Have you ever wondered if there’s a difference between bathing with cold water vs. hot water?
I’m sure you’ve heard that taking a cold shower is better for your skin and hair, but have you ever tried it for yourself? And, for an extended period of time?
I’ve always been curious about the difference between bathing with cold water vs. hot water, but I’ll be honest, I love my hot showers and baths. The thought of having a cold shower every single day and night has never been appealing to me. In fact, I was always afraid using cold water would lead to skin congestion and breakouts, and I was never quite sure if washing my hair with cold water would be as effective as washing it with warm or hot water.
As much as I’ve contemplated trying an experiment of washing my face, skin, and hair with only cold water, I’ve always come up with excuses and reasons not to.
Then, at the end of last May, an “opportunity” came up for me to do a cold water experiment.
Pretty much we moved into our new home that we’re still in the process of building, and we didn’t have a hot water heater yet. If you’ve ever built your own home (or have done extensive renovations on your house), you know how costly it is, and the never-ending list of things you need to buy. Living in the tropics, a hot water heater isn’t as much of a necessity as having a fridge or even air conditioning, so the hot water heater kept moving to the bottom of the list. My kids have always preferred cold baths and my husband grew up never having hot water, so the only person in the household really yearning for hot showers was me. No one else seemed to care but me.
I decided to seize the situation as an opportunity. Temporarily not having a hot water heater meant I didn’t have a choice but to do the experiment, and at least I couldn’t cheat or stop the experiment mid way through.
In the video at the top of the post is my 3 month update. I’ve been washing my face, body, and hair with cold water. Not a drop of warm or hot water has touched me. In the video I share my results so far, if it benefited my body, face, and hair, and if you should try it too?
(At the end of this blog post is my 1 Year Update Video, so check that out as well!)
Update – Almost A Year Later
Since publishing this blog post, I continued with my cold shower experiment for almost a year.
Then we got the hot water water heater and I was really interested in seeing what it was like having hot showers again.
Because of all the benefits I got from bathing with cold water, I really thought I would end up being a cold shower convert. But once I started using hot water again, there were a few things I prefer hot water for.
Check out the 1 Year Update video to find out more about my results after having cold showers for a year. Plus, what I’m doing now that my experiment is over and I can chose between a hot or cold shower.