Cold showers are a simple yet truly fantastic tool for clearing your acne.
Few things in the world inspire the fear that a cold shower does.
You can put a man in a Middle Eastern warzone, you can send him down a mountainside cliff with skis strapped to his feet, and you can place him in horrific poverty. Yet compared to those comparatively deadly activities, jumping into a torrent of cold water inspires a disproportionate amount of fear.
For most people the mere mention of cold water will send a shiver down their spine.
If this sounds like you then you will have to face your fear big time: cold showers will not only reduce your acne but they will also massively improve the tone of your skin. They will provide a ton of other health benefits, like reduced stress, which itself will also lead to a massive reduction in acne.
Before you stop reading, let me tell you my story.
My experience with cold showers
Many years ago my acne was absolutely horrendous. It had been horrendous for quite some time, and at this point changing my diet had not even occurred to me. All I had previously done was avoid the classic acne foods like chocolate (which as it turns out, is extremely beneficial for acne).
The main focus of my acne efforts was still hygiene. The problem was that at this time, not only was my face covered with acne, but it had spread to both my back and my chest. I had “bacne” in a big way and was trying to think of hygiene strategies to get rid of it.
I had already tried the classic acne strategies like face washes, moisturisers, and tried endless different products in endless different combinations.
I knew nothing of the natural topical treatments that do work, such as raw honey, grapeseed oil, or tea tree oil.
So I began to research some alternative acne-clearing methods. One of the ideas I came across was cold showers. The articles claimed that cold water submersion had extraordinary health benefits, they claimed that many rural communities in countries like Finland loved cold showers, and they claimed that cold water was terrific for your acne and skin.
Naturally, I decided to try them out. If I had been in any other state of mind, I would have instantly rejected having cold showers for the simple reason that they are so uncomfortable.
Read Annihilate Your Acne – get the ultimate diet and clear your acne permanently!
However my face had been buried in acne for a long time and I was extremely determined to beat it. So for about two months, every day, without fail, I had one cold shower in the morning, and another in the evening. I kept going and going and going and I never let the slightest bit of discomfort put me off.
The results were absolutely extraordinary.
Within a few days, the amount of small pimples on my face had fallen substantially. I still had some bigger-sized acne but the overall quantity was far lower.
The best part is that after a few weeks, the tone of my skin had improved unbelievably; it had a healthy glowing quality, many of my old acne marks had decreased, and it generally looked extremely healthy.
The difference compared to my hot shower days was massive and clearly noticeable.
I did still have some acne on my face, but because the rest of my skin looked so great, it didn’t look anywhere near as bad. One of the best parts was that it changed the skin on my whole body; both my back and chest acne improved and the skin on my entire body looked excellent.
My acne and skin looked better than it had for over two and a half years.
How does this relate to me?
You can do exactly the same thing I did. If you stop taking hot showers and embrace cold ones, you will almost certainly enjoy fantastic benefits for your acne too.
The best part is that I wasn’t using any other acne strategies while taking cold showers. Diet is about ten times as important for clearing acne as good hygiene. But I hadn’t changed my diet and I hadn’t made any significant lifestyle changes.
Therefore if you take the rest of the acne-clearing information on this website and combine it with daily cold showers, the improvement in acne will almost certainly be staggering.
How cold showers actually help your acne
Given the results I had with them, I firmly recommend cold showers for acne regardless of any science behind them. However we will discuss the science anyway.
The first reason why cold showers are great for acne is simply because they are not hot showers. A lot of people on the internet believe that hot showers are the best because they open up your pores, allowing you to remove the sebum and dead skin cells within.
It is true that hot showers help you to unblock pores, but their problems for acne vastly outweigh their benefits.
Sebum, the oil that blocks your pores, is not a complete villain – it is necessary to lubricate your skin. If you blast every ounce of sebum on your face with hot water, which is usually what happens, then your body has to regenerate the oil.
Your sebum production actually INCREASES after a hot shower.
The harsh drying effect of hot showers is why some acne patients believe they’re great, but in the long term, they will make your face far oilier. That’s a big reason why seasonal acne exists; acne patients taking hot showers to stay warm during winter.
