We’ve all been seeing the YouTube videos on this and all other hubbub on social media. There’s been a big debate around fermented vs cooked vs soaked. To that end, I did an experiment by sectioning off parts of my hair to test the three methods. The things that are the same are my hair, my rice, and my tap water. I used some white jasmine rice that I happened to have on hand.
For fermented, I cooked the 1/3 cup of rice in 6 cups of water and then let it steep for two days in a mason jar. Pretty simple, just pour everything into a mason jar and leave it on the windowsill for a couple of days. It didn’t smell foul or bad, just a bit more slippery with a feel slightly reminiscent of my flax seed hair gel.
For the soaked, I dumped a 1/3 cup of rice into a mason jar and topped it off with hot water from the kitchen tap. I let that steep on my windowsill next to the fermented batch to try to control for any light or temperature variations.
For the simply cooked, I just cooked up a 1/3 cup of rice in 6 cups of water and strained out the rice. Then I let the water sit in a mason jar and cool.
The batch that I left to ferment smelled and felt quite different than either the soaked or the cooked. My hair seems to think that it’s different too. I applied all 3 from scalp to end and then let it sit while I did my normal pre-shower routine (brushing, flossing, etc.) which takes me about 10 minutes. Then I got in the shower and rinsed it out. The hair treated with the fermented batch feels smoother and seems to be shinier. The cooked seems to be second and just soaked a third for me.
Since I only wash my hair once a week, making a fermented batch isn’t a problem. I’m fairly certain that you can make it early and pop it into the fridge to keep the fermentation from getting too far along.
