume or creating the look of hair on skin.
$16, nyxcosmetics.ca

Anastasia Beverly Hills DipBrow Waterproof Brow Pomade 
This waterproof, full-coverage creamy pomade is a cult classic for a reason. Use it to sculpt brows, shade in patches and transform thin arches into thick ones. Start sparingly—a little goes a long way.
$24, sephora.com

Next: What Are Henna Brows? 

This little-known, age-old dessert has British roots and is an absolute breeze to make. The combination of hot cream, an acidic liquid, and a little sweetener is nothing short of magical. Posset is traditionally made with lemon, but here the juice of intensely tart sea buckthorn berries makes for a great—and very Prairie—substitution. Sea buckthorn berries can be found in the wild, of course, but because of their trees’ sturdy root systems, they became a favourite of farmers to plant as shelter belts for crops. Last but not least, sea buckthorn adds a striking hue to the completed dessert.

Sea Buckthorn and Thyme Posset

Serves 6

Ingredients

Sea Buckthorn Juice

• 2 cups fresh or frozen sea buckthorn berries
• 1 cup water

Main

• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup Sea Buckthorn Juice
• 1-inch piece ginger root, peeled 2 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2¼ cups heavy (35%) cream 1 pinch sea salt
• Fresh sea buckthorn berries, for garnish
• 1 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves, for garnish

Note: If using the Sea Buckthorn Juice, the posset will be noticeably tart. You can add 1 Tbsp of granulated sugar to the juice to balance this out if desired, but regardless, the end result will still be a tasty one!

Directions

Juice

To a small pot, add the berries and water and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for 10 minutes.

Place a medium fine-mesh sieve over a bowl and add the soft- ened berries. Press gently with the back of a large spoon or cocktail muddler to extract as much juice as you can from the berries. The pulp that remains can be discarded.

Store the juice in a jar in the fridge for up to 1 month. Shake before use.

Main

To a large pan, add the granulated sugar, Seabuckthorn Splash, ginger, and thyme. Stir and bring to a simmer over medium- high heat. Once the sugar has dissolved, remove from the heat and let the mixture steep for 10 minutes to let the aromatics infuse. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a medium bowl and discard the ginger root and thyme sprigs.

Place the cream and salt in a medium pot over medium-high heat and heat until just about to simmer, 4–5 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and let the cream cook, stirring frequently to keep from scalding, for 5 minutes. Add the sea buckthorn mixture to the pot and stir. The contents of the pot will appear notably thickened. Continue to cook while stirring for about 1 minute.

Remove from the heat and divide the mixture between six ramekins or small heat-safe bowls. Let sit until back at room temperature and then place uncovered in the fridge to cool and set, approximately 4 hours.

When ready to serve, remove the posset from the fridge and top with a few sea buckthorn berries and thyme. The posset can be made up to 5 days in advance. If being made in advance, cover with plastic wrap until you’re ready to garnish and serve.

Excerpted from Prairie by Dan Clapson and Twyla Campbell. Copyright © 2023 Dan Clapson and Twyla Campbell. Photographs by Dong Kim. Published by Appetite by Random House®, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.

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