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Cold showers avoid this problem and thus switching to them can reduce sebum production excellently. Such a strategy also tackles the dryness and flakiness that many acne patients suffer from, because hot water is a big cause of that as well.
As for the direct acne benefits, the specific processes through which cold water helps your skin are unclear.
The hot water factor is significant for acne but there are almost certainly others involved. Here are some other potential causes…
Cold water directly nourishes your skin. The fact that cold showers create such a dramatic improvement in the tone of your skin suggests that they have a unique effect on the skin.
Almost no dietary treatment produced the improvement in acne I noticed from cold showers (with the major exception of avoiding sugar). Therefore it is likely that contact with cold water clears acne by directly helping your skin, rather than improving acne through indirect means.
Cold showers tighten your pores. Just as hot water can loosen your pores, cold water can effectively tighten them. Thus cold showers are a good way to prevent clogged pores and the acne from them since basically, it is harder for dead skin cells glued together by keratin, sebum and acne-causing chemicals in cosmetics to get lodged in them.
Big reduction in stress. One of the biggest benefits you will notice is that cold showers put you in a great mood for the rest of the day.
When you jump into a torrent of icy water, it feels extremely uncomfortable for a while. Eventually though, you get used to it. When you then exit the cold shower and step back into the outside air, you feel like a superhuman.
Nothing at all will stress you out; you will be in a fantastic mood for the rest of the day. You’ve already shocked your body with a giant amount of physical stress, so how can mundane problems do the same? Your mood will be elevated all day long and you will be extremely resistant to stress.
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Science has actually shown that if you put your body through sharp and powerful stressors, like a cold shower, then your general tolerance to stress will be improved. The implication for your acne is that this reduces your cortisol levels. Cortisol is the main stress hormone and it is a big cause of insulin resistance, which is in turn a big cause of acne.
The cold shower will temporarily elevate your cortisol levels, due to the sheer shock of it, but when you leave and the mood enhancing effects kick in, they will be generally far lower.
You have to try out the cold shower to see what I mean but the effects are so fantastic that you may never want to go back to hot ones.
After that you’ll enjoy a ton of other advantages. For example, lower stress levels can improve your sleep quality too, because of cortisol’s negative effects on neurotransmitters. Sleeping well is so important for acne that in my eBook Annihilate Your Acne I devoted a whole chapter to it.
Spartan showers – the best ever for acne
Now that you know how cold showers are great for your acne, how do you go about having one?
When it comes to cold showers there are two key methods that you can use.
The first one is called the James Bond shower. If you have read any of Ian Fleming’s original James Bond books then you might remember him being a big fan of cold showers.
His strategy was to start off with warm water, then alternate between cold and warm, and finally turn it down to icy cold for the last minute. This was presumably done to strengthen his mind for his spying duties.
Why bread and pasta are a massive cause of acne
This method can be useful for acne if you want to clean out your pores; by starting off with warm water, you can loosen the pores, clean them, and then tighten the pores up again with the final burst of cold water.
This method also has the advantage of being easier to carry out. For some unknown reason it is far easier to switch to cold water when you are already wet; it is far harder for you to jump into a cold swimming pool dry compared to when you have already been in it.
However while this method may be more comfortable it is inferior for acne to the other method: the Spartan shower.
It is called the Spartan shower because it requires great willpower and hardiness to accomplish. Instead of Bond’s varying temperatures, the Spartan shower involves one step: jumping straight into a shower that is icy cold.
This is far more uncomfortable than the James Bond shower. However it is the superior method for your acne because the extra shock provides you with greater mental benefits.
The mood-boosting, stress-crushing purposes of a cold shower are at their peak here. A Spartan shower will stress you out more temporarily, but in the long run you will be so resistant to stress that your cortisol will be lower and the benefits for your acne will be greater.
This method does not allow you to clean your pores out, however you can still do that in a separate face wash.
A good strategy is to have a Spartan shower in the morning, which will provide you with mental benefits for the whole day, and then a James Bond shower in the evening to clean your pores. You don’t want to be wide awake in the evening anyway.
