Cold water therapy receives a lot of attention for the benefits derived from ice baths, ice swimming, cold plunge tubs, and even cold showers. The fact that it has benefits for your skin is seldom a focus point. This is a pity because cold water immersion therapy has great skin benefits, including a youthful complexion and healthy hair.
Cold Water Immersion for Your Face
Cold water facials or face icing is one of the best things you can do to revive your face in the mornings and protect the essential oils on your skin that keep it healthy. You can use icy water exposure on your face in plenty of ways. One of the easiest is to plunge your face into a bowl of ice water.
It sounds a bit extreme but the correct way to use a bowl with ice water as therapy is even more demanding. The entire treatment process should take 15 minutes. It's simple enough, put your face in ice water for up to 15 seconds per minute. It works out to about four minutes out of the 15-minute period.
You don't have to do the full 15 minutes the first time you try an iced water facial. Five minutes of dunking is sufficient. You also don't have to start with a bowl of ice. Cold tap water is ideal as a gradual introduction to ice water therapy. Add ice cubes to the chilled bowl of water as you progress until you're plunging your face into a bowlful of ice.
Keep an eye on the ice cubes. Don't let them melt too much before topping up.
What Can Ice Therapy Do for Your Skin?
Cold water benefits for your face are varied and are best achieved using different cold therapy methods.
Reduces Inflammation
Traditional cold water therapy is used a lot in sports to reduce swelling and inflammation of muscles after a hard workout. Ice-cold water can have the same effect on your face's skin.
As soon as the cold water hits your face, the blood vessels and pores constrict (vasoconstriction). When the natural heat returns, the vessels dilate and fresh blood circulates, removing toxins, reducing inflammation, and leaving your skin firmer and smoother. It also contributes to a glowing complexion and even reduces the appearance of wrinkles.
Splashing cold water on your face when you get up in the morning will immediately reduce any puffiness. Note, sensitive skin doesn't respond well to extreme cold (or extreme heat), so you might want to stick to cold tap water and no ice.
Preserves Natural Oils
Washing your face in hot water or standing under a hot shower for a long time strips the natural oils from your skin. It makes your skin dryer, more vulnerable to bacteria, and inflamed. Cold water treats your skin more gently, partly by the way it increases healthy blood circulation.
The thing is, a lot of facial cleansers require tepid or lukewarm water. In this case, you can first wash your face in warm water to remove bacteria, dead skin cells, and dirt in the pores. Then you can rinse your face with cold water to tighten the pores again and protect your skin from pollutants.
Note, you may have to experiment a bit to find a temperature combination that works for your skin. For instance, oily skin needs warm water to properly clean the pores. Cold water leaves some oil in the pores and can cause breakouts in acne-prone skin. The exact opposite happens to dry skin, so some tweaking may be necessary to establish a daily routine.
Relieves Skin Irritation
Skin prone to atopic dermatitis and other allergic reactions benefits from cold showers or cold baths because the water can soothe burning and itching sensations. Cold water won't treat skin conditions, instead, it relieves the symptoms and reduces inflammation.
Scalp and Hair
Just because your scalp is covered by hair, doesn't mean it's protected from all the risks to exposed skin. The tendency is to wash hair in a hot shower but that strips your scalp of all its natural oils. A dry scalp is prone to dryness, flakiness, and itchiness. A cool shower will protect the oils on your skin from the tips of your toes to the top of your scalp.
It's recommended that you shower under lukewarm water and finish it off with a cold burst for a couple of minutes.
Cold water also helps your hair stay healthy. It locks moisture in the strands by sealing their hair cuticles. This strengthens the cuticle, improving your hair's health and giving it a beautiful shine.
What is Cryotherapy?
Cryotherapy is sometimes used as an umbrella term covering all therapy forms involving cold exposure.
Cryotherapy was originally a medical treatment in which a healthcare professional applies extreme cold, typically liquid nitrogen or argon gas, to remove abnormal tissue or treat conditions like plantar fasciitis.
Now, it also refers to a beauty treatment that can only be provided by properly qualified and certified practitioners. In addition to all the benefits above, cryotherapy can stimulate collagen and elastin production, which has long-term benefits.
You can harness the benefits of cryotherapy by using a cryotherapy facial machine at home.
Cold Water Immersion Solutions for Private Cold Water Therapy from Renu Therapy
Cold water is easily accessible if you want to start using it as a skin treatment at home. All you have to do is turn on a cold tap and get ice cubes from the fridge.
To fully enjoy the benefits of cold temperatures, however, you need to submerge your entire body and the best way to do that is to use one of our cold plunge tubs, which come with several features to enhance the experience.
Contact us to discuss the cold plunge pools and tanks we have to find out which would best suit your needs. Simply complete the contact form on our website or call us at 714-617-2007 at RENU Therapy today!
