I have been noticing shedding whilst detangling my hair and can only be mad at myself as I use to do tea rinses religiously on wash days but due to time constraints, I somehow got out of sync and haven't done a tea rinse in a good while.
I was discussing this with my mum and she asked why I wasn't using coffee for my rinses as it was caffeine which blocks the hormone DHT (dihydrotestosterone) which accounts for hair loss and not necessarily tea. I hadn't actually thought about this before and had just started tea rinsing after following those who had documented reduced shedding and so tried it and found it worked for me too. I hadn't considered the fact that coffee would contain more caffeine than tea. My mother is usually right and after a bit of research I found a bit of proof...
Contrary to popular belief tea does not contain more caffeine than coffee, it actually contains about half the amount compared to instant coffee and a third of filter coffee. United Kingdom Tea Council.
I decided to give it a try and incorporated it in my last wash day.
How I coffee rinsed:
- I pre-pooed my hair and as I was making my morning cup of coffee anyway I made two instead but with the coffee for my hair; I used a coffee travel mug to get that little bit extra and of course I didn't add sugar...
- I shampooed and rinsed my hair and then blotted with a towel so that my hair wasn't dripping wet.
- Placing a bathroom bowl in the bath so that it caught the coffee running from my hair, I poured the cool coffee over my hair whilst bending over the bath. I poured the coffee caught in the bowl back into the coffee cup and rinsed my hair repeating this method three times.
- I covered my hair with a shower cap for 15 minutes whilst I cleaned my bathroom and then rinsed.
- I deep conditioned and carried on with my usual wash day routine.
I didn't really know what to expect when I first rinsed my hair with the coffee but surprisingly I noticed very quickly that my hair wasn't feeling rough and dry like it does when I do a black tea rinse so coffee rinses were already winning points with me but I decided to wait until detangling my hair to get too excited. After applying my leave-ins and then detangling my hair, I was sold. There was definitely a decrease in shedding of hairs whilst detangling my hair and I will also say I achieved better results with this coffee rinse than I have with tea rinses. I will still do tea rinses occasionally but Coffee Rinsing is now part of my wash day regime if not weekly then bi-weekly.
For more information on the effects of caffeine on hair, have a browse at this article by Livestrong.com.
Have you tried coffee rinsing before? Did it reduce your shedding?
De'Onne x
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