my cold shower success

Good Morning everyone.

I just wanted to let people know how great it is to have cold showers every morning when you wake up. For those like me who believe MPB is due to tight scalp and blood circulation then a cold shower is superior to most things in getting the blood circulated.

after a long sleep your blood is stagnated in the depths of your body (organs etc) so going to a hot shower really isnt doing much however when you go for a cold shower you are shocking your body, because everything tenses up means that your body has to work harder to push blood around your body, this will naturally increase blood pressure and improve circulation. Its amazing because after about 3minutes of being under freezing cold water my body warms up, I can almost feel the blood rushing round my body.

Not only circulation, cold shower is great for
-strengthening immune system
-lymph draining
-helping with depression/mood
- increased energy

We have it far too easy in our society, we wake up in a warm bed, jump into a warm shower, drive to work in a car with heating, go to work in a warm office and then eat warm food, our bodies are not stressed enough, no wonder we get ill so easy. we need to stress out bodies out a bit, test them and a cold shower is perfect for this

oh yeah and i dont shed anymore + hair looks healthier and thicker

i rinse my scalp with cold water, but cold showers are brutal. tough to do.

they are brutal but so so so worth it

After a few months doing it, you will just say no-no to hot water. It will be hard, but worthy journey.

I crave the stuff...

I started doing it and it's remarkable. For about a month I've done it.

However, yesterday I was soo tired and didn't want the "stress" of the cold and took a hot shower...hairs were all over my chair at work. This was the first time I took a hot shower in about a month and I felt awful afterwards. I'm glad I took the hot shower because it showed me that it really DOES effect my hair (probably not yours...everyone is different)

Anyways, I also pulled out one of my longer vellus hairs ontop my head and was surprised to see that there was about a half an inch of DARK hair leading to the annoying clear/see-through vellus. It looked like when you bleach your hair and then your normal hair grows out from the root...like that ombre look. It looks like it's making the hair darker? I look in the mirror at the vellus blonde hairs and it looks like there are now darker roots? But could just be a optical illusion.

Also, there are these random BLACK hairs that have started popping up in my thinning areas where it's just annoying vellus hairs. I would take a picture because it's so random but I really don't care enough to...lol. Maybe if it gets thicker. But it just looks really weird cuz it doesn't match my hair at ALL...but when I was younger, my hair was A LOT darker and I've always wondered why my hair is such a nasty orangish blonde now.

Oh, and in addition to the hot showers I used to take I used to take a REALLY hot bath everynight and soak my head in the water - thinking it was helping! LOL. It was probably boiling my hair right off my scalp!

Another thing...you notice with bald men or if you look at your balding scalp, the skin looks extremely smooth. But now I see these tiny little follicle holes everywhere. It seems very natural and like the hairs are ready to get out.

Be mindful that I'm naturally an ashy blonde but over the years my hair has turned kind of a brassy blonde...yeah, it's awful lol. So the black hairs are a big surprise.

My strategy is to buy some MSM, biotin, protein and megadose these and continue with the 2x a day showers. Maybe brush occassionally. But yeah, definitely no more hot water on the head.

My grandpa had beautifully thick hair and I don't think he washed it much. In the 50s/60s...they'd only wash it once a week at the barber shop and then just slap Brylcreem on it the other days. THeir hair probably rarely came into contact with hot water. THe whole "wash your hair everyday" is a new marketing invention

ANyway, I was sad cuz the manuals didn't work and I dont' have enough will power to do NOFAP but I'll see with this cold water thing. LOL

From what I know it is good to start to shower with hot water - especially if you are using a good quality SLS free shampoo, it opens the pores for better absorption and better cleaning of the scalp, then you end up and wash with cold water to close the pores - does it make sense?

So what about if you take a shower before using LLLT or other stimulation devices? in case you shower with cold water it seems that the absorption of the lasers will drop- isn't that so?

Dannyboy wrote:From what I know it is good to start to shower with hot water - especially if you are using a good quality SLS free shampoo, it opens the pores for better absorption and better cleaning of the scalp, then you end up and wash with cold water to close the pores - does it make sense?

So what about if you take a shower before using LLLT or other stimulation devices? in case you shower with cold water it seems that the absorption of the lasers will drop- isn't that so?

How do you know this? From your personal experience? is your hair regrowing at all?

blahblahblah wrote:

Dannyboy wrote:From what I know it is good to start to shower with hot water - especially if you are using a good quality SLS free shampoo, it opens the pores for better absorption and better cleaning of the scalp, then you end up and wash with cold water to close the pores - does it make sense?

So what about if you take a shower before using LLLT or other stimulation devices? in case you shower with cold water it seems that the absorption of the lasers will drop- isn't that so?

How do you know this? From your personal experience? is your hair regrowing at all?

An Ebook which was very interesting: http://hairlossblackbook.ugmp.net/ and it makes much sense.

Cold showers have been on my "to do" list for a while. Not ready to give up my hot showers during this brutal winter, but soon enough I will give it a try.

I know people say the benefits are immense, and it seems to me to be a good idea at least in theory.

I dont think we shouldnt open the pores, the idea of cleaning them out its crazy in my idea. Our bodies is amazing and we think we need to clean it with soaps and shampoos when it is doing so much harm. dont use soap, dont use shampoo. wash every morning with cold water and put talc on your pits. my skin is so much softer and I feel so much healthier

One thing to consider is that a cold shower is really just an ambient temperature shower. If you live up north then a winter cold water shower is probably unbearable and a summer cold water shower is probably over 60 degrees. It's probably better to take an ice water bath. If you live down south I'm not sure a cold water shower really does anything any time of year even if it is a little uncomfortable. My cold water is over 60 degrees in the winter in California so I'm not sure it really has any effect.

john walters wrote:Good Morning everyone.

