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Do you have curly hair? Have you been following the curly girl method for taming your dry, frizzy and unruly curls? Then it's obvious that you might have come across the terms- protein treatment and rice water rinse. It’s only recently that rice water rinse has gained popularity, but the Chinese and Japanese people have been using this method since ages to maintain healthy, thick and luscious hair. Rice water rinse is beneficial for maintaining well-defined, voluminous curls as it is rich in nutrients such as antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and proteins. If you are a curly-haired girl struggling to maintain healthy, bouncy and defined curls then make sure that you read this article.
What Is Rice Water Rinse?
Rice water rinse is a process in which your hair is coated with rice water obtained by boiling or soaking rice. The essential nutrients present in the rice are beneficial for hair growth and for maintaining the overall hair health.
This method of providing nourishment to your hair originated in Hein, an ancient city of Japan. They regularly used rice water rinse to maintain their floor-length hair. Even today women of Yao tribe in China cut their hair once in a lifetime and then take care of their long luscious hair by treating it with a rice water rinse
Is Rice Water Rinse Good For Curly Hair
Rice water rinse has gained huge popularity in the beauty world because of the myriad benefits which come along with it. Rice water rinse for curly hair is beneficial for reshaping and restructuring your curls and waves. Let us find about the benefits of rice water rinse for curly hair.
- It strengthens your curls and adds thickness.
- It helps in increasing the elasticity of your hair, adds bounce to your curls.
- It makes your curls shiny.
- It smoothes out your cuticles making your curls soft.
- It provides relief from itchy scalp and reduces dandruff.
- It stimulates hair follicles and promotes hair growth.
- It promotes better blood circulation in the scalp and fortifies the hair follicles.
- It reduces product build-up.
- It lessens hair fall.
- It effectively repairs the damaged hair shaft.
- It is high in antioxidants, thus repairs and moisturizes your hair and scalp.
- It plays a vital role in taming your dry and frizzy hair.
- It gently cleanses your curls.
- It is beneficial in improving scalp condition.
- It improves the texture and appearance of your curls.
- It reduces surface friction in hair, preventing hair fall.
The beneficial properties of rice water are attributed to the presence of key ingredient- inositol, which strengthens your curls, increases the elasticity of the hair and repairs the damaged strands, helping to restructure and add volume to your curls. Inositol is also known as Vitamin B. Apart from inositol, Vitamin C and E, minerals, amino acids and antioxidants play a major role in maintaining hair health.
Also Read : 10 Reasons To Incorporate Wheat Amino Acids In Your Hair care Regime
You will be amazed at the incredible results of using the rice water has on your curls.
When Should One Opt For Rice Water Rinse?
Curly hair is often prone to dryness and frizziness. In an attempt to make your curls more manageable, sometimes you end up over-moisturizing your curls. Over-moisturizing, leaves your curls looking flat, limp, brittle, mushy, and undefined, then you should understand that its time to include the rice water rinse in your hair care routine.
How To Prepare A Rice Water Rinse?
A most preferred rice water rinse is using the white, creamy, cloudy rice water to rinse your strands. While preparing a rice water rinse, it is always recommended that you take white, long rice (organic basmati rice). There are 3 ways of preparing a rice water rinse:
1. Soak
Take 1 cup of rice in a bowl and clean it once under running water. Add 2 cups of water to the rice and let it soak for 3-4 hours. Strain the water and use this water as a rice water rinse. Simply put, the strained water obtained from soaking the rice is used as a rice water rinse.
2. Boil
In this method, you need to repeat the same steps as mentioned above. Here you need to boil the rice by adding extra water required for cooking. Once the rice is cooked you can strain the excess water and cool it. This liquid is used as a rice water rinse.
3. Fermentation
For this method, take 1 cup of rice and clean the rice of all the impurities by rinsing it under running tap water. Transfer the rice into another bowl and add 2 cups of water. Strain the rice and remember to preserve the strained rice water. You can use rice, later for cooking. Let the strained water sit for 24 hours, this process allows the fermentation of the rice water.
Fermenting method is the most potent, among all the 3. You can try any of the methods to add definition to your curls. The leftover rice water can be stored in the refrigerator, for future use.
How To Use Rice Water Rinse To Rejuvenate Your Curls?
There are numerous ways of using the rice water rinse to revive your curls. I will be sharing 2 ways to use the rice water rinse to transform your dry frizzy curls into defined and well-structured curls.
Straight Rinse
It involves putting the rice water directly on your strands after your regular hair wash.
- Wash your hair with a regular shampoo.
- Rinse your hair with rice water by pouring a cup of it onto your sopping wet hair.
- Make sure that you coat each strand with rice water. Let it rest for 5 minutes.
- Rinse it off, condition and style your hair as usual.
2. Deep Condition
In this method, you can get the benefit of 2 hair treatments in one go, by adding your favourite deep conditioner to the rice water.
- Take a small bowl and add a scoop full of deep conditioner
- Add the strained rice water to the deep conditioner making sure that the whole mixture does not get too runny.
- Apply this mixture along the length of your hair, starting from the mid-length to the tip. Remember not to apply this mixture on your scalp.
- Let is rest for 15 minutes and then wash off.
- Now, you can style your curls as usual.
Also Read : Use The Finest Homemade Conditioners To Get Luxurious and Bouncy Curls!
How Often Can You Do A Rice Water Rinse?
Rinsing your curls with the rice water once a week is sufficient. If you have a low porosity hair, then you can do the rice water rinse once a month. A medium or high porosity hair requires rice water rinse once a week.
There is no hard and fast rule for how many times you should do a rice water rinse to maintain your curls. Keep a tab on the requirement of your hair and do the rice water rinse according to it. With the rice water rinse, you will notice that your dull, lifeless curls will bounce back to life.
For rice water rinse to work magically on your curls, you need to observe and understand the wants of your curls. You can make your own rice water rinse in different ways. This rice water rinse gives you result instantly and you will be amazed to see the transformation in your curl pattern. You can try varied methods and observe how your hair responds to them. If you get the desired result, then you can carry on with that particular procedure. Not only curly-haired people but people with any hair type can also go for rice water rinse to refine their hair.
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