Is Hot Water Drying My Face, Scalp, Hair and Body?
Quite often it will and can dry your skin. Here’s why…
Like most people, I loved hot showers. The ones where your skin turned red from how hot it was. There’s just something about hot water that makes you feel clean.
But are these hot showers good for your body?
Not quite... Here’s what I found out about how hot water can affect your skin, scalp, hair, and more.
My Personal Experience & Research
For too many years, I have experienced scalp and hair damage. This has caused me to have an obsession with understanding what is cause and why these things were happening to my scalp and skin without warning.
So I turned to tracking my daily habits.
I questioned, was I tugging on my hair when I got anxious? Was I using potentially harmful products that blocked my pores? Were the chemicals causing my hair to fall out?
I could have gone on and on wondering what caused the issue, but I knew I needed to change something about my daily routine. But what exactly?
Little by little I realized I had to change my entire beauty routine because if I kept doing what I was doing my hair would eventually all fallout leaving behind bald patches. Horrifying, right!?
One of the biggest things I have learned during my research is that hot showers are one of the worst things you could do to your skin and hair.
The scalding water causes your scalp to dry out resulting in dandruff, itchiness, irritated and injured scalp skin, and it strips your hair and skin of its natural accumulated oils. Natural oils are what helps keep your skin and hair’s moisture.
After switching to warm and somewhat cool showers for the past three months, my hair, scalp, and skin have dramatically improved. My scalp is no longer itchy and painful and my hair is shiny and feels so much more healthy.
Cold Water Benefits
After discovering that my hot showers were to blame for my itchy scalp and dry skin, I was in the pursuit of finding the benefits of cold water which were numerous.
The biggest one has to do with peripheral circulation or when the blood flows to your skin and the other outer parts of your body.
When the cold water hits your skin it can cause you to feel tingly, warm, and exhilarated.
The blood rushes from deep within your body, where it can be pooled due to poor circulation or a different cause, and can bring immediate warmth to the areas that need it most.
This causes increased circulation to the skin and the peripheries in order to flush out toxins and provide a warm glow.
Cold water is also said to help balance the nervous system in order to help you feel relaxed, yet alert, enhancing your circulatory and immune system.
How to Transition to Cool Showers
Cold showers can bring multiple benefits into your life, but you need to start slowly in order to help build your tolerance.
Most of us don’t realize that our normal morning routine can be transformed into a cold tempering practice which can boosting our immune system, improving our circulation, and can also prepare us to feel more comfortable when dealing with cold winter weather.
Next time you’re in the shower, try to introduce Cool Skin Therapy Showers.
You can do this by switching your warm water after you wash your body to cool water for one or two minutes then switch back to warm.
You can do this process a couple more times just make sure you finish your shower on a cold water cycle.
When you get out of the shower and wipe your body vigorously with your towel, you should feel invigorated and warm. This gradual method will help you build a tolerance to temperature variations in order to condition your thermoregulatory response.
You should practice this method daily or whenever you shower to gradually move from cool to cold water.
You can even try very cold water over a course of a couple days or weeks.
The more contrast between warm and cold you are able to create, the more rewarding and beneficial it will be for you.
Cold Skin Therapy Showers take very minimal added time, but if practiced regularly contain the power to make you nearly invincible towards the cold.
This practice can also increase your immune system and potentially decrease your ability to catch the flu, colds, and upper respiratory infections.
The History of Cold Water Therapy
There are countless health enthusiasts, holistic healthy living advocates, and teachers who have long practiced the art of tempering the body with cold water. This method was especially popular in the early 1900s and enjoyed by young and old alike.
Dr. Paul Bragg, health and raw food diet pioneer, swore by his daily routine of cold water skin therapy.
He regularly joined the Polar Bear Club for swims in the ice-cold ocean.
Incidentally, you’ll find similar clubs in Finland, China, and Russia. They actually call them ‘walrus clubs’ instead of polar bears!
Members of this club have stated that they have not been sick since taking up this practice.
They believe that the freezing temperatures of the water kill germs within the body after five to ten minutes of exposure.
One Staten Island resident described the experience by stating, “When you come out of the water and put your sweatshirt back on, you feel like you’re ten years old again.”
Joe Rollino, the strongest man who ever lived in the 1920s, was very active in the Iceberg Athletic Club.
This club practiced what was called “winter bathing.”
Winter bathing is the act of swimming in the cold ocean three to four times a week. Rollino lived to be 104 and probably would have lived much longer had he not been struck by a car.
He was said to winter-bathe for nine years without missing a single day. Rollino credited his endurance and good health to his avid winter-bathing sessions.
Give It A Try!
If you start incorporating cold water kin therapy into your daily routine, make sure you start out slow. Do NOT run out and immediately start jumping into ice-cold rivers, ponds, or lakes, especially if you have underlying health conditions. Doing so could lead, in extreme cases, to a potentially fatal condition known as cold shock response. If you are wanting to eventually participate in winter-bathing, start off with contrast showers!
ABOUT AUTHOR
I’ve practiced, learned and implemented the raw food lifestyle, diets and techniques into my personal life for over 10 years. The resources and information I share most likely are from my wholesalers and teachers, in addition to my personal and professional experience.