I just wanted to let people know how great it is to have cold showers every morning when you wake up. For those like me who believe MPB is due to tight scalp and blood circulation then a cold shower is superior to most things in getting the blood circulated.

after a long sleep your blood is stagnated in the depths of your body (organs etc) so going to a hot shower really isnt doing much however when you go for a cold shower you are shocking your body, because everything tenses up means that your body has to work harder to push blood around your body, this will naturally increase blood pressure and improve circulation. Its amazing because after about 3minutes of being under freezing cold water my body warms up, I can almost feel the blood rushing round my body.

Not only circulation, cold shower is great for
-strengthening immune system
-lymph draining
-helping with depression/mood
- increased energy

We have it far too easy in our society, we wake up in a warm bed, jump into a warm shower, drive to work in a car with heating, go to work in a warm office and then eat warm food, our bodies are not stressed enough, no wonder we get ill so easy. we need to stress out bodies out a bit, test them and a cold shower is perfect for this

Hey man i started hot(warm) and cold showers recently more cold than hot. When that cold water hits your body you want to scream but as soon as your body is immerse in cold water head to toe, its an instant energy boost, your mood is lifted and circulation is definitely plus for us with mpb. I always finish my showers with cold water. Summertime is gonna only cold. Ill give myself another to see if notice a difference in how i shed.

Awesome! I can't believe how little I shed, I can yank at my hair and get nothing, its insane. when i just put cold water on my head I still shedded abit but it was definately reduced. However when I did my whole body it was a drastic improvement.

john walters wrote:Awesome! I can't believe how little I shed, I can yank at my hair and get nothing, its insane. when i just put cold water on my head I still shedded abit but it was definately reduced. However when I did my whole body it was a drastic improvement.

Oh wow, I was thinking you just needed the head for benefits. Guess I'm going to get on the cold shower bandwagon.

I thought that too dude. But I guess you need great circulation throughout the body to help with the scalp/ you need the whole body working in harmony

I also dont use shampoo or soaps. I cant stress how much I don't think people should use shampoos. even the natural stuff is full of chemicals. leave your hair alone, stop trying to clean it when its happy with its own oils to self regulate

john walters wrote:I dont think we shouldnt open the pores, the idea of cleaning them out its crazy in my idea. Our bodies is amazing and we think we need to clean it with soaps and shampoos when it is doing so much harm. dont use soap, dont use shampoo. wash every morning with cold water and put talc on your pits. my skin is so much softer and I feel so much healthier

What about after a night when that you are using any topical treatment (lotions / oils ect'? I think you must clean your scalp with Shampoo. I still think that it is necessary to start with hot in order to clean it and then you can end with as long as you want with cold water (how cold btw?). I still wondering though in case before doing an LLLT treatment (as it recommended to do), if its lowing of the effectiveness of the laser to get deeply to the hair follicles, as cold water naturally shrinks the pores.
Any thoughts?

I dont use topicals so not sure about that. my pores dont need cleaning out because its hard for the bad stuff to get in, when I do need to clean my pores out i do so by running and therefore sweating. i read somewhere recently that hot water destroys the fatty layers on the scalp too, i l try and find the link.

well most people who are fighting hair loss - do use different kind of topicals.
I think not cleaning the lotions, oils away with shampoo could be harmful. It should be a good shampoo without SLS and harsh stuff - if you don't use any so maybe not using shampoo might be good then.

How long you wash your hair with the cold water and how cold the water is? are you doing it around the other regimes like massage / brushing / VR or whatever your regime is...?

http://www.worldhairloss.org/index.php/forums/viewthread/739

http://www.hairlosstalk.com/interact/showthread.php/12095-Myth-about-hot-showers-causing-hair-loss-may-be-true

I'm thinking that it's not so much the cold water as much as people washing their hair in the hot water we're used to in the West.

I still take the coldest showers because it makes me feel better mentally.

Was it in this thread where someone said their Latin American hairdresser scolded him for washing his hair in hot water because it makes hair fall out?

john walters wrote:I also dont use shampoo or soaps. I cant stress how much I don't think people should use shampoos. even the natural stuff is full of chemicals. leave your hair alone, stop trying to clean it when its happy with its own oils to self regulate

agree, i doubt there's is a single artificial product out there that will help you without sideeffects and won't make you dependent on it, so that if you stop using it the symptons come back amplified. resistance can only build up from within.

john walters wrote:I dont use topicals so not sure about that. my pores dont need cleaning out because its hard for the bad stuff to get in, when I do need to clean my pores out i do so by running and therefore sweating. i read somewhere recently that hot water destroys the fatty layers on the scalp too, i l try and find the link.

Thanks for your answer.
Most people who are fighting hair loss - do use different kind of topicals in their regime, so isn't it a problem avoiding using shampoo?
I think not cleaning the lotions, oils away with shampoo should be harmful. It should be a good shampoo without SLS and harsh stuff - if you don't use any so maybe not using shampoo might be good then.

My concern of cold showers in some degree, is that it can damage the effectiveness of any of hair stimulation devices/treatments like LLLT/VR topical solutions,right after - as the cold water shrink/ close the pores, blood vessels ect'.

So don't do those right after.