Is Rice Water Best Kept Beauty Secret, for Both Skin and Hair?

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Winter can be seriously hard on hair, right?! I’m prone to getting really frizzy hair, and in winter it really looks dead… sometimes it’s really frustrating. I have tried so many different products and nothing worked. So I started doing hair masks weekly, and things changed… like, really CHANGED! My hair was softer, and definitely looked shinier and had more body. I prefer using homemade hair masks, first, I love DIYs, and second, I have control over exactly what I put into it… and finally, I get a high-quality product without breaking the bank. Last month, I was looking for new recipes on Pinterest, and found something really interesting – rice water. Apparently it works miracles for dry and damaged hair. So after reading so many articles, watching so many Youtube reviews and hearing so many great things about rice water, I decided to give it a try.

rice water benefits
Rice Terraces, photo by Quang Nguyen Vinh from pexels

Why is Rice Water so Special?

It has been used as a traditional beauty treatment for centuries by women from the Yao ethnic group who live in the Huang Luo village. Not only are they known for their long, grey-less, shiny hair, but they are also recognised by the Guinness World Book of Records as the “world’s longest hair village”. According to the China Discovery website; there are about 60 women having natural black hairs stretching up to more than 1 meter long, with the longest of about 1.7 meters. Fascinating, right?

The answer lies in the fact that rice water is full of proteins, vitamins and amino acids that can really improve the health of our hair. And Inositol in rice not only helps restore damaged hair, but it also stays inside the hair shaft even after rinsing, thereby continually protecting your hair.

How to Make Rice Water?

This is probably the simplest recipe you will see. All you need is rice and water, and that is it! There are various ways to do it – you can boil the rice in the water first, leave it soaked for 12-24 hours to ferment, or… this is my favorite, soak it with distilled water for 2-3 hours. About 1 cup of rice to 3 cups of water is ideal. You can stir it every 40 minutes, and over time the water will become white and creamy. After 3 hours it is done. Sieve the water into a bowl and discard the rice. And that is it! Keep the water in the fridge (its shelf life is 4-5 days).

rice water recipe

How to apply it? After washing your hair, apply rice water and rub it into your scalp. Wait 5-10 minutes and rinse it off. It made such a difference to the condition of my hair, now it is super soft and it really looks healthy.

You can use it for skincare too. Due to the large amount of antioxidants and B-group vitamins, rice gives the skin a healthy glow, narrows pores and treats inflammatory processes such as acne and rosacea. All you have to do is soak a cotton ball with rice water and dab it into your face.

Have you ever used this for your hair or skin, and what were the results?

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