Do Cold Water Rinses Make Hair Shine?
Ever hear this one: "Rinse your hair with ice cold water to close the cuticle to make it shine." Ever try it? And then there's the opposite - that very warm water makes your hair's cuticles "open up." I don't get along with the notion that "cuticles open and close" like doors or window blinds because it implies that the cuticles have some method of creating their own motion. They don't. If a cuticle is "open" it's actually elevated from the hair surface as a result of the whole-hair swelling in water or other solutions, or it is damaged by chemicals or friction and broken but has not yet torn completely off. I had to test it myself and I'll admit my tests are not complete (if I wanted to spend all day working with 50 to 100 hair samples and perfectly controlled conditions that would be ideal - but I'll leave that to people who get money to do this sort of thing). The "Cold Water Makes Hair Shine" notion is ...