Rice Water for Beard: Benefits and How to Use It


Rice water for beard

Women in Japan have used rice water to grow very long hair. Naturalist swears by it. Read on to learn about the benefits of rice water for your mane and how to use it.

Is rice water good for beard growth? Rice water is good for grooming your beard but does not stimulate beard growth or increase it. Beard growth is controlled by genes and hormones. Rice water for beard grooming will strengthen them, add shine, repair damaged beards, prevent and treat split ends. Rice water is also good for the skin underneath the beard and can also act as sunscreen.

Rice water is not a magic concoction, therefore, if you cannot grow a beard naturally rice water will not help you grow any beard. It is more beneficial to men who can already grow a beard.

Related: Does garlic help beard growth

What is rice water

Rice water is simply the leftovers after soaking or cooking rice that is believed to be loaded with starch, minerals, amino acids [proteins], antioxidants, vitamin B, and E.

How to make rice water for beards

There are 3 methods that you can follow to make rice water

Soaking

Among the three methods soaking is the easiest, follow this steps to prepare rice water using these methods.

  1. You need 1 cup of uncooked rice
  2. Rinse it thoroughly to get rid of dirt
  3. Put the water in a bowl and add a cup of water
  4. Let it sit for about an hour
  5. Sieve the mixture into another bowl

Boiling

The next method of preparing rice water is through boiling, follow these steps:

  1. A cup of rice thoroughly cleaned
  2. Boil the rice water with about 4 cups of water
  3. After the rice cooks, drain the water that is left

Fermenting

The last method of preparing rice water is via boiling. Follow these steps:

  1. Thoroughly rinse a cup of rice water
  2. Add it into a bowl together with two cups of water
  3. Let it sit for about 2 days until it ferments
  4. Sieve the mixture in another bowl

Fermented vs. plain/soaked rice water

Fermented rice water is far much better for your beard and hair compared to plain or soaked rice water.

Based on this studyOpens in a new tab., substances that are prepared via fermentation have a higher level of antioxidants. Antioxidants have been proven to help prevent and combat skin and hair damage.

Benefits of rice water for beards

Skin benefits

In as much you want to take care of your beard you must also consider the skin beneath your beard.

Most people use products that are not friendly to the beard and skin beneath. Some hair products for instance should not be used on your beard at all.

Related: can you use hair oil on beard

As a result, these products end up damaging the skin beneath your beard. Applying rice water and allowing it to soak into the skin beneath your beard allows collagen production on the skin to increase helping with skin and facial hair follicles repair.

Collagen is also great for beard growth as it keeps hair follicles active and boosts the production of keratin a protein that makes up the facial hair.

The best form of rice water to use for healing the skin beneath your beard is a rice wine that is simply fermented rice water.

If you get exposed to the sun a lot using rice water will help protect your skin from sunlight damage. This is because rice water has some sunscreen properties. sourceOpens in a new tab.

If you have been using body and face lotion on your beard, you may realize that it is doing you more harm than good.

If you use a lotion that has sodium laurel sulfate it may end up causing irritation on the skin.

Applying rice water twice a day may help relieve this irritation and reverse the effect.

Repair damaged beards

One of the problems that most bearded men face is a beard that is curly and entangled.

To deal with these issues they end up using chemicals that are harsh on the facial hair.

These chemicals and products include hair dyes, perming, and chemical hair straighteners.

All these chemicals do is damage your beards in the long run. Suppose you are looking to reverse damage caused by these chemicals. Adding rice water into your beard care regime may help.

Rice water contains inositol, a chemical in rice water that has been proven to help in repairing damaged hair from the inside out, including preventing and treating split ends.

Strengthen your beard

One of the properties of rice water that many natural hair enthusiasts swear on is its ability to strengthen hair.

Women in Japan used to use rice water on their hair and had really long hair (sourceOpens in a new tab.).

As a result, most naturalist belief that using rice water will have the same effects on your hair.

The ability of rice water to strengthen your beard and hair can be attributed to inositol a chemical contained in rice water that is effective at strengthening hair (sourceOpens in a new tab.).

A strong beard is easy to comb through without breakage, rice water is also believed to help detangle entangled hair. Therefore, using it on your beards will help in detangling it.

If you are a man of African descent, you can agree with me when I say that, your beard will tend to be curl and entangled.

Try using rice water for four days a week for the first two months and then graduate twice or once a week to help in detangling your beard.

Other benefits of using rice water on your beards includes; makes your beard smooth, and shinier.

How to Use Rice water on Beards

After preparing rice water you can use rice water on your beards by following these steps.

Beard rinse

After washing your beard with a beard shampoo or wash, rinse it up with rice water. Thoroughly, rinse your facial hair from root to the tip and let it sit for about 20 minutes.

You can also add some essential oil such as grapeseed oil, castor oil, tea tree oil to help mask the scent of the rice water especially if you are using fermented rice water. After rinsing it out with plain water you can apply argan with jojoba oil and avocado oil to further moisturize and soften your beard or simply use a premium good quality beard oil.

Shampoo

If you have some beard soap or wash or beard shampoo, add some fermented rice water into your beard wash or shampoo, and wash your beard using this mixture.

Beard scrubber/exfoliator

You can also use rice water as part of your beard scrubbing ingredient. It is recommended that you scrub your beard at least twice a week for the first few months of beard growth, for instance, if you have a 1-month beard.

As the beard grows longer you can exfoliate once a week, using a good high-quality beard exfoliator, add fermented rice water and use it to scrub your beard. You can also add coffee grounds for maximum benefits. You can add olive oil to further moisturize your skin beneath your beard and your face.

Sunscreen

If you will be exposed to the sunlight for the most part of the day using rice water will help protect you from the harmful UVB lights. This studyOpens in a new tab. shows that cosmetics such as sunscreens that have rice water in them protect the skin against harmful sunlight rays.

Frequently Asked Questions

What rice is good for rice water for hair growth? The fermented rice water is far much better for hair growth and beard grooming compared to plain or boiled rice water since the fermented rice water has more antioxidants.

Does rice water go bad? Rice water can go bad if it is not refrigerated after use. In the refrigerator rice water can last for about 5-7 days.

Is rice water good for African hair? Rice water is good for African hair too, it will help prevent and repair the damage, detangle the curly nature of African hair.

does rice water grow hair on the face? Rice water does not grow hair on the face. The growth of facial hair is determined by genes and the level of testosterone and DHT in the body.

Can you leave rice water on your beard overnight? Unless you have a really damaged beard, you should not leave rice water on your beard overnight. This is because rice water has a lot of protein that may damage your beard if exposed to them overnight.

Conclusion

If you’re looking to strengthen your beard, add shine, detangle and protect it from the sun including rice water in your beard grooming arsenal will be a good idea.

Fermented rice water will be more beneficial when compared to the other soaked and boiled rice water.

Do not leave rice water in your beards overnight, it may end up causing more harm than good.

Ben

Hi, I'm Ben! When I embarked on my beard-growing journey, I had lots of questions. Now having successfully grown a beard, I launched this blog to share the answers I discovered through extensive research. Alongside beard tips, I also offer insights on maintaining and growing dreadlocks, as well as general advice on looking your best. I'm all about helping others look and feel great!

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