The beauty benefits of apple cider vinegar

Vinegar and hair care – not two things you’d immediately expect to find in one sentence. However, I’ve started taking diluted apple cider vinegar (ACV) as an aid for digestion and have noticed, being someone with more than a passing interest in beauty products, a perceptible boost in the shininess of my hair.

So, putting on my finest white laboratory coat, I set out to discover if my observations had any scientific merit.

Here’s what WebMd tells us:

“Apple cider vinegar is fermented juice from crushed apples. Like apple juice, it probably contains some pectin; vitamins B1, B2, and B6; biotin; folic acid; niacin; pantothenic acid; and vitamin C. It also contains small amounts of the minerals sodium, phosphorous, potassium, calcium, iron, and magnesium. Apple cider vinegar can also contain significant quantities of acetic acid and citric acid.”

Here’s what it can do:

“Apple cider vinegar is used for weak bones (osteoporosis), weight loss, leg cramps and pain, upset stomach, sore throats, sinus problems, high blood pressure, arthritis, to help rid the body of toxins, stimulate thinking, slow the aging process, regulate blood pressure, reduce cholesterol, and fight infection.

Some people apply apple cider vinegar to the skin for acne, as a skin toner, to soothe sunburn, for shingles, insect bites, and to prevent dandruff.”

I tried to locate only verified medical sources on the topic, but the vast bulk of my Google searching produced page upon page of people raving about how they use ACV to treat a whole range of often-bizarre issues.

In a nutshell, I inferred that it’s an interesting and perhaps effective aid for general digestion – much in the same way that lemon juice can be beneficial. Noticing a difference in the shininess of my hair is a bonus and something that I’ll keep an eye on. So far, from my own experiments, there seems to be a correlation between my use of ACL and the shininess of my hair, although I couldn’t find any firm rationale about why this would be the case.

I’m no new-age health food aficionado, but I did enough research to understand that you should always dilute it, or use it as an additive in cooking. It’s far too strong to drink on its own, plus I’d defy anyone to be able to bear the taste. If you’re keen to give it a go, have one dessertspoon in a tall glass of water once a day and monitor your results.

When using it to clean my scalp, I used one part water, one part ACV. So stronger, but still diluted and you should always get it with the ‘mother’ included. What’s the mother? – I hear you ask.

Organic ACV has the ‘mother’ of the vinegar, made up of strand-like enzymes of connected protein molecules with living nutrients and bacteria. Processed or clear vinegar is free from these and doesn’t have the same health benefits.

Anyhow, give it a go as so far as I can tell, there aren’t any negative side effects and most of the time it will only cost you $4-$6 for a bottle at the supermarket.