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The good news is that both of these methods will help the tone of your skin as they both contain plenty of cold water. If you cannot face leaping straight into the cold water then rest assured – the James Bond shower will still work.
Remember though, that successfully completing a Spartan shower will pump you up beyond belief. The more extreme the shower the more fantastic you will feel afterwards, and you might get so addicted to it that you no longer care about the initial discomfort.
How to actually have a cold shower
We can theorise and discuss the benefits for acne all day but if you can’t actually face having a cold shower then this is all pointless.
The James Bond shower is fairly easy because, as we discussed, you are already wet and that makes things easier. You can also turn the water down slowly; remember that you may not get the mental shock effects but the cold water will still nourish your skin.
The Spartan shower is a lot harder and you may not have the willpower to do it. However there is one simple trick to make it a whole lot easier: do press-ups beforehand.
If you do some proper press-ups, press-ups that are hard enough to get the blood pumping through you, then jumping into a cold shower will be no problem at all. Compared to before it will seem ridiculously easy, your fear will have evaporated.
You will have to try it yourself to find out. The likely explanation is that because your body is already highly stressed out from the exercise, a little bit of extra stress is no problem and this causes your brain to resist it less.
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It’s also possible that because press-ups cause a temporary increase in cortisol, they create a “fight-or-flight” response that makes your body less responsive to pain or discomfort.
What you need to know is that this method works extremely well and you should try it if you find taking a cold shower impossible.
More secret tricks for both skin tone and acne
If your skin tone and glow improves from cold showers, but you can’t resist pushing the benefits even further, here’s another arsenal of strategies:
Use sea buckthorn oil – this topical treatment extracted from the sea buckthorn berry is best for oily skin, reducing the skin’s oiliness by 45% in 8 weeks in one study. However, sea buckthorn oil is also extremely rich in carotenoid antioxidants, antioxidants which provide yellow and orange pigments.
When eaten in the diet, such as in sweet potatoes or carrots, carotenoids travel to your skin and accumulate to provide a healthy glowing pigment. However, applying them topically is extra concentrated and efficient, and that’s what sea buckthorn oil does. It’s also excellent for oily skin and acne itself, and carotenoids have a bonus power of defending skin cells from sunlight. Remember to get the berry oil and not the seed oil. Best product (amazon link): US Organic Sea Buckthorn Berry Oil.
Eat dark chocolate – the benefits of high cocoa dark chocolate, rather than sugary milk or white chocolate, are two fold. Firstly, dark chocolate causes a surge in blood nitric oxide levels. Nitric oxide is a vasodilating gas which increases blood flow through the capillaries, therefore increasing circulation to the skin. Cocoa was once shown to enhance skin blood flow 1.7 fold, and skin oxygenation 1.8 fold. Secondly, dark chocolate is extremely rich in polyphenol and flavanoid antioxidants. Buy 80% plus dark chocolate at all costs (unless pleasure is your goal).
Eat watermelon – watermelon flesh combines the two tricks above. It’s extremely rich in carotenoid antioxidants, specifically lycopene, which is proven to improve skin tone. Like dark chocolate, it increases nitric oxide and blood flow, this time by being rich in citrulline, the precursor to nitric oxide.
Take vitamin D – perhaps the best supplement for skin tone. Zinc is amazing for inflammatory acne and acne overall, but vitamin D supercharges your skin’s appearance and glow more than anything else. Explanations could be a reduction in inflammation, or increased formation of the antioxidant superoxide dismutase, which your body uses vitamin D to make.
One theory is that since vitamin D improves fertility strongly, it might improve skin tone and attractiveness as a natural signal that we’re ready to reproduce and continue the species. Best product (amazon link): Natural Factors Vitamin D3.
Breathe correctly – there’s an epidemic right now of people not breathing properly. They breathe through their mouths rather than nose, they breather irregularly, or they fail to breathe deeply because of sitting at a desk all day. Breathing is so natural that most people never consider it, but breathing through your nose, as opposed to your mouth, is proven to increase blood and oxygen flow to the skin.
Skin oxygenation is closely linked to skin appearance and women even have found men with a higher level of skin oxygenation more attractive in studies. Are you in a poor habit of breathing through your mouth? Perform exercises to correct this and you’ll enhance your skin tone forever.
