As women, we are always looking for ways to achieve fuller, healthier hair and while there are new products invented every day to cater to these specific needs, some women have been uncovering ancient methods to fulfill their hair desires. One of those methods for hair growth is rice water.
Rice water for hair growth has been used by women in Asia for centuries and some subcultures, such as the Yao women in China, have credited their long hair to bathing in rice water. Now, it has become a trend with various beauty influencers on YouTube raving about it and even Jess Hilarious talked about it on The Breakfast Club. But what is rice water exactly?
Rice water is the water left over from cooking rice. It is said to have essential vitamins such as vitamin B, vitamin E, and minerals used to promote healthy hair. Some of the benefits associated with using rice water are that it makes your hair softer, less frizzy, shinier, stronger, and it helps your hair grow longer, faster. I've only used rice water twice and I quickly noticed how much more soft and shiny my hair became.
There are a few ways to incorporate rice water for hair growth in your hair regimen. For starters, I'd recommended that you use organic brown rice as it has less starch. If you do decide to use rice that isn't organic, just make sure to rinse the rice off a few times before starting the process.
How To Use Rice Water For Hair Growth
The Rice Water Boiling Process:
You can cook the rice by placing a ½ cup of uncooked rice in the water and let it boil. Once it cools, strain the water into a separate container (bowl, jar etc.).
The Rice Water Soaking Process:
This is the method I chose to do and it's fairly simple. All you need is organic brown rice, a container with a lid to place the rice in, and water. Take a ½ cup of uncooked rice and place it in a container and rinse the rice off. Then, take 2-3 cups of water and pour it into the container with the rice. Let it soak for 30 minutes and strain the water into a separate container.
For both methods, you can place the rice water into a spray bottle and use it right away, or if you want to receive even more benefits, you can do the fermenting process.
The Rice Water Fermenting Process:
The fermenting process requires you to soak the rice in the water for 24-48 hours before straining the water into a separate container. The fermenting process does produce a foul smell, so try not to let it ferment longer than 48 hours. However, many suggest that this develops higher antioxidants, which does wonders for damaged hair. A tip to dilute the smell: You can add an essential oil such as lavender.
Once your water is fermented, you can place it in a spray bottle and use it right away or place it in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.
Rice water is a great step to add to wash day. Just simply wash your hair like normal and after you condition it, spray the rice water on your hair, let it sit for an hour, and then rinse it out. When you spray the rice water over the hair, make sure to spray it all over, especially the roots and the ends.
Many beauty influencers on YouTube have reported significant hair growth from using it weekly, bi-weekly, and even monthly. But because rice is a protein, I recommend that you gradually work your way up to weekly treatments to avoid using too much protein on the hair. If you're not feeling the DIY methods, there are now products on the market that has rice water infused in them such as Royal Organics Fermented Rice Shampoo and Honey Mint Conditioner.
Featured image via Tumblr
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When we talk via Zoom in late August, Lindsay, 38, has just returned from a lunch date with a friend, the type of midday social outing she’d never had time for previously. In a week, she’ll be heading to Europe for an Eat, Pray, Love trip. It’s the first time she’s had time to go to Europe in five years.
“You ask me what I have time to do? Take care of me,” she says, beaming.
In the past six years, Lindsay has made a lot of changes. After becoming the first Black woman to lead ABC’s Bachelorette dating series in 2017, she fell in love with Bryan Abasolo, the man she chose on the show, and married him. Enamored with the world of entertainment but also accustomed to the stability that being an attorney provided her, she returned to practicing law in her native Dallas, Texas, while pursuing media opportunities on the side.
For a time, Lindsay would fly herself to Connecticut to co-host ESPN’s Football Frenzy radio show. The role was perfect for the Dallas Cowboys fan and sports fanatic who majored in sports management and once dreamed of becoming an agent. In 2019, when she finally felt she’d saved enough money and made enough connections, she made the leap and left the legal profession behind, determined to bet on her entertainment dreams.
Working as an on-air correspondent for Extra was one of Lindsay’s first big roles as a full-time media personality. In this job, she interviewed celebrities such as Halle Bailey and Anthony Anderson. She also notably conducted the controversial interview with Bachelor host Chris Harrison that subsequently led to his departure from the franchise. After Harrison told Lindsay he felt people needed to have “grace” for a contestant who had attended an “Old South” party, Lindsay publicly announced her plans to distance herself from the series.
Today, she cites changes in Extra’s leadership and her responsibilities as the reason for her recent departure after three years. “I just didn’t fit within the new regime,” she reveals to xoNecole.
Lindsay is currently focusing her energy work-wise on her two podcasts with The Ringer Podcast Network, the Higher Learningshow with Van Lathan, and Morally Corrupt. Despite the extremely different subjects – Higher Learning touches on race and politics while Morally Corrupt finds Lindsay commenting on her favorite Bravo reality shows – she gushes when speaking about both, calling podcasting “the most liberating thing you can do.”
On Higher Learning, she’s challenged by her co-host, Lathan, to think in new ways. She’s regularly in conversation with prominent figures such as Tracee Ellis Ross and Billy Porter.
Lindsay, a “Bravoholic” whose favorite Real Housewives franchise is Potomac and whose favorite Housewife is Nene Leakes, is no less passionate about Morally Corrupt, even if the subject matter is much lighter. “I’ve always loved reality TV because it was such an escape from my real world. Part of me admired people who could put themselves out there in a way that I believed I never could, until I went on reality TV,” Lindsay says.
Courtesy of Rachel Lindsay
The podcast host says she never intended to find love when she went on The Bachelor, and she was surprised when she was asked to lead season 13 of The Bachelorette. Going from viewer to reality TV star quickly opened her eyes to the demands of being a public figure. After receiving initial criticism from viewers about choosing and marrying Bryan Abasolo, she realized she wanted to become more protective of certain aspects of her personal life.
“I quickly learned that we had to protect what we had, and stop trying to prove it to other people and convince people to know what we knew to be true,” she says. “I wish I could share more of my relationship. But the moment you do that, you have to continue to provide more and you have to continue to answer.”
In many ways, Lindsay benefited from being on a show like The Bachelorette, where the contestants are confined to a limited environment over a temporary amount of time. She says she doesn’t think she could ever be on a reality show where she’s expected to reveal all aspects of her life constantly. In fact, she says if she ever had pregnancy news or updates about her relationship with Abasolo, she wouldn’t make a big public announcement.
Since walking away from The Bachelor franchise, the former Bachelor Happy Hour host says she’s been approached to participate in recent seasons, specifically this year’s season with Black lead, Charity Lawson. Lindsay says she ultimately declined to participate. “I just started thinking I can have a relationship with Charity – whose number I do have and I have talked to – outside of the show. I don’t need to come on television to put that out there for other people,” she says.
Reflecting on her life today, Lindsay is trying to learn the benefits of being still. She’s not planning to do any on-air correspondent booked for the time being, and she’s not planning to release another book, the followup to the collection of essays Miss Me with That or the fictional Real Love.
As her 40th birthday approaches in a couple of years, she’s been thinking a lot about the popular quote, “You are, right now, as young as you'll ever be again” from the FX drama Fleishman Is in Trouble. If she does start on a new creative project, it might delve into this notion, she says. “I think I could do something in that space about adulthood and getting older and maybe questioning things in life because I think we all do it,” she tells xoNecole.
Lindsay is not rushing the process, though. For now, she’s remembering to rest and renew.
“We'll see what comes out of this state that I'm in.”
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Featured image courtesy of Rachel Lindsay
