Foot Shape to Reveal Your Heritage

I'm sure we've all seen this one make the rounds all over the internet, from Pinterest to Facebook. But there are so many problems with this I don't even know where to start. 

First off, this really only seems to address European decent. What about Asian, or African, or you know, the various North or South Americas? Second off, the shape of one's feet can vary from family member to family member. Just in our family alone, I have "Egyptian," my husband has "Greek," but our kids? One is apparently Egyptian, the other is Germanic.

The truth is: the shape of your feet can't really tell you what your ethnic roots are any more than saying the shape of your hands can. There has been studies done to see if toe length can show genetic traits, and the ruling is no, the shape of your toes really aren't a good indicator of genes, let alone something like your 'roots' or heritage. Where as genetics and heritage can play a role in certain bone structure, it really isn't a good indicator when it comes to your feet.

Home Remedies for Stretch Marks

"Uncover Stretch Mark Remedies with Things Already in your Home: Its unbelievable the simple stuff that are stretch mark remedies." 

I could narrow this down to one of the dozens, if not hundreds of home remedies for stretch marks, but instead I'll make it easier on everyone.

The truth is: there is no home remedy for stretch marks. Not.a.single.one. Not coconut oil, not vinegar, not mustard oil, shea butter, or drinking a lot of milk.

You see, it all comes down to what stretch marks are. They are essentially tears in your skin, causing thick, discolored scar tissue to build up between. Stretch marks occur in the the resilient middle layer that helps the skin retain its shape. They come in various sizes and degrees, and the truth is, pretty much every single person on the planet has them (yes, even men). When they first form they are dark hues, often red and purples, but after they heal they will fade to become closer to your normal skin tone, often times lighter, and possibly shinier than the surrounding skin, depending on the severity of the marks.

Unlike some scars which are only on the top layer of skin, these run so deep that nothing you apply--from creams to oils--is going to fix that. The only proven way to treat stretch marks is with various medical procedures ranging from prescription retinoids, to lasers treatments, to surgery to literally remove the damaged skin.

But what about prevention? I'm sure any woman who has been pregnant has been given various solutions to preventing stretch marks. Unfortunately not a single study has been able to prove any of these actually aid in preventing stretch marks. At the end of the day, rubbing a bit of shea butter in you skin might not help, but it won't hurt. Just don't be surprised if you end up with stretch marks by the time those 9 months are up.

Iodine and Baby Oil Hair Remover

"1Tbsp of iodine 2% 1 Cup of baby oil Rub your hairy area with the mixture and let set for only 5 minutes. Then gently wipe away with a damp cloth. Viola!!!! NO MORE HAIR!"

I've had a lot of people asking about this one. My first step was try to locate the source of this image. I was unable to find the source though so if anyone knows, please let me know. But right off the bat, the leg shape, muscle tone, as well as the hair growth made me believe this was a man's leg. Not that men can't and don't remove leg hair, but if you look closely you'll also notice a rather large scar running down the knee of the hairless leg.  We often see similar ideas where an image of one thing is used to promote a completely different idea, like the spray paint light bulbs, brown sugar for hair straightening, coffee for hair remover, and the fake tan from cocoa powder, just to name a few of the ones this blog alone has disproven. 

Which leads me into why I don't believe this is even remotely plausible as a pin. You see, it's common for surgeons to scrub an area before surgery with iodine. If iodine was such a remarkable hair remover, why would they bother doing pre-op shaving? Anyone who has had surgery on an area with hair growth can tell you that the area is shaved before hand. Wouldn't doctors, of all people, look for time-saving methods and skip the shaving if iodine could double as an antiseptic AND hair remover? 

Not only that, but a lot of results when you google iodine and mineral oil pulls up people talking about how back in the days of bottle brown tans, this was one of the go to tanning methods. If it worked as a hair remover, I think it would be more commonly known today, and I also doubt a lot of men back in the day would have used it as often as they did. Anyone who has used iodine can attest to how it stains the skin, however the hairless leg seems oddly void of any kind of staining. 

And finally, chemically, there is NOTHING in these two that would cause such a reaction as hair loss. 

But in the name of science, and because I know you love proof, I tested this pin out just for the blog. Since it's summer though, my legs get shaved regularly, so I brought in a stand in for this pin. Meet the other half of "us" here at Don't Pin That, and my editor in chief, Tay.

Tay, bless him, is hairy. Very much like the original image. So who better to test this pin out? 

Tay was a good sport spending his father's day evening letting me test this out. I mixed up the mixture and then tucked a towel under his leg incase it dribbled onto the sofa, and applied it.