Use grapeseed oil – vitamin E is another nutrient which is vital for skin tone and glow. The solution? Correct your diet, but also use grapeseed oil, one of the most concentrated vitamin E sources among natural topical treatments. Apply cold-pressed grapeseed oil daily and your skin will be drenched in vitamin E. Best product (amazon link): Sky Organics Organic Grapeseed Oil.
Conclusion
Cold showers are an excellent way to clear your acne and it is worth getting over your fear of them, for the shocking benefits they provide.
They also have the advantage of being completely free. For something that doesn’t cost a cent they can have a huge effect on your acne. They are also great for improving the general tone of your skin and are equally as effective as vitamin D for achieving this.
Remember that the results will not come instantly, it will take a few weeks to notice the full reduction in acne. However you should notice at least some acne benefits within days.
If you do, then keep going! The improvements in your acne will only accelerate as time goes on.
Cold showers also make you feel like a superhuman and are thus worth doing even if you don’t need to fix your skin.
Disclaimer – only attempt a cold shower if you are of sound health. Do not try a cold shower if you have a heart condition, breathing difficulties, or other illnesses for which you receive medical care. If you have breathing problems then cold showers will make them worse by constricting your chest muscles. If you are healthy then cold showers won’t harm you at all – in fact, they will improve your health. Firstly you’ve got the mental benefits outlined earlier, and then you have additional advantages like accelerated fat loss and improved immune system functioning.
NEXT: get the complete strategy for clearing acne naturally
Thanks for reading!
Which method is the quicker way for getting rid of acne. James Bond, Or Spartans method.
The Spartan method is faster, but both are very effective.
Will it seriously get rid of acne ???
Get rid of acne? Probably not entirely. But massive improvements are possible, as long as you keep doing it on a regular basis.
This was an awesome read! I’ll definitely be forcing myself to do this! Honestly, thanks for taking the time to share this because this is a terrific lifestyle change.
i found this very helpful, tried my first Bond shower tonight, went quite good. normally i took the hot showers which i suppose wasn’t good.
thanks for this useful article
That’s excellent. Even if you don’t want the shower to be freezing cold necessarily, you’ll get great results simply by not having hot ones because hot water is so harsh on the skin.
Thank you! I will begin tomorrow – since being advised to take hot showers to help a recent (and hideous) eye infection, my skin has been terrible, and my eye worse. Excellent. Therefore, I am optimistic that doing the opposite will work wonders for both!
Is there a specific temperature or is an ice cold shower better than a mildly cold shower?
No I’ve never used an exact temperature. An icy cold shower works best for shocking your brain, boosting resistance to stress and making you feel great, but a mildly cold shower will still work well, because 1) anything is better than a hot shower, and 2) from my experience, mildly cold water still nourishes your skin well and gives it the glowing look.
Cold showers also can increase your testosterone.
Here’s what i do, I start with a hot shower to open up my pores, then i use my face wash. then i make the water colder and colder until it’s ice cold to close the pores.
should i keep doing that or should i stop
That sounds like a great strategy EXCEPT you should never use hot water, because that can dry your skin out and indirectly increase sebum production as a response. Warm water is enough to open the pores. As for the cold water, the colder you can stand the better for your acne.
Would it be okay to wash my face with warm water and exfoliate it with a cleanser then wash it of with warm then hop in a Spartan shower?
Sure, as long as the water is warm rather than hot, to avoid excessive drying. Warm water is good for opening the pores.
I’ll take this advice and give y’all an update maybe next week ok thannks for the advice. May god bless you whoever wrote this
Thank you so much for your post. I had mild acne for about a year and a half and nothing would seem to make it go away ! Also I always thought that hot shower were better because it opened up the pores ! But I was taking them so hot that my skin was always dry and bad looking when I got out ! I thought it was the skincare products I used but I could not be more wrong… I read your article recently and tried the Spartan shower. OMFG, after only 5 days my skin was way more glowing, the mild acne was fading, the tightness and dryness of my skin (which was the worst) was gone and replaced with a softer skin ! I only use a cleanser now with warm water just before bed but the cold shower definitely did the job. Thanks again !
