The secret to longer, shinier and healthier hair could be in your kitchen. Using rice water in hair care dates back centuries in Asian culture and has recently become a huge TikTok trend, with #ricewater gathering hundreds of millions of endorsements. So will rice water really give you locks that you’ll love? More than a thousand years of history seems to suggest so.
Rice water is the starchy liquid created when rice is soaked or cooked in water. The cloudy mixture contains many of the nutrients that make rice one of the world’s most important food sources. This includes the antioxidant inositol, which is a proclaimed hair rejuvenator.
Fans of rice water say it can make your hair shinier and stronger while also keeping tangles to a minimum. The big selling point, though, is hair growth. Legend has it that rice water helped women of the imperial court during Japan’s Heian period grow floor-length hair. The long tresses were called kurokami.
Today in China, rice water is part of a ritual that got the village of Huangluo into the Guinness Book of World Records known as the “World’s Longest Haired Village.”
Aside from depleting your kitchen supplies, there’s little reason to worry about using rice water on your hair. “There are no harmful chemicals or additives to it, so that really limits your risk of damage.
Once the mixture cools down, transfer it to a clean bottle or jar.
There’s no reason for you to throw out all that rice after making rice water since nothing in the process makes the rice inedible. Eating rice allows its nutrients to benefit your whole body instead of just your hair. But if you're concerned about food waste, rice water shampoo and conditioner bars are the way to go!
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Emilie
December 12, 2021
Leave in the fridge or in room temperature?