After my previous post comparing the rice water hair rinse made from fresh rice, rice flour, and our rice powder hair mask, I realize it has gained quite a following. Since most of you aren’t so familiar with what rice to choose and tips and tricks behind it, I think it would be great to shed some light on it in this post.

But first, I need to share with you a bit of my background. Apart from growing up in Thailand with a strong rice culture, I also happen to be raised in a rice seller family. This means from the age of 9, I would play hide and seek with my cousins and siblings in between the rows of 50 kg rice bags. In my spare time I had to help clean the rice, remove rice bugs, scoop rice into bags for clients, and learn about the different kinds of rice. As I grew older and started working at Happy Earth farm, I worked in the rice field season after season.  This combined with my background in holistic nutrition gives me an advantage to understand rice at a deeper level than most people who didn’t share the same experience. So, it is probably not wrong to say that I am somewhat of a snob when it comes to rice.

With that said, if you are ready, let’s dive right in!

What are we looking for?

Before we look at the different kinds of rice, we need to understand what we are really looking for here. There are a few reasons why rice water works so well on hair. 

• Fine rice starch particles present in rice water are full of hair nourishing nutrients and can penetrate deep into the hair strands smoothing its texture, leaving it soft and shiny to the touch. 
• The mildly acidic nature from fermented rice water helps clean and soften the hair strands  while adding beneficial probiotics to the scalp. This fermentation occurs due to the natural yeast present in the rice particles. This yeast feeds on the sugar content in the starch and turns rice water acidic.  

From my experience, the cloudier the rice water means the more rice starch particles and nutrients are dissolved in it.  This also leads to a better fermentation process and translates to softer and smoother hair and a healthier scalp.

Credit: Sandy Ravaloniaina via Unsplash

Not All Rice are Created Equal 

If you search on the internet asking about how to make rice water, most sources would say the same thing that any kind of rice is good. However, as a rice snob, I have to disagree.

When talking about rice, we all know that there isn’t just one kind of rice. There is sticky rice with its opaque white color, normal white rice, aromatic jasmine rice, brown rice, Indian Basmati rice, Japanese short-grain rice, and so many more. They are not only differentiated by the rice varieties but also by how much they have been polished. Each kind of rice offers a different nutrient profile but to not confuse you, I will only look at the kind of rice that you can find in most grocery stores in the West.

Rice Testing

Type of rice

The most common types of rice in the West are long-grain rice like Jasmine Rice or Basmati Rice and short-grain rice like sticky rice or Japanese Rice as well as brown rice. To determine how much starch is dissolved into the rice water from each kind of rice, I ran a little experiment by making rice water using the same amount of rice and water without washing the rice beforehand. Then I stirred each of them in water with a chopstick for 1-2 mins to see how cloudy it gets. To make it a bit more interesting, I also include our Jasmine Rice Powder Mask in the test.

The result? The cloudiest rice water is from our Jasmine Rice Powder, followed by sticky rice as second place. Jasmine and Japanese rice rank third place. As for Basmati and Brown rice, the water does not get cloudy even as much. So I would not use them for this purpose. 

Rice Water Hair Rinse Made with Different Kinds of Rice

Judging from above, the best kind of rice that will give you the most nutrient-rich rice hair rinse would be our Jasmine Rice Powder, Sticky rice, followed by Jasmine or Japanese rice. 

But when choosing the rice, the type of rice is not the only thing that breaks the deal. There are also other things that you may want to look at. 

Other Considerations When Choosing Rice

Brown Rice or White Rice?

While most people think that brown rice is a specific type of rice, it is not. Brown or white rice is determined by how much rice bran is removed during the polishing process. In Thailand, we can have Jasmine Brown rice which means it is a Jasmine Rice that comes with rice bran. Hence it is still brown in color. Rice bran contains rice bran oil which covers the grain, preventing the starch from dissolving in water. As a result, the rice water made from brown rice will not be as cloudy as white rice. However, given rice bran contains a high amount of Vitamin Bs, it is possible that rice water from brown rice will contain Vitamin Bs as well.

Vitamin Bs is a water-soluble vitamin and helps strengthen and thickens the hair strands. So, if you need stronger hair, using Brown rice for your rice hair rinse might give you some more benefits over normal white rice. But if you need more of a soft and smooth hair, I would recommend white rice any time. 

