It doesn’t take long to find trending stories on TikTok. One recent trend involves using rice water on your hair… but does it make a difference?
It certainly has a huge fanbase, with many people regularly watching videos including the latest tips and tricks on using rice water to improve the condition and appearance of their hair. Rice water isn’t a new trend though – people across Japan and China have used it for years. So, with the internet and social media reaching many people’s homes, it makes sense that rice water would become a trend.
What Is Rice Water?
It’s simply the water you’re left with once you’ve soaked the rice. You can also create rice water by cooking the rice and retaining what’s left once you’ve drained it.
What Is Contained in Rice Water?
You can expect a range of vitamins and minerals to be present in rice water once you’ve made it. However, a key ingredient is something called inositol. It’s also referred to as vitamin B8. It’s a type of sugar made by your body – but of course, rice water provides you with inositol in a topical form. Your body might make it and use it internally for various purposes, but it’s not topically applied anywhere.
So, what does inositol do?
It may support hair growth by making your hair follicles stronger. Anecdotal evidence seems to support this, although proper studies are required to see if this pans out for real. It may also play a role in hair loss prevention by strengthening your hair follicles, which makes sense. This means you are less likely to shed hair than you would be if your hair follicles were weaker.
So… Is This TikTok Trend on the Mark?
In truth, it’s too early to say for sure. Making rice water and regularly applying it to your hair is most people harmless, but there are still things to be aware of. For example, if you suffer from eczema, you may react to the rice water. To find out whether it would irritate your skin, it’s best to do a patch test first. The same applies to any other skin condition that affects your scalp.
You should also be careful if you suffer from alopecia, or you are taking any medications for hair loss. It makes sense that you would want to consider different hair loss solutions or tactics to improve the condition of your hair, but you should proceed with caution. Little is known about the effect of rice water on the hair at present, despite what some TikTok videos might suggest. Maybe in the future that will change.
How to Make Rice Water
If you want to try the trend for yourself, here’s how to do it. You need just one cup of uncooked rice for starters. Rinse it thoroughly and then add two or three cups of water to it. You can then leave it to soak. This should be for at least 30 minutes but anything up to two hours will work fine.
The alternative is to put some rice in a pan and add more water to it before boiling it. You can then strain the water and reserve it until it cools, before using that instead.
When you’re ready to use the rice water, make sure you wash and shampoo your hair first. Once you’ve rinsed the shampoo out of your hair, gently pour the rice water onto it and massage through your hair. You can then leave it on for a short while. Most recommendations are for around 20 minutes. All you need to do then is to rinse it out.
There are plenty of hair care techniques intended to help with hair loss prevention or similar conditions. It seems the jury is still out on whether rice water does your hair any good, but it is a relatively innocent method to try. It doesn’t cost much either, which could be another reason why TikTok influencers are trying it in their masses.
To learn about proven methods to help your hair grow healthier, stronger and prevent hair loss contact the experts at Unique Hair Concepts. We will be happy to assist you with scheduling a private, complimentary, in-person hair and scalp analysis near White Plains, NY.