Then we waited. The pin says 5 minutes, but since there was a bottle of wine and an episode of Conan to catch up on, it turned out to be more like 15 for us. Gently rubbing it away didn't do much, so I then scrubbed. The hair however, remained firmly attached to his leg: 

His very yellow stained leg I might add. 

So there you have it. No, this doesn't work. There's no way this would work chemically or even logically. I have no idea what the source of the original image is, but it's not from some miracle iodine hair remover. 

Have an idea you want us to look into? Contact us! We're on facebook and twitter - leave a message, an pin, or just say hello. 

Color Code on Tubes Warns of Danger

"Good to know! Learn how to read the markings on all tubes so you can check what you are using before you use it." 

Imagine if at a glance, you could see how natural that toothpaste you're about to use really is? According to this image and others like it, it's as simple as that. On the tops of most tubes you will find an colored square, usually of only a handful of colors: red, blue, green, and black. Are these really secret markers allowing you to tell just how natural that cream or toothpaste is? 

Nope, not at all. If anyone has seen shows like "How It's Made", you probably already can guess the answer. Those "color code" makers are actually just color markers to let the sensors know where to cut and crimp the tubes in manufacturing, nothing more. In fact it's already been busted by snopes. And as they say, if you really want to know what's in the produce you're using, reading the ingredients label might be a tad more helpful. 

(Yet Another) Mountain Dew Glow Stick Hoax

"How to make a homemade glow stick - baking soda, mountain dew, peroxide, starbursts, and dish soap"

This takes the original hoax of making Mountain Dew glow and adds even more pointless items. I honestly started laughing when they added two Starbursts, as if somehow a mixture of gelatin, HFCS, and red dye is going to aid in this. In case you're curious, you can see the video here: 

Just like in our last post about the ever popular Mountain Dew Glow Stick, the basic idea is you add certain things to the Mountain Dew (notice how both video has the use of peroxide in them? We'll come back to that in a bit.) and after a bit of shaking, it glows, just like a glow stick. Why? Well what they don't show you is the contents in the bottle; in both videos the bottle already contain some liquid, which is generally believed to be Mountain Dew. In all likelihood however, it's probably a nice mixture of glow stick chemicals. Once the peroxide is added (which is also used in glow sticks, that is what is in the glass vial you break to activate them) it starts to glow. You can read a step by step guide in making your own glow sticks over at Wikihow (with actually glow stick chemicals), which again, uses peroxide. 

Posts Revisited

Well there's been enough posts and wonderful fans asking a lot of questions and comments that I think it would be great to revisit some of the past posts I've done.


The first post I have new information on is the infamous Glow-In-The -Dark Walkway. The mystery is finally solved! I've had a lot of really great suggestions from fans on how this photo was taken, but one commenter shared a link that fully explains it, directly from the photographer himself. What I had missed the first time around was a small faint water mark on the bottom right hand corner of the image. The photographer is David Tejada and famous for his lighting techniques. You can read the full interview here, but basically it was done with a ridiculously long shutter speed and a flash light in his own back yard. So there you go, straight from the photographer, this isn't glow in the dark paint. 



The second post I'd like to revisit is a Good Idea Friday I posted about last month. The "Ziplock Bag To Prevent Flies" has been hotly debated. Apparently Mythbusters did an episode on it, and they found it actually attracted more flies. However, a lot of people debate on the effectiveness of their experiment as they not only did this indoor with artificial lights, they left out the pennies. They also had a lot more flies than you would normally have, rotten meat, and a fairly small area in which they did the experiment (I love Mythbusters but agree they tend to go the extreme when testing things). Critics of their test believe these are enough to say the test failed because they weren't doing it correctly. You can read more about this over at Hoax Slayer. So for now, Good Idea still? Maybe. It is ridiculously cheap to do, and it may or may not work. And as tacky as it might look, it is slightly better than fly tape. Unfortunately I don't live in area with much of a fly problem, so I'm unable to test this myself, but I would love to hear from fans on this.

So that's our recap. Are there any posts we've done that you'd like to see us go more in depth on? Let us know! We're on twitter and facebook.

Tennis Ball to Unlock Your Car

"Use a tennis ball to unlock your car door. Brilliant."

A fan sent this asking how true this pin was. Fortunately, it's not true at all. It's a common urban legend that has been making the rounds of youtube for some time now. I'm pretty sure if it was doable, thieves everywhere would rejoice, because it's a lot easier to get away with carrying a tennis ball than it is the special picks or master keys. (and also far more legal..)