Credit: Pierre Bamin via UnSplash

Is It Organic?

Organic rice means the rice has not been genetically modified nor is grown using chemicals pesticide, herbicides or fertilizers. As we all know, organic vegetables have higher nutrients than non-organic ones. The same is true when it comes to rice. At the same time, rice grown organically also means there’s less chance of chemical residues found in rice. If you are concerned about chemicals found in skincare products, I would recommend going organic whenever you can.

Is It Imported?

Like all imported grains, rice has to be fumigated before being shipped into a new country. This is to make sure that there’s no bugs or insects that could be tagged along in the shipment. However, this also means there’s a higher chance chemical residues remain in the rice. If you use imported rice, it is recommended that you rinse your rice a few times before using it. However, due to this multiple rinsing, a lot of the rice nutrients are also washed away. 

Old rice or New rice 

While not everyone can choose old rice or new rice, it is still worth noting that there is a difference when it comes to using old or new rice for rice water. Old rice or aged rice is stocked rice that is kept for aging for one or more years. During this process, moisture will evaporate from the old rice, making it drier and harder for the starch to dissolve in your rice water.  Meanwhile, newly harvested crops are stored for a few months and hence are more hydrated than old rice. As a result, less water is needed when cooking new rice.

From my experience, I find that not only is the new rice softer when cooked and has what we call a rice sap, but there’s also more starch dissolved into the rice water. The freshness of the rice means the starch particles are easier to break down, making new rice a better choice when it comes to making rice water rinse. Understanding that not everyone can choose this, but if you live in a rice growing country and can choose between old or new rice, pick new rice any time.

Other DIY Rice Water Tips

How to make rice hair rinse

While the above discusses how to choose the rice, the process of making rice water is equally important. Some recipes require that you blend the boiled rice. Some recipes suggest that you use hot water to soak the rice instead of room temperature. Meanwhile, the amount of water used to soak the rice and how you use it on your hair also makes a difference.

I recommend soaking it overnight using either room temperature or lukewarm water to get the benefit of the acidic nature of the rice water, which can both cleanse and soften the hair while adding beneficial probiotics to the scalp. Hot water will kill the natural rice yeast. If you use blended boiled rice, you will not get the fermentation that you want as all microbes are killed with heat, so you can use it right after it cools down.

Making Rice Water

To properly make a good rice hair rinse, make sure that after you wash and clean the rice a few times, you really massage the rice in the water for a few minutes. This is to ensure as much starch content from the rice surface is dissolved into the water as possible.

How to use

In terms of using the rice water on hair, some people suggest just spraying it lightly. Others would simply use it and rinse it off with water right away. To get the full benefit, I would recommend exposing rice water to your hair strands as much as possible and for as long as possible. That means running the rice water through your hair and letting it sit for at least 10 minutes before rinsing off. But of course, try it however you like and adjust as needed.

There’s no absolute right or wrong when working with natural ingredients; it’s all about experimenting and seeing if you like it. If not, try different solutions that you think might work better. All in all, don’t forget to have fun and enjoy the journey. Experiment however you’d like. This will deepen your understanding of nature and your body at the same time. For me, this is more important than following a fixed recipe or anything else when it comes to DIY beauty.

If you want to make your own rice water without all the hassle of choosing the right kind of rice, I would recommend our Organic Jasmine Rice Powder Mask. It is made purely from the freshest Jasmine Rice grown right at our farm. So you can be sure that it’s 100% organic and is not treated in any way. Use it to make your rice hair rinse, hair mask, face mask, or body mask. We’ve heard so many good things from our clients and can’t wait to hear how it works for you. And if you are curious about the different result between using our rice powder, normal rice flour, or  the normal rice water hair rinse, check out this post for more info!

Thank you for following along, and let me know in the comments if you have any questions! A rice snob like me is more than happy to answer, or if I don’t know it, I definitely have more than one source to ask around for you!

And if you want to get close and intimate with us along our journey to live, learn, and grow with Mother Nature? Sign up to our newsletter for your little dose of natural living inspiration, farm living, and DIY beauty tips and you’ll get a code for free gift with your first purchase too!

That’s it for now! Until next time!

xo,
-mon