Kinda nervous about the Spartan shower coming in the morning
Never fear, simply use the James Bond shower if the spartan shower is too brutal. It’s far far easier.
Hey i’v been taking cold showers specifically the Spartan shower. I was wondering how long should it be ? You know to get faster results ?
For the fastest results it should be at least five minutes to allow the cold water to take effect on the skin for longer. However you’ll benefit regardless of the length simply because you’re not having a hot shower.
Thanks soo much for this article, I’ll try anything to clear my acne,I hope this works! P.s. will it also work if I just wash my face for 10 minutes instead of a whole cold shower?
Yes if you dunk your head in cold water for ages that will concentrate the effect on your face. A cold shower will make your entire skin look great however, and gives you mental benefits as well.
I have been doing the complete opposite all this time! I am glad I ran into your page, I will start taking cold showers, thank you :)
I finally decided to look online to why showering always gave me acne. Well all through highschool i would occasionally shower, roughly 3-4 times a week, IF that. I had a pattern of every other day for a bit, but i got lazy, as i am, and decided to only shower when i felt necessary. Once i got in college, i followed the every other day method, but acne seemed to appear more often when i showered. I got out of college, and continued my every other day showering, until i was laid off. So i experimented. I now only full body shower when i am going in for an interview/going out with friends and/or any important event that requires being clean for. Due to that i have discovered, that not showering at all, for even a month err so. is actually amazing. (i do not suggest not showering AT ALL. still clean the important areas) but i dont experience acne. Well. until i shower, which i usually shower to moderate-warm to hot water, and that seems to well, ofc. irritate and create acne. Not showering at all=no acne. Showering=Acne. Thats how i seen it, and you bet i dont like acne so i took the no acne option. Since i finally looked up why Showering causes acne. I now see its likely due to the Hot showers, and this ‘Cold Showering’ method sounds like a good idea, better then not at all am i right? Still though, as long as i dont get acne i dont care really, but i plan to try cold showers o; sadly the part i hate most about showering is the second i get out of the shower its freezing cold. now itll be freezing cold, While Taking a shower… welp i digress. its worth a Try.
Wow I have been doing it completely wrong for the longest time. My acne was so bad I had to go to a dermatologist and take acutane. The dermatologist also said not to take long hot showers but I pretty much disobeyed that because I liked taking long hot showers and didn’t think it was that big of a deal. But reading up on cold showers I’m never going to take a hot shower again. Gonna do that Spartan shower in the morning followed by a James Bond shower in the evening method I think. Anything that will make this acne go away I’m not scared to do it
Woah I’ve been doing this for only a day and my acne is already so much better. Thank you.
Wow I will certainly try this! Ya know my friends face is super clear and I asked her how. She said she always takes cols showers, of course I rejected that remark and said I would just keep taking hot showers, but know I think I’ll try it! Better skin here I come! =D
Totally gonna try this tomorrow!! But when I am using my face wash in the shower do I still use the Spartan method to wash my face or do I use warm water?
The more cold water the better, but warm water for one minute while you wash your face will work if you blast your face with the cold water again afterwards. Avoid hot water, use only moderately warm water to avoid inflaming the skin.
Thanks so much for your article!!! I was wondering though if I should wash my face with cold water too?? I just recently started doing it and seems to be helping, but I was curious if that would be more effective than using warm water.
Thanks so much for your article!!!! I was just wondering if washing my face with solely cold water is more effective at clearing up my skin than using warm water and then cold water?? I just recently started doing it, and it seems to be helping,
Best plan is to use moderately warm water (avoid hot) while you wash make-up and sebum off your skin and then give your face a washing with cold water afterwards. When I’m on a cold water phase I’ll actually dunk my face underneath the water for about forty seconds repeated three times. If you’re doing both then use warm water first, then apply cold water to tighten the pores back up and avoid counteracting the benefits with warm water later on.
Thank uh bro now i found the real reason behind my acnea ..
I wasnt showering much these days
Now
I am habituated to cold shower frm a long time but now will bath everyday..
