Will taking a cold shower improve your skin’s appearance? Yes, actually, cold showers are better than hot showers for this purpose! Cold water is great for relieving itching sensations, causing you to scratch your skin less. This means no red marks and a better overall appearance of the skin. Cold showers also constrict blood flow and improve circulation, causing a more even, healthy glow from under the skin. Cold showers are also better for the skin because they don’t strip the skin of important oils like hot water can, which would leave the skin looking more dry than it would otherwise.
Cold showers offer plenty of other benefits in addition to improving the appearance of the skin. The cold is good for reducing feelings of muscle soreness after a workout, for instance. It also helps improve circulation all around, which is helpful to people with circulation issues such as hypotension. Cold showers reduce inflammation, which is also what causes it to soothe itchy skin. Anecdotally, cold showers are also great for helping you wake up in the morning by stimulating the central nervous system.
All that being said, there are some cons of cold showers. In colder months, cold showers can be very uncomfortable, and sometimes too cold, in combination with the cool weather. Cold showers also aren’t known to help the immune system like warm showers are. This means that cold showers can be detrimental if you are sick. They also aren’t for everyone. For example, cold water is said to help with muscle soreness, but many people state that they enjoy hot water baths and showers more than cold water when they are dealing with muscular injuries and soreness.
While cold showers might not feel as nice as warm showers, they undoubtedly provide some health benefits, especially for the skin.