People tend to overlook many things with more value than they can ever imagine. Unfortunately, this is even more common when it comes to hair care. You’ll realize that your sight and attention are always fixated on the glitz, glam, and marketing adverts of hair care products, distracting you from the smallest yet most effective things that’ll improve your hair significantly.
One of these little things is sitting in your cupboard or your store right now, and all you can do is open and check. You’ll be surprised that this thing is your rice. Yes! The same rice you plan to eat with your family. You’ll get rice water with a cup of rice and some water, a remarkable hair elixir that strengthens and beautifies the hair at a low cost.
If you’re wondering what rice water does for your hair, you’re at the best place to find out. Here we’ll discuss rice water and show you what it does for the hair. You’ll also discover how to make it and how best to use it.
What is Rice Water?
Rice water is derived from fermented rice, boiled rice, or cooked rice, which has become an effective home remedy for hair growth. If you’re very familiar with Japanese or Korean culture, you’ll have discovered how much reverence they give this water you’ll most likely discard as useless. This reverence is founded on the impact of applying this water on the hair.
What exactly is in rice water that does this hair magic? The truth is, it’s not something far-fetched if you give it a good thought. But if you’re still clueless about how supposedly ordinary water affects the hair. Rice carries so many nutritional components, ideally, because that’s why we eat it. But the thing is, these nutrients are directed at hair growth.
They are the nutrients you’ll find as part of the ingredients in many hair care products. Nutrients like minerals and vitamins, amino acids, phosphorus, manganese, inositol, antioxidants, amongst many others, make up the components of rice that benefit the hair. However, because you have to combine a couple of hair care products to get these nutrients, rice water places itself as having a bigger value and utility.
So instead of spending your hard-earned money on many of these hair care products, you can reduce the ones you buy and leverage the advantage this homemade remedy offers. Before you do this, let’s show you what researchers say about the relationship between rice water and hair. This way, you realize what justification people have for using it.
Research Findings on Rice Water and the Hair
There haven’t been so many papers written on the relationship between rice water and hair growth. But in a journal published in 2010 about a cultural act of Japanese using Yu-Su-Ru, which translates to rice, for their hair care, the author revealed that Yu-Su-Ru impacts the hair. The study further shows the transition from only Yu-Su-Ru to Yu-Su-Ru water.
It revealed that applying only Yu-Su-Ru was a tad difficult, so using the water extracted from it became an easier route to take advantage of the hair care benefits it offers. The research essentially gave a historical justification to this application. However, there hasn’t been more practical testing of rice water on hair.
So if that cuts it for you, you can also follow the steps of ancient Japanese women in their homemade hair care routine to enjoy the benefits rice water offers the hair.
Benefits of Rice Water to the Hair
The following are some of the benefits rice water offers the hair:
It Creates a Healthy Scalp Environment
Rice water creates a healthy scalp condition which enhances the texture and visual quality of the hair. Unfortunately, most people deal with dryness around their scalp, leading to hair breakage. They apply essential oils and other products to avoid this. But using rice water is a natural way of supplying the scalp with enough moisture to keep the scalp smooth and free from breakage.
It Strengthens the Hair Cuticles
You can’t undermine the significance of your cuticles to your hair strands. They ensure your hair strands and the remaining layers of the hair strands are protected. Including rice water in your care routine is a way to boost the efficiency of your cuticles.
It Boosts Hair Shine
Rice water also improves your hair shine by improving the function of your sebaceous gland that smoothens the hair through the production of natural oil known as sebum.
Retains Hair Length and Density
The truth is that the unavailability of enough research to understand the whole benefit of rice water hinders us from certifying how it increases hair length. However, one thing is certain, using rice water for the hair wouldn’t reduce the hair. So it’s safe to hold that it retains hair length and hair density.
How To Make Rice Water
You can make rice water in three easy ways mentioned earlier in the introductory part of this article. But for emphasis, these ways include:
Boiling involves putting rice and water in a pot and heating it for a while. You don’t allow it to dry up because you have to collect the water, useful for the hair.
Fermentation involves soaking rice in water for about 24 hours and coming back to it to extract the water for usage.
Soaking involves leaving rice in water for some time and coming back to it when the water has become cloudy or milky.
You can choose any of these you find most comfortable because they all have an equal effect. But given the length of time fermentation takes, it probably has more potential than the remaining methods.
How Do You Apply Rice Water?
The application is more like washing your hair with shampoo. The only difference is that you let it settle in for a while before washing it off. Ensure that it doesn’t stay too long so you don’t have protein buildup, which may end up causing problems to your hair.
Conclusion
Given the increase in the number of people using rice water for their hair, and the reviews they are giving about it, you can also try it out to see if it’s true. Before this, it would be best to seek your stylist’s approval.