Who will like a stinky person who doesnt bath..
Anyways thanks for d info
Also- cold water is very beneficial for your hair. I have noticed that if I rinse my conditioner out with cold water, my hair feels much smoother and looks less frizzy. Much more manageable. So many benefits.. can’t wait to try the Spartan Shower! Eeeek,
I just took a spartan shower and you were so right I feel like a superhuman!!! I cant wait to keep doing this and see the results you were talking about. Thanks for the article!
When washing body (chest and back) with topical should I use warm or cold water
It depends on what topical treatment you mean. Overall, the purpose of a topical is to get the substance and its compounds into the skin as efficiently as possible, so lukewarm to warm is optimal. Just never use hot water. Once the temperature begins to feel uncomfortable you’re into the danger zone (not true for cold water however, the more uncomfortable the better).
First time off acne medication in years. Taking Spartan showers also got me to start doing pull ups in the morning to get the blood flowing, which also not surprisingly started packing on muscle on my arms. My back acne used to cover my entire back. It’s been a month now and it’s almost gone. Can’t recommend enough.
Hey everyone says a different length. No more than 3 minutes 5 or 10. I was doing the bond showers by now I want to switch. Tonight I took a 6 minute icy cold shower and my right testicle seemed to go into hiding for a few minutes and it was painful. Was it too cold or was 6 minutes too long?
That’s a clear sign that it’s too cold. Best solution is to use the icy blast for shocking your immune system/stress systems, and rely on moderately cold (but still uncomfortable!) water for the majority of the shower to enrich the skin tone.
Going to try converting to cold showers tomorrow morning. Any suggestions on what to wash your face with morning and night? Did you use a gentle cleanser or were you using an acne face wash like benzoyl peroxide or salicylic?
Thanks for the help!
I’ve recently adopted cold showers as a permanent solution for my sleepiness. Spartan shower is a really cool name to give it, thanks!
When I took cold showers as described in this article (which was many years ago), I was using a generic chemical-filled cleanser, but I wouldn’t recommend that now. Natural treatments like raw honey, tea tree oil, witch hazel and so on are what I recommend. See this article for more: https://supernaturalacnetreatment.com/top-5-natural-topical-acne-treatments/
It’s interesting however that my skin still improved massively with cold showers despite using the irritating, harsh chemical products every day.
Good to hear, cold showers are unbeatable for short-term energy.
Hi, do you recommend using any facewash or moisturiser with a cold shower? Also, do you scrub your face at all? I’m going to start tomorrow, I can’t wait to see how it goes.
At 47, I’m now a ‘Bond’ girl!!! Thanks to my research for my daughter’s terrible acne, I’ve started taking JB style showers to help support her and I’m hooked! My husband thinks I’m mad but I love the ‘tingling’ feeling I have around my middle for the best part of the day as a result. I only go as cold as I can stand, and for as long as I can breath steadily for (every time the tap gets a bit colder, your breathing reacts) and I love it. My favourite bit is stepping out of the shower afterwards cos the room feels so warm, and you no longer get hot and flustered (my age!) trying to get dried and dressed. We’re following all Richard’s advice from the book AYA, and are hoping to see a great difference in my daughter’s skin very soon. 2 weeks and counting….
Nice story – congratulations on becoming a Bond girl.
Cal, to start with I wouldn’t change any aspect of the facial regimen for a couple of weeks, so that you can observe exactly what cold water does to your skin in a controlled experiment. If you’re using harsh commercial moisturisers and cleansers they need to be removed at some point in the future (unless with cold showers you clear your skin completely, in that case you’ve effectively won).
What about Finnish sauna which is 120 degrees Celsius and I love it really hot with steam burning my skin for shorts periods of time. It helps to clean the body from toxins and the hotter the sauna my muscles relax and recover better.
I go to this kind of hot steamed Finnish sauna 3-4 times a week for an hour or two and after each round of sauna I take warm shower to clean the toxins and then cold one to close the pores before going to a cold swimming pool (around 20 degrees Celsius), which I guess has chemicals like chlorine in it. After swimming in the cold pool I feel really great and strong, so definitely agree with the benefits of cold water. I have also done many times ice swimming and even swimming in the arctic ocean, but most of the time after really hot sauna. I am still taking many hot showers as well, which I should change.
