Why You Should End Every Shower With a Blast of Cold Water
How to get shiny hair is something we constantly wonder about. One popular theory is to wash with cold water — but does cold water make your hair shiny? According to one expert it does!
If you look at hair under a microscope, you can see it has a layered appearance similar to shingles on a roof. To get shiny hair, you want the surface of the cuticle to look smooth. “Rinsing your hair with cold water seals the hair cuticle, and acts as an ‘anti-inflammatory’ in a sense,” hair stylist Edward Tricomi told Well + Good.
Of course, the idea of suffering through a cold shower is downright miserable. The good news is you don’t have to spend the entire shower using cold water. Just reduce the water temperature right before you’re about to get out but before you’ve washed out your conditioner. Then, arch your back as much as possible and dip your head back into the cold stream of water and rinse out the conditioner. Kneeling down by the tap in your bathtub is another option if you flexibility was never your forte.
Tricomi recommends blow drying your hair with cold air next. (Fortunately, this is a lot more bearable than a cold shower!) “When using cold air from a blow dryer, the cold air not only freezes down the hair, but helps it stay in place. Both methods result in a healthy, beautiful shine.”
Take good care of your hair and be gentle with it to maintain that salon shine. Not brushing as frequently or using soft-bristle hair brushes can keep the cuticle strong and prevent the surface from chipping. Reducing how often you use heat on your hair is also key. Though these tips may require you to tweak your hair routine a bit, your reward will be never having another bad hair day!
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