Washing your hair is part of your daily routine. It is like brushing your teeth. When you do something daily, you ought to do it the right way. Well, what about washing your hair and the temperature of the water? Should you wash your hair with warm, lukewarm, or cold water? Today, we will talk about is cold water good for your hair.
How Does Temperature Affect Your Hair?
Did you know that the temperature of the water you use for washing your hair makes all the difference? It can make the difference between a bad hair day and a good one.
Do you know how water temperature can affect your hair? For starters, very hot water can cause stress to your hair strands and you can end up with brittle hair, frizzy hair, and dry hair. Hot water can also cause hair loss because all that heat makes your hair weak.
But does this suggest you need to use only cold water? Of course not. Both hot and cold water has advantages and disadvantages for washing your hair.
How Does Warm Water Affect Your Hair?
We said there are advantages and disadvantages of both hot water and cold water. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons. Just remember, these apply only to hot water, not very hot water. The latter can do more harm than good.
Pros:
- Warm water helps you remove any build, grim, and dirt from your hair
- Warm water is the best way to clean your hair and dissolve the dirt
- It stimulates the flow of blood to the hair follicle, a good way to encourage hair growth
- It eliminates surplus oil from your scalp and hair, excellent for women and people with greasy hair or oily hair
- Warm water opens up your hair cuticle and allows you to clean your hair thoroughly
- Creates extra texture and leaves your hair looking less flat and more voluminous
- Increases the staying power of any hair-do
Cons:
- Hot water strips your hair of natural oils, even more, if the temperature is too high
- It can leave your hair without natural and valuable hair oils
- Hot water can dry your scalp, leading to dandruff and itchiness
- It makes your hair roots weak, and your hair can turn frizzy
- Hot water makes your hair overly porous, prompting hair breakage, brittleness, and more
How Does Cold Water Affect Your Hair?
Cold water, same as warm water, has some benefits and downsides when used as a hair wash and hair rinse.
Pros:
- Cold water preserves natural oils
- Keeps your hair manageable
- Cold water gives your hair a healthy shine and loads it up with extra moisture
- Delivers a smoother and shinier look
- Helps close the hair cuticle, giving your hair shine
- Ensures the scalp remains cleaner for a longer period as it closes the hair pores and makes them less vulnerable to grease, oil, and dirt
- Cold water controls frizz and breakage
- Improves blood circulation, enabling your roots and scalp to receive valuable nutrients
- Washing your hair with cold water can promote hair growth
Cons:
- May reduce the volume of hair because it traps moisture in your hair
- The extra moisture can weigh down your hair and make it look flat
- Cold water is uncomfortable in the shower
Should You Wash Your Hair With Cold Water?
Washing your hair with cold water is the latest trend on TikTok, Twitter, and similar social media platforms. Praises a cure-all, the cold shower is a trend that many influencers have accepted.
What does cold water do to your hair? This is the main question you need to ask and answer. Many will tell you that washing your hair with cold water is the secret to happy hair. There are even daily tweets on the topic, suggesting, “This is your daily reminder to drink water”.
Let’s take a deeper look at the benefits of using cold water. We talked before about the pros and cons of a cold shower, but let’s dive deeper.
Preserves Natural Oils
How does it achieve this? Washing your hair with cold water will help retain natural oils and sebum in your hair. How? By closing the hair follicles and pores. It keeps your scalp and hair hydrated. We know sebum acts as a barrier layer that protects your scalp from damage.
Delivers Smooth And Shiny Texture
By sealing the elevated cuticle layers in your hair, cold water wash keeps the protein bonds of your hair intact. This will help with frizzy hair and give your hair shaft a well-defined, smooth, and soft texture. The sealed cuticles also add a glossy look. So, for shiny and smooth hair, wash with cold water.
Maintain A Clean Scalp
Without cold water, your scalp pores are likely to remain open and accumulate dirt, toxic pollutants, sweat, oil, grease, and more. Taking a cold shower will close the pores and maintain the hygiene of your healthy hair.
Improves Blood Circulation
While cold wash will close hair cuticles, it opens your blood capillaries wider. This allows for free flow of blood to your scalp. As a result, your hair roots receive nutrients from the blood. That is the recipe for healthy hair growth.
Cold Rinse or Cold Wash?
You can use cold water as a rinse or as a wash. What is the better option? As we will explain later on, there is a time when you can use cold water to wash your hair. And then, there are situations when you should not.
For starters, a cold wash will make you feel uncomfortable and hesitant to enter the shower. Who wants to be cold, even more during the winter months?
The result of washing your hair regularly with cold water might be disappointing. So, is cold water good for your hair? Of course, yes. But only when you use it properly.
Cold rinse is a much better option. Rather than the common cold wash trend on social media, switch to cold rinse. Wash your hair first with lukewarm water. It will give your hair a normal texture.
And then finish off with a cold rinse to seal in moisture. If you wash your hair with lukewarm water in the beginning and finish off with a cold rinse, you will notice amazing results within a week or two.
If you want to reduce the harmful effects of heat on your hair, a better option is to cut down on heat styling tools and products.
When To Use Warm Water?
As we can say by now, both cold and warm water are good in a specific situation. For example, you should wash your hair with warm water when cleansing at the beginning of the wash day. Warm water will allow the cuticles and pores to open up and let water and shampoo deeply cleanse your hair.
It helps remove any dirt, residue, and buildup packed in the cuticles and pores. It is similar to washing your face with warm water.
Use warm water only when cleansing the hair.
When To Use Cold Water?
When you want to rinse out the conditioner at the end of the wash day, use cold water. It will close the hair cuticle and pores on the scalp. Washing your hair with cold water will add luster and shine to the hair and seal in the moisture.
Remember, cold water tends to flatten your hair, so keep that in mind.