My question is can I focus on the cold showers and swimming in the cold pool, but still keep the burning hot Finnish sauna which is achieved by the hot steam coming from the evaporating water on the hot stones?
Because the hot sauna is really beneficial in many ways (detoxing, better blood circulation, relaxation, muscle recovery) to sweat a lot and to have the big contrasts in temperature.
My plan is Spartan shower in the morning and Spartan or Bond in the evening every day. Keeping the extremely hot sauna, but after each session to take a little bit warm shower to clean the sweat and toxins, and then really cold shower, swimming in the cold pool and again frizzing shower before the next sauna round.
What do you think?
For me, the simple lack of hot water helps. I’ve gone nearly a decade with adult acne and nothing was helping. I first noticed improvement when I came up with a way to cut my shower time down to a fourth of what it was. Then, as an experiment, I turned the water down to just warm, not hot, and there was more improvement. I put a new shower head on nearly a decade ago that causes the water to waterfall straight down and I think that’s the culprit that started the scalded acne cycle.
You just write amazingggg!!!
My god I’ve been laughing reading the whole and haven’t got bored even for a second! Plzz write more!
Are cold showers truly better than hot showers for unclogging pores?
A hot shower might briefly open up your pores and dislodge the oil within them, but they dry out your skin so badly that the increase in oil production clogs them more in the long term. Cold showers are superior.
What about sauna usage? I love sauna, especially during winter! Of course I jump into freezing water afterwards for about 2-3 minutes, but was just wondering if actual staying in sauna deteriorates my skin condition? (I have oily skin and hormonal acne on my cheeks).
Thanks!
Does it work for chest and back acne?
Definitely; it improved mine just as strongly as my face. Although if your back is covered with hormonal cystic acne, the impact will be smaller.
Thanks for this article! I’ve toned my hot showers way down. I see a couple of people have asked about sauna usage, and I’m curious too what your verdict is. Saunas for detox: yay or nay for the acne prone?
If you don’t go over the top, they can remove chemicals like BPA and heavy metals from the bloodstream very effectively. But again, don’t sit there and roast for hours. Also, make sure you avoid those chemicals in the first place; never just use saunas as a get out of jail free card.
I’m a teenager who suffers from acne on my face and back. As a girl, I have to plaster makeup on my face whenever I want to go to school, track/cross country practice, or to social events. I usually take hot baths for an hour or so because it can get really cold here in the winter time. I notice that my face gets really dry, red, itchy, and blotchy. I asked my brother- who has no acne whatsoever on his face- if he takes hot showers. He told me that he said he takes cold ones because it “feels nicer.” His face has a natural looking glow and tan. I think I am going to try this and see how it works. Thanks for influencing me to give this a try. Maybe my skin will finally return to how it was a few years ago. Thank you!
Good luck. Keep going and always keep the clear skin in mind.
Last year, I went for a trip with my friends at the place that had really cold water. So I just took the bath with cold water without knowing what the benefit is. After three days I’ve noticed that my face look really smooth while didn’t know what cause it, I thought it was because I really don’t feel stressed. So then I don’t take cold shower after the trip lol..
Hey, thank you so much for your website and your book. It’s only been 2 weeks since I discovered it and my skin has never been so clear!!! I have one question on that topic though: I love going to the sauna and then take 5-10 minutes icy cold showers. I do it 3 times a week more or less. Is it bad for my skin? (I haven’t done it since I started reading your book though, so I was wondering if I should do it again or not…) thanks again for everything, you changed my life ?
After reading this article I am wondering just what the effects of pool water will be having on our children? My daughter loves swimming and just became a lifeguard, will she have issues down the road in her health?
Hi!
Ive taken cold showers for nearly two weeks and havent seen any improvement. How long would you say i should give it.
Also my throat is very sore, which happens every time i start to have cold showers. Is there any way to avoid this?
And lastly, how do i get rid of existing blackheads?
Thanks so much!
Pearl
Two weeks will be enough. Cold showers won’t work for everybody.
