Rice Water Hair Rinse Saga: African Naturalistas vs CurlyNikki

Sometime in December, our own dear Bukola put up a post about using fermented rice water as a hair rinse, a tip she stumbled upon somewhere somehow.

I was working on the blog then, so I was the first to see the post. Immediately, I mentally screamed. "Rice water? Really??? Rice water? What exactly aren't we going to see in a bid to care for our hair?" And I let my comments known.

After some minutes, I felt I shouldn't have put my comment up. Not because I had changed my mind (I still think it's weird), but because my comments might dictate the tone of other people's comments that would come after mine. This is because I have gained a reputation as a hair expert over the years, being a Holistic Practitioner of Trichology (with a hair clinic), a certified advanced cosmetic scientist, and just being in the hair industry for some years now. Other people who thought it was weird would be empowered to speak out, and the ones who are experimental, like Ebun, would just keep quiet, and feel there's something wrong with them.

As expected, almost everyone who came to comment on the post felt it was weird, just like me. Not only did they think it was weird, they took steps ahead of me, and tore the idea into shreds. Rice water was a no-go area. The direction of the comments might or might not have been affected by mine. We would never know.

Anyway, few days later, our own dear Discovering Naturals posted her a video of how to use this same rice water for hair care, but on her personal blog. I said to myself "Hmm, DN is also doing this? Maybe it is not as weird as I thought."

A week later, DN's post was featured on Curly Nikki. I said to myself "Again?" And then, I proceeded to click on the post SOLELY to read the comments. I wanted to know if people thought it was absurd, just like me. And that was where the tide changed.

As at the time I checked the post, every single commented talked about the fact that they would try it or it was a great idea. No one thought it was weird or stupid.

Compare the both trends below

Click on picture to enlarge, and read comments

I immediately began to think about that. Curly Nikki and African Naturalistas have many readers in common, but our commenters are different, and are from two separates ends of the earth. One side of the world was definitely more adventurous than the other. Why is that?

Is it because we have more struggles and situations to think about that we can't make room for adventures like using our rice water to wash our hair (I still laugh as I type this)

Is it because of our cultural differences

Is it because of... (Please help me out, I can't think of any more reason)

But one thing is clear. When it comes to some hair care practices, the acceptability level is higher amongst Americans than Africans

If you can think of any reason why, let us know in the comment section.