I did a bit of research, and multiple sources (source 1, source 2) basically said it was undoable. And the masters of mythbusting themselves have even tried it, so if they can't get it to work, chances are no one can either. Chances are good that in the video, as she was doing it, someone was off-camera with a keyless entry remote and pushed the unlock button as she pressed on the tennis ball.

How to Detect Two Way Mirrors

"A Mirror or a 2-Way Glass? How can you tell when you are in a room, restroom, motel etc. with a mirror or a 2-way glass...try this to test mirrors in fitting rooms and restrooms..." 

This is a common urban legend that has left the confines of email chain letters and found it's way into Pinterest. To quote the website this image was pinned from "Just conduct this simple test: Place the tip of your fingernail against the reflective surface and if there is a GAP between your fingernail and the image of the nail, then it is GENUINE mirror. "

It seems like a simple enough test that we can all do once we're in a fitting room, to see if there are cameras hidden behind the mirrors. But unfortunately, it doesn't work. Simply holding your finger up to a mirror and checking for gaps isn't going to let on what kind of mirror you're looking at. A lot of different factors can go into if there will be a gap or not when you press your finger to the mirror. Lower quality mirrors won't always give you a gap, even though they are genuine mirrors. 

There are a couple of tricks you can try when trying to figure out if you're being spied on, the easiest and most accurate is to simply cup your eye with your hands and look into the mirror - this will allow you to limit the light source on your end, allowing you to be able to see the other side. Another hint is if the mirror is hanging on a wall instead of being set into a wall. (source)

Another thing to take in account is that the laws regarding cameras in fitting rooms varies greatly depending on the state or country you live in. Some allow them only in the walkway, some in the rooms, and some not past the entrance of the fitting rooms. The best thing you can do is learn your local laws before you start trying to poke every mirror you see. 

Penny to Preserve Flowers

"Add a penny with a pinch of sugar into the vase of cut flowers to have them last twice as long!" 

There are a lot of myths out there on what you can do to prolong the beauty of cut flowers. Everything from vodka, bleach, even aspirin is said to help. This one here is an old wives' tale that has been around for so long that I doubt anyone knows where it came from. I remember my grandmother doing this when she bought fresh flowers. But can a copper penny prolong the life of your flowers? No, not really.

Let's start with the water. Tap water is regulated quite strictly; all tap water must maintain a pH level between 6.5-8.5, which is round about the center of pH levels. I've spent quite some time trying to research if copper can alter the pH level of water at all, with no luck of finding any data on this I turned to a chemistry-knowledgeable friend of mine who informed me "Copper does not react with pure water, so it should not affect the pH. If you're talking about tap water, that's a lot more complicated and dependent on the particular contaminants. I'm sure there are side reactions with the other particles that could slightly affect pH, but nothing major since the contaminants are in low quantities."

Why does this matter? Because most cut flowers prefer a higher acidic water. According to a great page by the Horticulture Department of Minnesota - "An acidifier makes the pH of the water more near the acid pH of the cell sap. Most water supplies are alkaline and can reduce the life of cut flowers. The acidifier also stabilizes the pigment and the color of the flower." (source)

Commercial flower preservatives are made up of basically 3 things: sugar, an acidifier to prevent the growth of microorganisms, and a respiratory inhibitor. If copper does not affect the pH levels, perhaps it acts as an antimicrobial in another way, but the results of copper as an antimicrobial are largely debated (source). In large quantities it looks like it might help limit the growth of microbes, but the small amount of copper found on a penny isn't going to do that. It's important to point out that most pennies in circulation today were made after 1982, and are not pure copper. Instead, they are copper-plated zinc and only contain a thin coating of copper on the outside. However, adding a pinch of sugar to the water isn't a bad idea, but it won't get you the same results as a commercial cut flower food will. You're best bet if you don't have any plant food on hand is to just make sure you change the water daily, keep any leaves or foliage out of the water, and a pinch of sugar can't hurt (but leave the pennies in the change jar).

If you're looking on more information on myths of cut flowers, here is a great article by Terril A Nell, PhD, who was chairman of the flower research program at the University of Florida. He touches base on pretty much every flower myth and explains why they aren't true.

How to Use an Elevator

I'm sure we've all seen this one -

Who wouldn't love this to be true? No longer will you have to wait a good 2 minutes.. maybe 5 minutes if you're heading to a rather upper floor and there are 10 people in the elevator with you all getting off at different floors. Are we not only that impatient but also that selfish to think we need to skip everyone else and go directly to our own floors?

Well it doesn't matter.. because it's false. It's not true at all. In fact The New Yorker even did quite a lovely write up on it, back in 2005 which you can read here.