People are suggesting a sparthan shower in the morning and the JB one at noon. What if I don’t take showers in the morning and only at night? And can people with anemia do this? Since you mentioned health issues.
If you have anemia I would only take a cool shower, because lack of iron can cause shortness of breath. It’s still better than the daily hot shower that most people take, if you only have one cold shower per day, so go ahead. Simply not using boiling hot water will cause big improvements.
I started eating dark chocolate 90% , zinc and also vitamin d few days back without even reading this article. I had no issue of acne but after few days of taking these I got so much acne on my face chest and back. Advise plz
Eliminate the dark chocolate and see what happens. A few rogue people really do have a chocolate sensitivity.
Hi Richard Wolfstein, What if you want to have a Spartan shower but you need to cleanse your face with a daily face wash and exfoliate? Also what if you need to clean your gential area, can you still use cold water?
Hi Richard Wolfstein, Nevermind about the last comment please.
I’m a teen myself and I have acne. I have just had my first Spartan shower and I have already seen improvement with my acne. Thanks so much Richard for writing this excellent article. I was just wondering if Im doing a good routine for showering with your method.
First, I start off with cold water and let all the water travel through my hair and down my body,
I then use some shampoo on my hair and rinse it with cold water.
Afterwards I wash my body with body wash and rinse with cold water.
Now, after iv done all of the above, I then use warm water to cleanse my face. I use a daily face wash and I exfoliate once a week. I rinse my face with warm water and then I clean my genital area with warm water.
Once im done with the warm water to clean my face and my gentital area, I then use ice cold water for the last remaining seconds/minutes to close my pores and close the hair cuticle.
Do you think that’s a good routine for showering and should I keep it up?
Kind Regards, Riley
Sounds like a proper balance between cold and warm water, with no hot water, which is the main thing to avoid.
After I had my spartan shower, the next I had a runny nose and a sore throat. I was just wondering if that was from the cold shower (spartan shower)?
What do you think about cold water swimming? Personally I find standing in a cold shower quite unpleasant, presumably due to an inability to get my muscles moving.
Should do, it’s all about the cold water skin contact. If it’s only your face you’re worried about, you could place your face in a sink filled with cold water at several 30 second intervals with your breath held.
Ok, thanks. My face does freeze up sometimes, I’m not sure if that is healthy?
Depends on what you mean by freeze up. You mean it stiffens in cold weather? Sounds pretty normal.
When I’m swimming in cold water, yes. So many gurus like Wim Hof recommend ice baths/swimming now… Hard to say sometimes if this is actually healthful or just stupid. I do wear a cap and goggles to protect my eyes/brain a bit.
What do you think of this CRAZY man?
Jumping into what he does instantly without tapering in would be a good way to heave a heart attack. But there’s plenty of evidence for benefits such as anti-depressant properties and more subtle heart boosting properties like lowering blood pressure. I’d bet that there’s brain sharpening and energy boosting properties that can’t be fully explained simply because of plunging the body into an extreme stressor which forces the body to crank itself up to a higher gear. Hippocrates recommended cold water swimming for combatting fatigue around 400BC. I’m personally a supporter of the whole Wim Hof thing for vitality. As far as skin goes though, there’s little advantage over a cold shower except that there’s added exercise, but you can do the exercise separately with ease. There’s no synergetic effect.
I do enjoy swimming for fun. It’s just that bathing in chlorine pools makes my skin feel all tight and itchy. I would prefer to swim at a normal temperature, especially in the wintertime. So I’m trying to go through the Wim Hof breathing exercises to hopefully become more resistant to the cold in the future.
Wouldn’t alternating between hot and cold to boost circulation and lymphatic drainage be the best option of all? Otherwise cold water may well lose its effect over time.
Good point. Alternating between the two is one of the theories for maximising circulation.
Hi Richard,
Just listened to this podcast by Dr Anthony G Jay and he says cold showers don’t have any health benefits and even lower testosterone. Not sure what to think now.
https://archive.org/details/podcast_chagrin-tonic-podcast_ep-13-cold-showers-lower-test_1000408784122
Regards,
Chris Smage